David Taylor - 2024

[Dark Energy]

First off - DT is the man.  Guy is such a phenomenal wrestler.  Have loved watching him.  Always must watch.  So fluid, such great technique.  Living legend.
 

Now - regarding this OTT - I agree with many that he just seemed a bit nonchalant / low energy for match 1.  Match 2 had more energy so perhaps he simply lost to a better wrestler that day.

I thought perhaps HEW has perhaps crept up.  Decided to look at his twitter and he posted 4 days ago that this was his most disciplined prep since Tokyo Olympics.  So that is a counter point.  In that post he also mentions ‘The grind’ … 

Can’t expect a ‘Crap this sucks’ post from him prior to OTT. LOL.  I bet he will say, eventually, that he put his all into it and just got beat so nothing is taken from AB.  But, I am curious to hear some deeper insights from DT.

[NM1965]

8 minutes ago, Dark Energy said:

First off - DT is the man.  Guy is such a phenomenal wrestler.  Have loved watching him.  Always must watch.  So fluid, such great technique.  Living legend.
 

Now - regarding this OTT - I agree with many that he just seemed a bit nonchalant / low energy for match 1.  Match 2 had more energy so perhaps he simply lost to a better wrestler that day.

I thought perhaps HEW has perhaps crept up.  Decided to look at his twitter and he posted 4 days ago that this was his most disciplined prep since Tokyo Olympics.  So that is a counter point.  In that post he also mentions ‘The grind’ … 

Can’t expect a ‘Crap this sucks’ post from him prior to OTT. LOL.  I bet he will say, eventually, that he put his all into it and just got beat so nothing is taken from AB.  But, I am curious to hear some deeper insights from DT.

David has had a legendary career. I think it's time he retired and took up coaching at OU or OSU

[AnklePicker]

Very difficult to wrestle once a year and still maintain your superiority.  I think wrestling a full season of matches is an advantage for the HS and college guys who wrestle at the trials.  When is the last time Taylor wrestled an actual live wrestling match?  Last worlds?   

[Hammerlock3]

4 minutes ago, AnklePicker said:

Very difficult to wrestle once a year and still maintain your superiority.  I think wrestling a full season of matches is an advantage for the HS and college guys who wrestle at the trials.  When is the last time Taylor wrestled an actual live wrestling match?  Last worlds?   

its not a problem in russia

[Husker U]

For me it really sucked watching Taylor lose and that is not taking anything away from Brooks, I hope he goes and wins it all.  Still at this moment, I cannot believe Taylor lost.  So I got to thinking, why is this bothering me so much?  I don't personally know him.  I have met him a few times and he has always been awesome to fans and very approachable, but why is this so difficult to accept?  Then it hit me.  David Taylor to me, was the first kind of superstar in our sport since he was just a young kid.  There have been plenty of others, but he was the first wrestler that I was able to really follow with all the new Social Media.  Magic Man of the Mat was awesome and it really caught my attention and I started following him from there.  He has always had that star power and his style of wrestling really made me a fan.  I don't know what his next step will be in his wrestling career, but I wish him well and I hope he will stay actively involved with the sport.  

[The Kid]

4 hours ago, Husker U said:

For me it really sucked watching Taylor lose and that is not taking anything away from Brooks, I hope he goes and wins it all.  Still at this moment, I cannot believe Taylor lost.  So I got to thinking, why is this bothering me so much?  I don't personally know him.  I have met him a few times and he has always been awesome to fans and very approachable, but why is this so difficult to accept?  Then it hit me.  David Taylor to me, was the first kind of superstar in our sport since he was just a young kid.  There have been plenty of others, but he was the first wrestler that I was able to really follow with all the new Social Media.  Magic Man of the Mat was awesome and it really caught my attention and I started following him from there.  He has always had that star power and his style of wrestling really made me a fan.  I don't know what his next step will be in his wrestling career, but I wish him well and I hope he will stay actively involved with the sport.  

He will always be remembered for losing to Dake.

 

That's the best memory of all. 

[CHROMEBIRD]

Taylor mentioned during the challenge tournament that he's still got the fire in him burning brightly. IIRC he also said that he wasn't ready to move on into coaching. Dunno if anything has changed since.

