Cats with mats

I have this neighbor who took in a stray about a year ago. See we have these feral cats that keep having kittens and one of them she was able to tamn and keep as her own. Though it is a strictly outdoor cat she feeds and loves the cat.
One day Her cat was roaming around my house and it had these huge mats all over his body. It was crazy. The cat lets me pet him but when I tried to brush him he just tried to bite me, besides I don't think those mats were coming out with just a brush. So I just cut all the mats out. Come to find out the girls uncle tried to bathe the cat to get the small mats out and get him clean, but the cat got upset and scratched him and ran off. So of course all the soap and water was still in the cats fur so that why it had sooooo many bad mats. My question is, Has anyone ever heard of or used wipes to clean a cat to prevent that from happening again? I was just curious cause I kinda remember reading something like and if anyone has ever used them I was wondering how they seemed to work and if they helped prevent mats as well.
I have never bathed my cats I just brush them and I have never had a problem with mats. I guess she just has a hard time with doing that.