2023 marked a tremendous opportunity as the National Lottery Heritage fund gave us financial support via our voluntary club: Aspull Olympic Wrestling Club. Part of this funding allowed us to digitise historic documents to allow them to be shared with the online community.
You can view some of the digitised photos here
Roy Wood
Head Coach at the SnakePit
I have had over 60 fantastic years in the world of wrestling and what a journey it has been, I have loved every moment of it! The people I have been blessed to meet, the places I have been able to go and the experiences I have had are way beyond what I could have ever hoped.
Some of my ambitions in my life were to go to the Olympics which came true during the 2012 London Olympics. My ultimate ambition is to honour my coach Billy Riley and club by passing on all that I had learned to the right people to ensure that Catch wrestling will be preserved.
I am so humbled by the dedication of the Snake Pit guys and the commitment and loyalty that they have shown. Wigan is my hometown and to have the Snake Pit up and running again with great coaches and wrestlers coming through is truly a lifetime ambition coming true for me. I can’t believe how far wrestling has taken me in my life and the nicest part now at this stage of my life is that I no longer feel that I am fighting this battle alone to keep Catch going. I am hopeful now that with the great team of guys we have there is a real chance of Catch continuing and this is something that means the world to me.
The Snake Pit in Wigan is the home of Catch as Catch Wrestling AKA Catch. We run monthly seminars and an intense week of training each year. We also run tournaments, so that competitors can test their skills. At The Snake Pit, we teach pure Catch wrestling and take a pride in passing on the exact techniques that birthed the legends and champions such as Karl Gotch, Billy Robinson, Bob Robinson, Roy Wood and many more.
We do however also welcome people to train with us with backgrounds in MMA, BJJ, Olympic wrestling (freestyle or Greco Roman), Judo, Karate, grappling backgrounds, Pancrase etc. Thus allowing fighters to add further techniques to enhance their standard within the world of martial arts.
