When martial arts doesn’t teach you morals – Wrestling and the story of Jimmy Savile

The old adage is that martial arts teach you morals and how to behave correctly. This has been the selling point of various disciplines for years and is often preached by Joe Rogan on his podcast. The idea is that training will remove your ego and humble you. And, whilst this happens a lot of the time, it’s not a universal thing that everyone experiences.

For instance, when someone is new they may get humbled by better practitioners. However, what happens if they stick at it for over 5 years? In this case, the chance is that they’ll get pretty good. If they still have a bad attitude, then arguably, martial arts can amplify their problematic behavior as they now feel tougher than ever due to being more confident when it comes to fighting. Sadly, this is what happened with the British pedophile, Jimmy Savile.

Jimmy Savile and wrestling

Born in Leeds, UK in 1926, Jimmy Savile went on to become a professional wrestler. Although this profession isn’t too common in England these days, the North (near Leeds) had an active wrestling community at one point and was the home of catch wrestling. Northern England is where the likes of Billy Robinson came from, whose catch wrestling lives on today with the likes of Kazushi Sakuraba and Josh Barnett.

During his 20s, Jimmy Savile would wrestle professionally, in a style that combined catch wrestling and WWE stuff. In short, it was a combination of entertainment and technical grappling. There is still footage online that shows Savile wrestling, including takedowns, joint locks, and other parts of the martial art. In one documentary, Savile even claimed to have over 107 bouts which shows he was a pretty experienced grappler.

When Jimmy Savile used wrestling for the wrong reasons

Throughout his life and career, Jimmy Savile could be quite open about his deviant behavior. When he wasn’t abusing children, he would physically abuse adults instead. In one interview, Savile claimed he would lock people up in a basement as a nightclub manager and beat them up. If you’ve ever fought a wrestler, then you’ll understand they have a tenacity that cannot be matched. When fighting, wrestlers have intense cardio and stamina – as well as freak strength. No doubt, this would have given Savile the edge when he was running nightclubs.

Sadly, this is an example of how martial arts can be used for negatives. Whilst most wrestlers probably use their powers for good and are harmless, some people are more predatory and will use their powers for badness. In fact, many gyms have bullies who seem to get a kick out of beating their fellow practitioners. Whilst this isn’t on the same level as pedophilia, it still shows that martial arts don’t always spiritual guide those training it. Sometimes, it can do the complete opposite.

Jimmy Savile gets beaten up in the ring due to his behavior

During his wrestling career, Savile got a beating by British wrestler, Adrian Street. Interestingly, the footage of their bout has survived and can still be viewed. Here, we can see Street throwing Savile around, grabbing his hair, and punching him with force to the back of his head. This is an example of how wrestling can go beyond acting and the reason for this was because Street was sick of Savile and his deviant behavior.

According to Street, he ‘Beat Jimmy Savile black and blue’, and even tried to pull his hair out. In an interview, Street said ‘All the fighters on the circuit used to boast about their conquests. But Savile used to go on and on about the young girls who’d wait in line for him outside his dressing room.’ Apparently, Street wasn’t completely clued up about Savile’s dark habits either and added, ‘Had I known then what I know about him now, I’d have given him an even bigger hiding.’ If anything, this is a good example of martial arts, and how it can be used to defeat evil. Whilst Savile didn’t seem to learn from his lesson, this would have surely given him something to think about and make him think twice about his actions around Adrian Street.

Summary

Over the years, there have been many cases of deviant martial arts practitioners. Although, sad – Jimmy Savile’s case isn’t in isolation and there are plenty of bad people who train and even teach martial arts. Ultimately, it’s up to the martial arts community to try and call these people out for what they are. Although brutal, we can all learn from Adrian Street and his version of dishing out tough justice.

In conclusion, just because someone trains martial arts, it doesn’t mean that they’re greater than others – at least in a mental sense. This is a dated narrative that is too generalized and pompous. Instead, we should be focusing on our lives outside of martial arts and trying to cherrypick the best parts of training to help ourselves and others around us. At the same time, training martial arts certainly isn’t the answer to life’s problems and as seen, it can actually be used for bad as well as good.