North American Catch Wrestling — Historical Archive
The Lineage of
Val "The Crippler"
Childs
Preserving the unbroken chain of North American catch-as-catch-can wrestling.
Val "The Crippler" Childs stands as one of the most formidable and least-documented figures in the history of North American professional wrestling. This archive traces the living lineage of his craft — the students, the successors, and the tradition they carried forward, mat to mat, generation to generation.
Lineage Overview
The Unbroken Chain
From Val Childs, the tradition passed outward — to students who became masters, and masters who built schools of their own.
Val "The Crippler" Childs
Active c. 1940s–1970s
Root — North American Catch Wrestling
Billy Robinson
Active 1950s–1990s
First Generation — Wigan School
Karl Gotch
Active 1950s–1980s
First Generation — European Catch
Lou Thesz
Active 1940s–1990s
First Generation — NWA Champion
"The art passed hand to hand, mat to mat."
About Val Childs
The Crippler's Legacy
Val "The Crippler" Childs was a formidable practitioner of catch-as-catch-can wrestling whose influence on the North American grappling tradition extended far beyond his competitive years. Operating primarily in the mid-twentieth century, Childs was known for his technical precision, his submission arsenal, and his willingness to pass the craft to the next generation.
His students carried the tradition forward into professional wrestling, submission grappling, and the early mixed martial arts era — making Childs a foundational figure in the unbroken chain of North American catch wrestling. This archive exists to document that chain with the rigor it deserves.
Encyclopedia Entry
Catch-as-Catch-Can Wrestling
n. — A form of submission grappling originating in Lancashire, England
Catch-as-catch-can wrestling is a form of submission grappling that developed in the Lancashire mill towns of nineteenth-century England and spread to North America through traveling carnival wrestlers and professional bouts. Unlike Greco-Roman wrestling, catch allows holds below the waist and places a premium on joint locks and chokes — the object being to force a submission or pin.
In North America, the tradition was carried by a small number of legitimate wrestlers who trained in the Wigan and Lancashire style. These men — among them Val Childs — formed the backbone of professional wrestling's technical lineage and later influenced the development of submission wrestling and mixed martial arts.