Top 10 greatest Hookers of all time !

By definition a " Hooker " is an expert practitioner of Catch-as-Catch-can wrestling, the fore runner of modern day pro-wrestling...think of Pro-Wrestling minus the "work" factor, but add the "breaking arms and legs" factor.


1) Lou Thesz
2) Ad Santel
3) George Hackenschmidt
4) Billy Robinson
5) Karl Gotch
6) Ed " Strangler " Lewis
7) Frank Gotch
8.John Pesek
9) Farmer Burns
10)Yoshiaki Fujiwara

Misleading title

Outside of history books, Lou Thesz is about the only one of them dudes I've ever seen compete.

Wasnt Hiro Matsuda also a catch style wrestler??

Stu Hart too?

i dont see how you can include someone when you haven't seen a match of theirs. that takes a lot of these guys off the list.

i wonder if putting the likes of ken shamrock or sakuraba on the list would be appropriate? just because they fought in highly publicized shoot matches doesn't mean they weren't "hookers" as well.



but yah seriously, including a guy like pesek or farmer burns? how could you possibly know? anyway, i suppose if its just meant to begin some discussion on them then that's all fine of course.

kid wrote:i dont see how you can include someone when you haven't seen a match of theirs. that takes a lot of these guys off the list.

i wonder if putting the likes of ken shamrock or sakuraba on the list would be appropriate? just because they fought in highly publicized shoot matches doesn't mean they weren't "hookers" as well.



but yah seriously, including a guy like pesek or farmer burns? how could you possibly know? anyway, i suppose if its just meant to begin some discussion on them then that's all fine of course.

I guess we have no idea what Genghis Kahn or Napoleon did because we haven't seen videos.

Donowaman wrote:

kid wrote:i dont see how you can include someone when you haven't seen a match of theirs. that takes a lot of these guys off the list.

i wonder if putting the likes of ken shamrock or sakuraba on the list would be appropriate? just because they fought in highly publicized shoot matches doesn't mean they weren't "hookers" as well.



but yah seriously, including a guy like pesek or farmer burns? how could you possibly know? anyway, i suppose if its just meant to begin some discussion on them then that's all fine of course.

I guess we have no idea what Genghis Kahn or Napoleon did because we haven't seen videos.

This is a great point. Thats why there legends. They were so good that there story was carried on for ages...before TV.

i think wars are a little less nuanced than wrestling matches.

it's easy enough to tell you what there is to like about ghengis khan, but tell me what is it about farmer burns that you like so much? is it his flying mare? his big neck? is it because frank gotch sung his praise? what's his moveset like?

or frank gotch? we've all heard of his amazing toe holds, but that's about all we hear. "he was amazing!". ok, how? what was it about his matches you liked?

sorry it takes more than a few newspaper clippings covering an admittedly shady sport and some third hand stories passed through several generations for me to be able to call someone "my favourite hooker" or even a "top grappler" really. maybe you enjoy them as historical characters, yes so do i. and they've had a few nice quotes and stuff. we just don't know much of anything about their actual wrestling.

kid wrote:i think wars are a little less nuanced than wrestling matches.

it's easy enough to tell you what there is to like about ghengis khan, but tell me what is it about farmer burns that you like so much? is it his flying mare? his big neck? is it because frank gotch sung his praise? what's his moveset like?

or frank gotch? we've all heard of his amazing toe holds, but that's about all we hear. "he was amazing!". ok, how? what was it about his matches you liked?

sorry it takes more than a few newspaper clippings covering an admittedly shady sport and some third hand stories passed through several generations for me to be able to call someone "my favourite hooker" or even a "top grappler" really. maybe you enjoy them as historical characters, yes so do i. and they've had a few nice quotes and stuff. we just don't know much of anything about their actual wrestling.

First off he was a HW wrestling champion who had one of the longest title reigns in history. He was also trained by Farmer Burns who himself was a great wrestler. Gotch was also good enought to have a moved named after him. His legend, and contribution to the sport make him one of my favorites. Besides its not " Top 10 fav of all time " its GOAT.

I understand your point, but you fail to understand mine.

Ken Shamrock has to be in there.

Beyond his legit fight record of 23-3-2 from 1993-1996, even in the realm of CACC, there are stories that he went back into the wrestling world with the WWF, following his stint as UFC champion, Pancrase (then #1 JMMA org) champion, and #1 p4p NHB fighter.... and the wrestlers tried challenging him.... apparently, none cut the mustard, so to speak

KYuU InoShIShI wrote:
First off he was a HW wrestling champion who had one of the longest title reigns in history. He was also trained by Farmer Burns who himself was a great wrestler. Gotch was also good enought to have a moved named after him. His legend, and contribution to the sport make him one of my favorites. Besides its not " Top 10 fav of all time " its GOAT.

I understand your point, but you fail to understand mine.

ah look i dont wanna deviate from the main point which is DISCUSS LEGIT PRO WRESTLERS. i personally feel a bit poser-ish claiming farmer burns or the great gama or the like to be top hookers when we know so little, and everything that i know is mostly just some reading i've done on the internet. that's all. i suppose we could get into their influence and accomplishments and such, that's fine. for me it isn't enough, and i feel like i might as well be saying paul bunyan.

i also reject fetishizing the past for a nostalgia that we were never a part of when amazing grapplers like ken shamrock are sitting right under our noses!

maybe this would warrant its own thread, but i'd like to see more discussed about gory guerrero! supposedly an amazing grappler, but i never really see his name thrown around with the thesz's of the world.