Christian Pyles

[BruceyB]

3 hours ago, JMill said:

It was a YouTube livestream from their hotel lobby... on Father’s Day weekend. I think you can find it in your heart to give him a pass on this one.

Aside from the seemingly primal need to disparage others, I think the majority of the discontent stems from some of you wanting/expecting “traditional media”, when that’s just not what Flo is… Flo is “new media” which is driven by engagement, not Nielsen ratings. New media is conversational and interactive. Traditional media is distributed and passive. Talking with you vs. talking at you. Targeted appeal vs. mass consumption. “Watch party” vs. strict play by play/color roles.

I think Flo does try to take a more “traditional media” approach with Final X, but it still has a Flo flavor of informality and personability. I don’t expect nor want Pyles to be Jason Knapp, who does a fine job with play by play at the Olympics, in a structured, systematic way required for network television broadcast. Comparing Flo’s coverage to NBC Sports’ is sort of like comparing Joe Rogan Experience to Meet the Press.

I would honestly guess that they were organically recapping the finals with each other and just decided to make it into a video and post it as simply additional content. If you want a detailed recap of what happened, FRL will be live tomorrow morning. Complaining because CP made a video with his son and posted it is silly. It's not like regularly scheduled programming where he ruined your favorite show. If there's a video you don't want to watch, you simply don't have to. It's really not that complicated.

At the end of the day, I'm not surprised. People will find anything they can to take a shot at flo. I really don't understand. There are absolutely places where flo can be justly criticized. I think their UI and the navigability of their website is pretty horrendous most of the time and it's kind of shocking how little they seem to do to improve it, and they've had some major hiccups in coverage over the years. But CP and this video should be damn near the bottom of complaints regarding flowrestling.

[Alces Alces Gigas]

6 hours ago, BruceyB said:

If CP is an arrogant ass, what does that make Willy?

You mean SNUFFY?     Not a huge fan but he puts in the work.    His spitting in a cup while chatting with Basch Is about the most unprofessional thing I've seen.     He doesn't do it much lately    

[H82Lose]

14 hours ago, Tyler Perry said:

Pyles is one of, if not the most intelligent and great minds of wrestling. Caleb is a very good speaker for his age. It happens once a month maybe. It’s not that big of a deal, you’ll hear CP and the crew on the show tmw. 

You are Fvcking high. Pyles was gifted this position and it fell in his lap, period. Radar is WAY more knowledgable than Pyles, and Pyles is not in the same atmosphere as Badar. 

[H82Lose]

9 hours ago, BruceyB said:

If CP is an arrogant ass, what does that make Willy?

Willy started all of this, he was the OG of wrestling media. Can Willie be arrogant? Can willie be an a$$hole? Sure, and I don't think he will apologize for that.  Without Willie, there is absolutely no Pyles. Like I said, Pyles has a horseshoe in his butt, he would be selling lawn services if he didn't have this gig that he FELL into. 

[TNwrestling]

29 minutes ago, H82Lose said:

You are Fvcking high. Pyles was gifted this position and it fell in his lap, period. Radar is WAY more knowledgable than Pyles, and Pyles is not in the same atmosphere as Badar. 

I wish more people knew this...

[GV4444]

11 hours ago, BruceyB said:

If CP is an arrogant ass, what does that make Willy?

An arrogant ass, too, but that's OK.

I like CP and I don't mind the sessions with his kid.   It takes a certain type to drive a podcast and CP is that type.  When he isn't there, the show sucks.  JD isn't the right kind of guy, he's just there to take the counter point side.  I like Kozak, but he can't drive the show.  I loved Tyler, but he wasn't trained up enough as a communicator to be a big contributor.  The show is almost unwatchable since Funky Ben left.  Then again there aren't too many that are.   There are some other podcasters with better depth of knowledge on wrestling, but they aren't good as show hosts.  

If Willy is on and my wife walks into the den, she immediately turns around and leaves.  She does not want to see him drooling into a bottle or hear him sucking back snot.  He great contribution is insider information.  Otherwise, the content is "People keep saying I said this, but that's not what I said.  What I said was this."  You can't tell whether "people" really said that, or he likes strawman arguments.  

I keep trying to find a podcast better than CP, and maybe Willy and Basch are marginally better, but I'm really willing to try someone else.

[Simpleman424]

2 hours ago, GV4444 said:

An arrogant ass, too, but that's OK.

I like CP and I don't mind the sessions with his kid.   It takes a certain type to drive a podcast and CP is that type.  When he isn't there, the show sucks.  JD isn't the right kind of guy, he's just there to take the counter point side.  I like Kozak, but he can't drive the show.  I loved Tyler, but he wasn't trained up enough as a communicator to be a big contributor.  The show is almost unwatchable since Funky Ben left.  Then again there aren't too many that are.   There are some other podcasters with better depth of knowledge on wrestling, but they aren't good as show hosts.  

