Robinson is known for training professional wrestlers and mixed martial artists in the catch wrestling style, including Josh Barnett, Kazushi Sakuraba, Kiyoshi Tamura, and Shayna Baszler.
[1][5]Mid 20th Century 1970s and 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s and 2020s Robinson was born in Manchester on September 18, 1938 to William James and Frances Hester (nee Exley).
He also worked in his family's grocery store, where an eye injury between eleven and twelve years of age required hospitalization for five months and disqualified him from ever getting a boxing licence.
[4] It has often been repeated that Robinson was also a "European Open Champion in the light heavyweight class, beating an Olympic bronze medal winner in the finals" in 1958, without stating who the medallist was.
[15] Robinson traveled to North America in 1969 for Stu Hart's Stampede Wrestling where he defeated Archie "The Stomper" Gouldie to earn a title shot at NWA World Heavyweight champion Dory Funk Jr.
Japanese professional wrestlers learned the art of "hooking" and "shooting" from other catch wrestling icons including Karl Gotch and Lou Thesz.
In his last match, he advanced the shoot-style movement when he worked for the Union of Wrestling Forces International against fellow AWA champion Nick Bockwinkel on 8 May 1992.
[17] He continued to coach catch wrestling into his final years, in his adopted home of Arkansas along with seminars in the United States, Japan, Britain, and Canada.