Karl Gotch

Istaz excelled in amateur wrestling and experienced a major breakthrough in his career by competing as Charles Istaz for Belgium in the 1948 Olympics in both freestyle and Greco-Roman wrestling.[6] Gotch also trained in the Indian martial art of Pehlwani. This training led to Istaz's regime of calisthenic bodyweight exercise, which were used by Indian wrestlers and other athletes to build leg endurance and strength. He also adopted other Indian exercises, such as the bridge, Hindu squats, and Hindu press ups in his wrestling.[7] Gotch's philosophy was later passed on to several of his students.

Istaz's professional wrestling career began after training in the "Snake Pit", run by the renowned catch wrestler Billy Riley.[3] He debuted in the 1950s, wrestling throughout Europe under the ring name Karl Krauser, and winning various titles including the German Heavyweight Championship and the European Championship.[3]

In the late 1950s, Istaz moved to the United States, and began wrestling as Karl Gotch.[3] In the United States, Gotch's wrestling style and lack of showmanship held him back, and he did not experience any great popularity at the time.[5] In 1961, he won the American Wrestling Alliance (Ohio) World Heavyweight Championship.[3] Gotch held the belt for two years before dropping the title to Lou Thesz, one of the few American wrestlers he respected because of the similarities of their styles (the two also share a common German/Hungarian heritage). In 1962, Gotch was involved in a backstage altercation with the then-NWA World Heavyweight Champion "Nature Boy" Buddy Rogers, in which Rogers was injured.[5] The incident alienated Gotch from American promoters, and he began looking for work in Japan.[5]

He returned to the United States for a stint in the 1970s, with a brief run in the World Wide Wrestling Federation from August 1971 to February 1972. On December 6, 1971, he teamed with Rene Goulet to win the WWWF World Tag Team Championship from the inaugural champions, Luke Graham and Tarzan Tyler, in two straight falls of a best-two-out-of-three-falls match in Madison Square Garden.[5][8] They lost the championship on February 1, 1972, to Baron Mikel Scicluna and King Curtis.[5]

During the 1960s, Gotch began wrestling in other countries. He wrestled in Australia as Karl Krauser, and in 1965 he defeated Spiros Arion to win the International Wrestling Alliance's Heavyweight Championship.[3] He had also begun working in Japan, where he became very popular due to his amateur wrestling style.[3] He wrestled in the main event of the very first show held by New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW) on March 6, 1972, defeating Antonio Inoki.[9] His final match occurred on January 1, 1982, when he pinned Yoshiaki Fujiwara with the German Suplex.[10] Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, Gotch worked as both the booker and trainer for NJPW.[5] He trained several wrestlers in Japan, including Hideki Suzuki, Hiro Matsuda, Satoru Sayama, Osamu Kido, Barry Darsow, Minoru Suzuki and Yoshiaki Fujiwara.[3][5]