If Willy is on and my wife walks into the den, she immediately turns around and leaves.  She does not want to see him drooling into a bottle or hear him sucking back snot.  He great contribution is insider information.  Otherwise, the content is "People keep saying I said this, but that's not what I said.  What I said was this."  You can't tell whether "people" really said that, or he likes strawman arguments.  

I keep trying to find a podcast better than CP, and maybe Willy and Basch are marginally better, but I'm really willing to try someone else.

I turn Willy and Basch off every time it comes on…I don’t know why but I feel like Basch is yelling at me every time or there’s something weird going on with the audio on my phone…but only on that show…lol Love Basch’s X post and contributions there though…

[LJB]

2 hours ago, GV4444 said:

I keep trying to find a podcast better than CP, and maybe Willy and Basch are marginally better, but I'm really willing to try someone else.

https://www.youtube.com/@QuadPodWrestling

this one is not horrible...

 

[Le duke]

CP occasionally annoys me with his commitment to the bit. Stirring controversy and manufacturing drama. Or, he genuinely doesn’t know the rules.

For example, he described the Blaze TD in match three as “not a TD” and suggested it would be overturned on challenge. That was very clearly a FS takedown. Jax grabbing a leg doesn’t preclude control by Marcus.


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[JMill]

2 hours ago, Le duke said:

CP occasionally annoys me with his commitment to the bit. Stirring controversy and manufacturing drama. Or, he genuinely doesn’t know the rules.

For example, he described the Blaze TD in match three as “not a TD” and suggested it would be overturned on challenge. That was very clearly a FS takedown. Jax grabbing a leg doesn’t preclude control by Marcus.


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A takedown in freestyle requires covering the hips, which is basically impossible if the defensive wrestler has a front hook on a leg. Here nor there, no takedown was awarded to challenge. It was two for exposure. Blaze was still in completely in front when the points were awarded.

[WrestlingRash]

Pyles sucks and has no business talking about wrestling. He blocked me on twitter for mocking him for referring to guys on the US team at worlds as "we". He is a delusional little nut rider. 

[Simpleman424]

39 minutes ago, WrestlingRash said:

Pyles sucks and has no business talking about wrestling. He blocked me on twitter for mocking him for referring to guys on the US team at worlds as "we". He is a delusional little nut rider. 

It’s 2026…crazy you’re trying to tell him how he should identify…

[Le duke]

A takedown in freestyle requires covering the hips, which is basically impossible if the defensive wrestler has a front hook on a leg. Here nor there, no takedown was awarded to challenge. It was two for exposure. Blaze was still in completely in front when the points were awarded.

They awarded 2 + 2. Blaze was on top of Jax when awarded. Covering the hips, arm completely across the abdomen and with a grip on the far hip. In FS, that’s control.




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[JMill]

9 hours ago, Le duke said:

They awarded 2 + 2. Blaze was on top of Jax when awarded. Covering the hips, arm completely across the abdomen and with a grip on the far hip. In FS, that’s control.




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The initial two was awarded a good 2-3 seconds before this frame, with one second left on the shot clock, when Jax was bailing down and Blaze drove through. Whether the ref was calling the two for when Jax was on his haunches and dropped his hand behind him to keep himself up or from when Blaze drove through isn’t as clear.

[JMill]

The ref had 2 up here:

as seen when he comes into view here a couple frames later:

[JMill]

In his recap, Askren said this was awarded a takedown… a lot happens in the next second, so it’s tough to say what’s what, but it seems the ref is putting the whistle in his mouth to be able to award points here and the two is in the air before Jax even hits the mat on the blast through.

 

[alex1fly]

13 hours ago, JMill said:

It was a YouTube livestream from their hotel lobby... on Father’s Day weekend. I think you can find it in your heart to give him a pass on this one.

Aside from the seemingly primal need to disparage others, I think the majority of the discontent stems from some of you wanting/expecting “traditional media”, when that’s just not what Flo is… Flo is “new media” which is driven by engagement, not Nielsen ratings. New media is conversational and interactive. Traditional media is distributed and passive. Talking with you vs. talking at you. Targeted appeal vs. mass consumption. “Watch party” vs. strict play by play/color roles.

I think Flo does try to take a more “traditional media” approach with Final X, but it still has a Flo flavor of informality and personability. I don’t expect nor want Pyles to be Jason Knapp, who does a fine job with play by play at the Olympics, in a structured, systematic way required for network television broadcast. Comparing Flo’s coverage to NBC Sports’ is sort of like comparing Joe Rogan Experience to Meet the Press.

Great breakdown! Dang man. Very nice.

