RAF is filth/garbage/trash/slop

[LJB]

6 hours ago, BruceyB said:

How would you explain Keck dominating Zahid?

did you happen to catch Final X?

[dragit]

16 hours ago, GreatWhiteNorth said:

Dumb.

Unless you think clickbait "must be doing something right" because it generates interest.

In that case, even more dumb.

Thank you for explaining this to me!!  Just being exposed to your intellect has changed my life. 

[GreatWhiteNorth]

6 hours ago, dragit said:

Thank you for explaining this to me!!  Just being exposed to your intellect has changed my life. 

No problem.

I appreciate the feedback I get from my fans. Rest assured, I personally read each and every response I get from regular average everyday people like you.

And I read yours.

[JMill]

19 hours ago, BruceyB said:

College wrestling is by far the best product in wrestling for a reason. It's the only place where wrestlers are wrestling at close to peak performance on a (close to) weekly basis. 

College duals are the best product our sport could offer… but there is a pervasive belief that duals don’t mean anything, so top-ranked wrestlers/ teams duck one another such not to affect their seeds and “load manage” for when matches do mean something. The teams who show up to duals in “peak performance” shape in December tend to be competing at their worst by February and held together with K-tape in March. 

1-1/2 to 2 hours… built in fan bases who support support their university, regardless of sport, easy to follow…  duals are everything individual tournaments aren’t. Yes, the NCAA’s are amazing for our small group of wrestling diehards, but we aren’t going to fill student sections or get casual fans to tune in for 30 hours over three days, thus, it does little to grow the sport in any mainstream sense. Sure, we might get a few new “fans” from watching the NCAA finals, then they might tune into the finals again a year later without watching a single match in the interim. 

College wrestling would be ten times more popular if the schedule was flipped. Individual tournaments in December, the NCAA Individual Championships in mid/late January (open-style qualifiers limited to two wrestlers per weight per team.. no team champ awarded), then the dual season culminating with NCAA National Dual Championships spread over a few weeks at the end of the season (preferably April) to award the team champion.

With the individual awards already in the bag, there would be no need for ducking, more incentive to bump wrestlers up into “super matches” if it will help win a dual or not affect its outcome, as well as more storylines leading into dual meets to draw interest. Not to mention, those new fans we get from watching the individual finals might just keep watching through the dual season, and those people who refer to any sports team of X university as “we” might actually care about wrestling if we assign some value to the duals and dual championships… they can’t say “we” when referring to individual wrestlers, after all. Even they think that’s weird.

That said, RAF is doing the right thing with the “card” approach, rather than trying to force people to become fans of made-up teams like every other failed attempt at pro wrestling leagues. Making “teams” that have no real association with a school/city/region just doesn’t work. Perhaps teams in RAF will grow organically through RTC’s (RAF training centers, that is), but if you think the individual matches are meaningless, what meaning could the cumulation of the matches have? Then again, Quintet style duals would be amazing… Who wouldn’t want to see Spencer vs Wyatt?

Edited June 20 by JMill

[dragit]

10 hours ago, GreatWhiteNorth said:

No problem.

I appreciate the feedback I get from my fans. Rest assured, I personally read each and every response I get from regular average everyday people like you.

And I read yours.

That's good.  It's important for someone at your level to take proactive steps to stay grounded.

[GreatWhiteNorth]

11 hours ago, dragit said:

That's good.  It's important for someone at your level to take proactive steps to stay grounded.

Like I said, I had read yours so all is good!

But maybe you can stop now. I read yours. Let's not have you get carried away with... even more.

[1032004]

Excited to see Askren, but I guess RAF is really leaning into Tsarukyan…

[flyingcement]

I am so grateful to have real wrestling as a professional sport that I can watch

[JMill]

11 minutes ago, flyingcement said:

I am so grateful to have real wrestling as a professional sport that I can watch

I’m grateful RAF got rid of challenge bricks. I wish UWW would, too. Video replay has ruined sports other than MLB’s pitch challenge which adds entertainment and comic relief to a mostly boring sport.

[flyingcement]

1 minute ago, JMill said:

I’m grateful RAF got rid of challenge bricks. I wish UWW would, too. Video replay has ruined sports other than MLB’s pitch challenge which adds entertainment and comic relief to a mostly boring sport.

