The 2017 Freestyle World Team Trials took place at the Devaney Center in Lincoln, Neb.(Photo/Tony Rotundo, WrestlersAreWarriors.com)The quality of wrestling at the U.S. World Team Trials typically is as good as any event on American soil.
The best American wrestlers in men's and women's freestyle, and Greco-Roman battle in the non-Olympic years to land coveted berths at the World Championships three out of every four years.
There are plenty of fierce and entertaining matches along with many of the compelling storylines that play out during this top-notch competition.
The World Team Trials also has been one of the least attended with sparse crowds over the years, even when it was held in wrestling hotbeds like Iowa and Ohio.
Last year was an exception when the World Team Trials for freestyle were held at the Devaney Center in Lincoln, Neb. Fans came out to see a pair of former Nebraska Cornhuskers -- Olympic and world champion Jordan Burroughs, and world medalist James Green -- compete in that event. The crowds were excellent and the athletes loved competing in an electric atmosphere.
Now USA Wrestling is looking for a way to attract even more interest and fans to the sport.
USA Wrestling's new Final X format for the World Team Trials, where it partners with FloWrestling, is quite a departure from what has been done in the past.
The final event will be split into three different weekends -- June 9, 16 and 23 -- in three different cities. It hasn't officially been released, but Lincoln, State College, Pa. and Bethlehem, Pa. are expected to be the host cities for this event.
Returning world medalists who stay in the same weight class this year advance directly to Final X. That means Thomas Gilman, James Green, Jordan Burroughs, Kyle Snyder and Nick Gwiazdowski have already landed spots in the best-of-3 finals of the Trials.
Returning world medalist J'den Cox likely is expected to move up to one of the new weight classes so he would still have to qualify for Final X.
There are certainly plenty of potential positives for doing it this way.
Spreading the amount of matches out provides an opportunity for the sport to gain additional attention and exposure by being held over three weekends instead of one. The finalists in each weight class now will be known beforehand. That provides an excellent chance to promote the finals matchups ahead of time and create storylines that can attract interest.
The Final X format will decide the world team berths in men's and women's freestyle. The Greco-Roman Trials will be held later, on June 21-22, and part of that reasoning is to give freestyle athletes who don't make the world team an opportunity to make the Greco world team.
That rationale makes sense, but it also prevents Greco athletes from competing on that same big stage in Final X that the freestyle athletes will take part it. The Greco Trials will be held during the Junior National Duals in Tulsa, Okla. Greco continues to take a backseat to freestyle in this country.
Having the Final X program over three weekends narrows the focus of what fans are watching and shortens the sessions. Each style has added two weight classes, and the Trials in the past would drag on endlessly in the finals with a best-of-3 format. Sessions would take four or five hours, or even more, and it's difficult to hold a fan's attention for that long.
With the Final X, the goal is to shorten sessions and make it more fan friendly. With fewer matches, that should happen.
Wrestlers also will be paid more for landing a spot in the Final X stage. And finalists in the Greco Trials also will receive additional money.
Among the drawbacks of this new format are that fans who are only able to attend one of the three Final X weekends will only see one-third of the freestyle wrestlers compete in person.
The wrestling-specific media, many of whom don't profit from covering the sport, would have to travel to three different locations on three straight weekends. That would obviously cost them extra money in addition to having to budget the time to go.
Another huge issue with many people already is that the Final X event will not be televised. The event will be on Flo's pay wall, so the only way people who can't attend the events to watch is to pay. Not everybody who wants to watch is going to pay, so that reduces your number of viewers.
Not sure how this grows the sport. Your audience will be the die-hard wrestling people who subscribe to Flo and the families of the athletes who will pay to watch if they are unable to attend. How does this attract new fans? The sport needs to be on television to grow.
This may be a great new format, but how many people are actually going to see it?
Back on the positive side of the equation, the U.S. is a force internationally in wrestling again.
After a subpar showing at the Olympics, the U.S. wrestling program has a ton of momentum right now. The men's freestyle team is coming off its first world team title in 22 years and the women's team coming off a runner-up finish. And plenty of young talent is coming up the ranks as well.
It was exciting to see the Americans pull out an exciting win over Russia at the 2017 World Championships in Paris. It was something to see with Snyder rallying for a dramatic win in the closing seconds.
Many people in wresting that I've communicated with -- athletes, coaches and media -- have mixed feelings about the new format.
Burroughs, as you might expect, told me he is "very excited" about Final X. He is already in the finals of the World Team Trials. Plus, he is expected to be wrestling in front of his home fans in Lincoln at the university he competed for and still trains at. The magnetic and charismatic Burroughs likely will be a big draw again this year.
Burroughs showed us what a great champion he was by bouncing back to win a world title last year after a disappointing showing at the Olympics in Rio.
One change with the new World Team Trials format is that Burroughs and other returning world medalists will face a fresh opponent in the finals instead of one that had to go through a mini-tournament earlier in the day.
That definitely provided Burroughs and others an edge, but the past format made sense. Burroughs owns an Olympic gold medal, four world titles and a world bronze medal. He should be given an advantage in the Trials because USA Wrestling obviously wants its best team on the mat for the World Championships.
I'm one-hundred percent on board with developing innovative ways to promote wrestling. I did it for 10 years when I worked at USA Wrestling.
I'm not sure this new format is the answer for the World Team Trials, but obviously nobody really knows how it's all going to unfold at this point.
It definitely will be interesting to see how the new Final X format plays out.
Craig Sesker has written about wrestling for more than three decades. He's covered three Olympic Games and is a two-time national wrestling writer of the year.
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