I think DT would've done better if he actually went out and competed internationally. In one of the pre-OTT threads I guessed that he'd have some rust to shake off after appearing only at Worlds for the last couple of years. Gotta get some actual reps in to stay at that high level.

[alliseeisgold]

5 hours ago, Husker U said:

For me it really sucked watching Taylor lose and that is not taking anything away from Brooks, I hope he goes and wins it all.  Still at this moment, I cannot believe Taylor lost.  So I got to thinking, why is this bothering me so much?  I don't personally know him.  I have met him a few times and he has always been awesome to fans and very approachable, but why is this so difficult to accept?  Then it hit me.  David Taylor to me, was the first kind of superstar in our sport since he was just a young kid.  There have been plenty of others, but he was the first wrestler that I was able to really follow with all the new Social Media.  Magic Man of the Mat was awesome and it really caught my attention and I started following him from there.  He has always had that star power and his style of wrestling really made me a fan.  I don't know what his next step will be in his wrestling career, but I wish him well and I hope he will stay actively involved with the sport.  

Taylor kind of brought the golden age of wrestling. Dake cox jb it's sad watching them all end their career.

Taylor is the most unlikeable or the bunch. The way he handled the cox defeat was disgusting. ....some people think he's kind of a dick I hear. Only cares about Taylor etc. He doesn't associate with his high school or Jordans anymore. Alot of great act this way ...but you don't sense it among jb cox etc and the other superstars. Snyder maybe more aligned with Taylor in this regard then others. 

At end of day he just can't beat great defense. As far as goat status the dake cox and brooks matches should be noted for how his style can absolutely be throttled and in the end is a level below the dakes and jbs for me in the pecking order (if dake secures a gold in Paris )

[Dark Energy]

All you said is countered by how scored points and more points and more points.  Varied technique.  Great pace.  Guy is and was stupendous.  How awesome would it be to see more and more wrestlers like him.  Entertainment through the roof.

I thought I saw a social media post by him that was after trials and he had one of his kids and it looked like he was in a barn.  Guy looks like he knows he has better things to focus on and cherish now.  But I can’t freaking find the post!!   

[wrestle87]

3 hours ago, alliseeisgold said:

you don't sense it among jb

…yes you do…

[Truzzcat]

I saw someone mention that AB trains A LOT with Cael and who better to train with to prepare for DT than the guy who he molded his style from. You couple that with AB being phenomenal and potentially age catching up to DT a tad and I think that could explain what we saw. Im still mixed on how I feel I believe beyond a shadow of a doubt if you can beat DT in two that you can win olympic gold however we know DT dominates against the field and we saw Aaron pushed to the brink by Zahid so he may not have as good of a chance against the field as DT although thats also assuming DT has not lost a step which is hard to say for sure.

[wrestle87]

18 minutes ago, Truzzcat said:

I saw someone mention that AB trains A LOT with Cael and who better to train with to prepare for DT than the guy who he molded his style from. You couple that with AB being phenomenal and potentially age catching up to DT a tad and I think that could explain what we saw. Im still mixed on how I feel I believe beyond a shadow of a doubt if you can beat DT in two that you can win olympic gold however we know DT dominates against the field and we saw Aaron pushed to the brink by Zahid so he may not have as good of a chance against the field as DT although thats also assuming DT has not lost a step which is hard to say for sure.

Brooks is a bad matchup against Zahid, but you're also right, it's weird that I believe Brooks would pull down 8 or 9 of ten matches against Taylor, but he would probably be 50/50 against Zahid.  But at the same time, I think zahid would be lucky to get 2 from Taylor.

Wrestling math is always a mess.

[CHROMEBIRD]

All I know is that DT is gonna lose his shit on Twitter if Brooks loses to Yazdani in Paris

[NM1965]

50 minutes ago, wrestle87 said:

Brooks is a bad matchup against Zahid, but you're also right, it's weird that I believe Brooks would pull down 8 or 9 of ten matches against Taylor, but he would probably be 50/50 against Zahid.  But at the same time, I think zahid would be lucky to get 2 from Taylor.

Wrestling math is always a mess.

That's because styles make matches. 