I'm easily pleased.  I can remember the pandemic when we had no live sports.  And how I was watching replays of previous years...

I am a newer fan of college wrestling (since around ~2018/2019) but don't remember a professional league like this that we could watch in the offseason with guys who we all know taking part.  Just wanted to express the gratitude because I know how quickly something like this can just go away

[JMill]

2 minutes ago, flyingcement said:

I'm easily pleased.  I can remember the pandemic when we had no live sports.  And how I was watching replays of previous years...

I am a newer fan of college wrestling (since around ~2018/2019) but don't remember a professional league like this that we could watch in the offseason with guys who we all know taking part.  Just wanted to express the gratitude because I know how quickly something like this can just go away

The closest thing to RAF would be Real Pro Wrestling back in 2005. RAF is successful because they are doing everything exactly opposite of what RPW did.

[Hammerlock3]

I've read very little of this thread but RAF is great. it doesn't have any weight in the wrestling community yet but I'd be thrilled if it became properous enough so USAW had to bow to it or died entirely. 

[Caveira]

With all the off the mat issues…. Is it weird to see Izzy on tv?

[WildTurk]

I hope that is the last time i see Askren and Downey on the mat.  

[ScottishSteel]

10 hours ago, Caveira said:

With all the off the mat issues…. Is it weird to see Izzy on tv?

Care to elaborate?

[LJB]

4 minutes ago, ScottishSteel said:

Care to elaborate?

it would be very inappropriate and counter productive to openly discuss on an open forum with the wrestling climate like it is currently particularly as it was mostly years and years ago...

just know he has had issues in the past and leave it at that would be my advice...

others may feel differently...

[1032004]

On 6/14/2026 at 2:18 PM, Husker_Du said:

 

Danis literally tried to choke Khamzat out. it's BS and i wouldn't be surprised if he's banned. 

Uhhh

Arman Tsarukyan to wrestle Dillon Danis in RAF 14 main event

https://www.espn.com/mma/story/_/id/49576960/arman-tsarukyan-wrestle-dillon-danis-raf-14-main-event

[GlassPrison]

I love RAF, but can we get rid of Danis please.  

[Bulldozer Without Brakes]

I felt the same at the start. And some of the match ups are still stupid. But it is starting to consistently deliver genuinely exciting match ups. There's no sense of 'meaning' because there's no title on the line, but it provides great entertainment and helps bring wrestling to more people. Can't knock it, any more. 

[JMill]

44 minutes ago, Bulldozer Without Brakes said:

I felt the same at the start. And some of the match ups are still stupid. But it is starting to consistently deliver genuinely exciting match ups. There's no sense of 'meaning' because there's no title on the line, but it provides great entertainment and helps bring wrestling to more people. Can't knock it, any more. 

I believe, over time, the RAF championship belts could mean “something”. 

[1032004]

4 hours ago, JMill said:

I believe, over time, the RAF championship belts could mean “something”. 

Basch and Willie seem to think RAF contributed to the recent change to the future Final X schedule

[1032004]

4 hours ago, Husker_Du said:

lol.

how do i 'make it appear'.

ffs you're annoying

 

On 6/14/2026 at 2:58 PM, Husker_Du said:

 

you don't know what goes on behind the scenes.  so stfu with your stupid assumptions that i already told you were false.

 

On 6/14/2026 at 2:18 PM, Husker_Du said:

i'm not 'acting' like anything. i'm telling you. they were penalized. these guys will be penalized.

Well you’re saying here you “know what goes on behind the scenes.”

So please share: how was Danis penalized? 

[Simpleman424]

5 hours ago, 1032004 said:

 

 

Well you’re saying here you “know what goes on behind the scenes.”

So please share: how was Danis penalized? 

He received a stern verbal “Hey, stop it…” and told he’d have to wait another couple of events to wrestle?

[1032004]

12 hours ago, RAFWiki said:

 

 

[forkemaz]

On 8/15/2026 at 7:41 PM, JMill said:

I believe, over time, the RAF championship belts could mean “something”. 

They could have meant something out the gate.