Wrestling has been around as long as man has been on the earth, it is the world’s oldest sport and almost all cultures have some style of wrestling, regardless if in the present or in their history.
 
Each cultural style has its own rules and special techniques that develop according to the rules. Sometimes cultural styles can involve the use of a heavy jacket (somewhat lie  a Judo gi), some style enforce that you need to always hold a grip on the belt of the opponent, some styles enforce the location of the match to be on dirt, sand and even in shallow water as well as some styles even force the opponents to cover themselves in oil.
 
Some very popular, interesting and influential global styles of cultural wrestling are:
 
Chidoaba - Georgia
Judo - Japan
Sumo - Japan
Sambo - Russia
Kokh - Armenia
Tranta - Moldova/Romania
Glima - iceland
Bokh - Mongolia
Gulesh - Azerbaijan
Shuai Jiao - China
Dumog - Philippines
S’istrumpa - Italy, Sardinia
Yagli Guresh - Turkey
Laamb Lutte - Senegal
Kurash - Uzbekistan/Afghanistan
Koshti Pahlavani - Iran
 
And many many many more….
 
These wrestling styles all are interesting, fun to watch and fun to practice and many of these styles have influenced modern day Freestyle and Greco Roman as the countries participating a lot fo the times have their own “style” that they bring as they specialize on moves form cultural wrestling form the past. A great example of this is Georgian wrestlers being known for dynamic throws and this is due to the fact that for hundreds if not thousands of years they have been practicing Chidoaba which is a form of specialized jacket wrestling that has some of the most exciting throws you will ever see.
 
Wrestling is everywhere and for a good reason….because anyone can do it.