[wrestle87]

45 minutes ago, CHROMEBIRD said:

All I know is that DT is gonna lose his shit on Twitter if Brooks loses to Yazdani in Paris

It’s funny, but I don’t think so.  He lost his shit bc J’den got on a sweaty bicycle in their matches and was never penalized for it.  J’den’s a great human being, definition of an “ambassador for the sport”, but 2015-16-17 he was allowed to legit RUN away from people in his matches and never got dinged.

Go watch the 2017 matches against taylor.  It was…generous officiating I believe is the top comment on the 3rd match.  Dude just ran and backed up for 2 minutes.

[Hammerlock3]

5 minutes ago, wrestle87 said:

It’s funny, but I don’t think so.  He lost his shit bc J’den got on a sweaty bicycle in their matches and was never penalized for it.  J’den’s a great human being, definition of an “ambassador for the sport”, but 2015-16-17 he was allowed to legit RUN away from people in his matches and never got dinged.

Go watch the 2017 matches against taylor.  It was…generous officiating I believe is the top comment on the 3rd match.  Dude just ran and backed up for 2 minutes.

two things:

cox was hurt in that match with taylor which obviously made his normally evasive style a lot more of an eye sore. I probably agree that refs shouldnt care whether he's favoring an injury or not, but we're gonna need robots to ref if you want them to ignore that.

If I was gonna give taylor a pass for being a jerk on twitter, which I do, I'd just say he hasn't done anything similar since. I wouldn't imply that he had a right to because an injured man did what he had to do to win. Also, i believe cox scored the only points in the second period of that match.

[CHROMEBIRD]

5 hours ago, wrestle87 said:

It’s funny, but I don’t think so.  He lost his shit bc J’den got on a sweaty bicycle in their matches and was never penalized for it.  J’den’s a great human being, definition of an “ambassador for the sport”, but 2015-16-17 he was allowed to legit RUN away from people in his matches and never got dinged.

Go watch the 2017 matches against taylor.  It was…generous officiating I believe is the top comment on the 3rd match.  Dude just ran and backed up for 2 minutes.

You forgot the second half of the story. Cox caught a pretty nice draw at that year's Worlds and DT called him out on Twitter for losing his semifinal match and having "no fight" because waaah it should've been me, I would've won that match, waaaah 

 

[Jim L]

I do like how we can determine  world class athletes' motivation level and state of mind by what they are saying publicly or posting on Twitter. Of course, they are going to say things are going great and their training was the best ever

Or by reading their body language during the tournament, which shows they don't really care about winning anymore. 

[BarSeries]

11 hours ago, wrestle87 said:

He lost his shit bc J’den got on a sweaty bicycle in their matches and was never penalized for it. 

Sweaty bicycle? I believe you mean floating like a butterfly

 

[BloodRound]

14 hours ago, wrestle87 said:

…yes you do…

Not sure what you are getting at, because Burroughs is still pretty firm in his South Jersey roots.  He's settled down there, has spoken pretty candidly about putting that part of the state back into prominence and even recently returned back to Winslow when they renamed the gym in his honor.

[wrestle87]

2 hours ago, BloodRound said:

Not sure what you are getting at, because Burroughs is still pretty firm in his South Jersey roots.  He's settled down there, has spoken pretty candidly about putting that part of the state back into prominence and even recently returned back to Winslow when they renamed the gym in his honor.

I was talking about JB being so competitive it makes him a pretty well established dick.  To call taylor a competitive d-bag and then…not call jb or dake that is silly.  They all showed up in the same canoe to that party.

They’re all so competitive that to be anything other than the best ruins every minute of their day.  We saw lots of that early on from Dake when JB beat him and everyone called him a whiner for years.  But then he got a world team spot and chilled a bit…then he beat JB and became outwardly much more chill, and JB started seeming like the competitive dbag.  

They’ve all been this way all along, it’s just whether or not they win some tournaments esch year which determines how they behave.  

It’s one of the things that was so awesome about J’den, and is awesome about snyder too, they’re really composed and gentlemanly even when they lose.  And, even if disappointed or angry, it is at themselves, they may express it but it is towards nobody but themselves, never at anyone else. 

It’s that lesson we all teach to little kids when they play sports.  The irony is some of these guys are so good, they forget that lesson until they are re-taught it in their 30’s.

Edited April 23 by wrestle87