To expand... you have to understand what they are, and what they are not. They are a company of wrestling and software nerds. They are not a broadcast company that does wrestling, and it is not their fault that nobody else has stepped up to fill in the gaps that Flo does not do well.

TBH for me, I just don't like wrestling coverage and content so much that I'm going to listen to podcasts and FRLs. I've tried many times, many different podcasts, and pretty much every time I find that I'd rather spend that time watching the matches. A few minutes on a few forums a few times a week keeps me plenty updated, and sometimes I think the heads pull their talking points from forums anyways lol

[GV4444]

18 hours ago, LJB said:

https://www.youtube.com/@QuadPodWrestling

this one is not horrible...

 

I have watched them.  Sometimes they are good, other times quite boring.  The lead guy needs to talk less, saying the same thing 3 different ways (which CP does constantly), and draw out more from his 3 buddies.  

[LJB]

1 hour ago, JMill said:

In his recap, Askren said this was awarded a takedown… a lot happens in the next second, so it’s tough to say what’s what, but it seems the ref is putting the whistle in his mouth to be able to award points here and the two is in the air before Jax even hits the mat on the blast through.

 

procedurally, when you put your hand back like that it is a TD in free...

as per, we have "fans" and media personalities that just do not understand the rules...

[zirk]

On 6/22/2026 at 7:49 AM, TNwrestling said:

I wish more people knew this...

How was he gifted the position?

[LJB]

7 minutes ago, GV4444 said:

I have watched them.  Sometimes they are good, other times quite boring.  The lead guy needs to talk less, saying the same thing 3 different ways (which CP does constantly), and draw out more from his 3 buddies.  

they have actual opinions on some things and are not just white rice...

most importantly, they acknowledge greco exists... they do not always talk about the right things, but, they will at least mention the most competitive sport on the planet which puts them in very rarified air in this country...

[TNwrestling]

48 minutes ago, zirk said:

How was he gifted the position?

It was around the time Bader left. 2013-2014ish. FloWrestling said they were running a new contest to hire someone to the position Asst Editor, as a replacement. Close to a hundred or so put their videos up and were listed on the contest page. It ran a certain number of months, and whoever had the most support at the end of it all would win. 

Contest finishes. No updates. Radio Silence. Then out of the blue.. 

https://www.flowrestling.org/articles/5035397-christian-pyles-added-to-flowrestling-team

To be clear, I don't fault flowrestling for not wanting to follow through on a contest that, to be fair, was completely insane to begin with. Hire someone from a video that got the most likes? Crazy. I fault them for saying one thing, advertising one thing, promising one thing,, and doing another. I fault them for ghosting the winner. I fault them for lying. 

Christian is a bro's bro. A friend of a friend from someone who was already there. 

[zirk]

3 minutes ago, TNwrestling said:

It was around the time Bader left. 2013-2014ish. FloWrestling said they were running a new contest to hire someone to the position Asst Editor, as a replacement. Close to a hundred or so put their videos up and were listed on the contest page. It ran a certain number of months, and whoever had the most support at the end of it all would win. 

Contest finishes. No updates. Radio Silence. Then out of the blue.. 

https://www.flowrestling.org/articles/5035397-christian-pyles-added-to-flowrestling-team

To be clear, I don't fault flowrestling for not wanting to follow through on a contest that, to be fair, was completely insane to begin with. Hire someone from a video that got the most likes? Crazy. I fault them for saying one thing, advertising one thing, promising one thing,, and doing another. I fault them for ghosting the winner. I fault them for lying. 

Christian is a bro's bro. A friend of a friend from someone who was already there. 

Yeah that's pretty shitty on Flo's part.

I also don't know if it's fair to say he was gifted the position. Most jobs are all about who you know, connections, ect.

As a hiring manager, would you rather sift through 200 resumes, or get a lead from a trusted employee that already works there.

[TNwrestling]

14 minutes ago, zirk said:

Yeah that's pretty shitty on Flo's part.

I also don't know if it's fair to say he was gifted the position. Most jobs are all about who you know, connections, ect.

As a hiring manager, would you rather sift through 200 resumes, or get a lead from a trusted employee that already works there.

If I had told the world i was going to sift through 200 resumes to find the person for the position, me personally, I'd sift through 200 resumes 

[JMill]

1 hour ago, LJB said:

procedurally, when you put your hand back like that it is a TD in free...

as per, we have "fans" and media personalities that just do not understand the rules...

In real time, it was tough to see him hit his hip to the mat as Jax was basically hip heisting here, but that’s where the takedown came from per the rule (which requires four things to happen simultaneously).

Gain control of one or both legs of his or her opponent while that wrestler is on his or her hip or in a sitting position on his or her backside while the plane of the defensive wrestler’s back is less than 90 degrees towards the mat all while the defensive wrestler plants their hand or elbow on the mat.