Kano might not have emphasized the importance of wrestling with regard to its value in actual fighting as compared to karate, boxing, aiki-jujutsu and so on, because wrestling has a definitive fault in that it lacks atemi, like sport judo.
Maeda, Ohno, Ito etc., some strong judoists were able to often win a bout against wrestlers when they reached the following agreement: the prohibition of atemi and wearing judo uniform in a bout, while some judoists lost their bouts.
But there was an example that a strong judoist, Ohno, became unable to continue fighting due to a punch by Charlie Orson at the beginning of the bout in Asheville, in the South of the U.S., in 1905 (Marushima, pp.61-63).