Billy Robinson British National Wrestling Champion once, European Open Light Heavyweight Champion once, National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) United National Champion once, Pacific Wrestling Federation (PWF) Champion once, American Wrestling Association (AWA) British Empire Heavyweight Champion three times, AWA World Tag-Team Champion twice, NWA Southern Heavyweight Champion once, Continental Wrestling Association (CWA) World Heavyweight Champion three times, International Wrestling Alliance (IWA) World Heavyweight Champion three times (Twice International Pro Wrestling and once World Championship Wrestling Australia), Joint Promotions British Heavyweight Champion once, Canadian International Heavyweight Champion twice, Canadian International Tag-Team Champion once, they are among all his title’s held in professional wrestling, along with being inducted into many hall of fames and having won awards for best match(es) and most popular wrestler. Withstanding all he has accomplished in the realms of sports entertainment style wrestling, he is possibly more well known for being one of the last, if not the last great legitimate catch-as-catch-can wrestlers in the world. Jake Shannon an author of many subjects varying from hypnotism to catch-as-catch-can wrestling, one of which being Say Uncle! Th, he is currently the Chairman of the Libertarian Party of Utah and a life long member of the Cauliflower Alley Club, Jake is also a well respected grappling historian. He has been trained by many of the true legends of catch-as-catch-can and also learned in other forms of grappling, Jake is also the inventor of the Macebell.
Physical Chess starts with an apt foreword from Jake Shannon building the readers anticipation perfectly to what is about to proceed in the coming pages from the great Billy Robinson. The memoir starts off by recounting the history of fighting through-out the Robinson family back to his grandfather, but including his uncle Alf who would be influential in Billy’s transition into pro-wrestling. First though, we will learn about the history of catch-as-catch-can, which Billy tells very eloquently explaining the roots from a very unique perspective. This leads to him finding his way into the infamous Snake Pit Gym in Wigan run by Billy Riley. The book focuses for quite a time on Billy Riley and the work outs that would be undertaken in his gym along with other great wrestlers such as Karl Gotch, Tommy Moore and Billy Joyce. He speaks of the science behind catch-as-catch-can, the mentality it takes, the aware of the body and how the body works to be a truly great grappler. Much of the book is focused on the history and technique behind the wrestling, and it makes a fascinating and unique read. We get to hear tales of Robinson travelling all across the world to Japan, India, and America among others, sharing his experiences in these countries and the people he met, including romantic offers. He shares a small part of his time in the AWA and his opinion of Verne Gagne, he also discusses Lou Thesz as a legitimate wrestler and a friend. Billy tells stories of Jack Brisco and Dory Funk Jr playing practical jokes, he shares his times training young Japanese wrestlers providing the opportunity to reopen a Snake Pit Gym. The memoir is concluded by a run down on how catch-as-catch-can compares to MMA, explaining how he feels the near forgotten grappling style could be much more exciting rule wise and much more compelling action wise, going on to talk about the seminars he gives now on the science behind the beloved sport of catch-as-catch-can wrestling.
Overall Physical Chess is an extremely, enjoyable well written book. It is a little disappointing that it is only 146 pages long as you don’t want the book to end. Also with the shortness of the memoir it has restricted how much detail there has been able to be on all aspects of his career. Jake Shannon and Billy Robinson have chosen to focus more so on the catch-as-catch-can and legitimate side of things, with just small glimpses into the world of professional wrestling. By no means is this a bad thing in itself as this story needed to be told, so the names in the book aren’t forgotten and neither is the sport, but the in depth story of his professional career would also be a delight to read, and it is a shame that the two aspects could not have been combined into this one book, which could have been 300 pages long and would still have been a fascinating story.
– By Jimmy Wheeler