Ad Santel
| Ad Santel | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Adolph Ernst |
| Born |
April 7, 1887 Germany |
| Died | November 10, 1966 (aged 79) Alameda, California, U.S. |
| Professional wrestling career | |
| Ring name(s) | Al Santel Otto Carpenter Mysterious Carpenter Adolph Ernst |
| Billed height | 5 ft 9 in (1.75 m) |
| Billed weight | 185 lb (84 kg) |
| Debut | 1907 |
| Retired | 1933 |
Adolph Ernst (April 7, 1887–November 10, 1966), better known for his ring name Ad Santel, was an American professional wrestler, considered one of the greatest practitioners of catch wrestling ever. He is known for his feud with the Kodokan judo school.
Ad Santel fought one of the early clash-of-the-styles matches in modern martial arts history against Tokugoro Ito, a 5th degree black belt in Judo from Japan. Santel defeated Ito when a slamming takedown rendered the Judoka unable to continue the point and proclaimed himself the World Judo Champion. Tokugoro Ito went on to avenge the loss a few months later on June 10, 1916 by defeating Santel with a choke hold, being one of very few to ever defeat Santel. The two had a third match, which ended in a draw.
In October 1914, Santel came to Seattle and challenged resident judo master Taro Miyake. Santel won with such a powerful half nelson slam that Miyake remained dizzy for half an hour after the match. Seeing this as a new offense, judo founder Jigoro Kano sent 5th degree black belt Daisuke Sakai to avenge his defeat, but Santel again got over him, submitting Sakai twice with a biceps slicer. The Kodokan school did not send more challengers, but Santel decided to return the move and assembled a team with fellow wrestlers Henry Weber and Matty Matsuda in order to go to Japan. Their travel was possible thanks to Kodokan member Heita Okabe, who helped to produce a series of matches between Ad's team and the Kodokan judokas. Though Kano refused to sanction the bouts and threatened his students with expulsion if they fought, six of them accepted the challenge nonetheless, among them 5th degree black belts Hikoo Shoji and Reijiro Nakata. Before a crowd of 10.000 at the Yasukuni shrine, Santel defeated Nagata by TKO after a devastating headlock, and the next day, he had a 60 minutes draw with Shoji, who left the mat so battered that Santel himself had to help him to exit the arena. Later Santel would defeat another judoka, Hajime Shimizu, to avenge Shimizu's victory over Weber, and drew with him at their rematch.
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