Overall, this was kind of a crappy finals

[Jimmy Cinnabon]

Putting aside Hendrickson beating Gable...about 80% of the other matches were snoozefests with hardly any offensive points scored.

Is the 3 point TD making wrestling less exciting?

Agree/disagree?

 

[pawrestler]

Yeah I agree. Like 3 of the first 5 had no TDs and were stall fests. 165 on were decent but still….

[okokzach]

Hardy Mendez was sick. O'Toole Hamiti was great. So was Lovett Henson imo 

[romesone]

Agreed. It was one of the worst I've ever seen and I've watched them all since 1999. I think the 3-pt takedown has a lot to do with it because all you need is that 3-point gap and you can basically stall all 3rd period. This strategy seemed to work for a lot of matches today. It's not good. 

[Jimmy Cinnabon]

Yup, no takedowns scored in 125, 133, 149 at all.

No takedowns scored in regulation in 174.

A single takedown scored in 157, 184, 197 and HWT.

 

141 and 165 were the ONLY matches with multiple takedowns scored...

[VakAttack]

Shut up, virgin.

[MLB9]

Quite the ending and press for Oklahoma State. Two transfer champs in with no previous NC’s beating two legends of the sport in the last three bouts of the tournament. I would guess they’ll be the first team to beat Penn State one of these years.

[Jimmy Cinnabon]

1 minute ago, MLB9 said:

Quite the ending and press for Oklahoma State. Two transfer champs in with no previous NC’s beating two legends of the sport in the last three bouts of the tournament. I would guess they’ll be the first team to beat Penn State one of these years.

Iowa missed the boat by not hiring DT when they had the chance...

[Boring]

4 minutes ago, MLB9 said:

Quite the ending and press for Oklahoma State. Two transfer champs in with no previous NC’s beating two legends of the sport in the last three bouts of the tournament. I would guess they’ll be the first team to beat Penn State one of these years.

I don't think DT will ever overcome Cael, but I think he'll make it very interesting in the next few years. 

[Scouts Honor]

breaking

water is wet

[Boring]

3 minutes ago, Jimmy Cinnabon said:

Iowa missed the boat by not hiring DT when they had the chance...

Iowa should hire Sadulaev! 

[MizzouFan01]

24 minutes ago, Jimmy Cinnabon said:

Yup, no takedowns scored in 125, 133, 149 at all.

No takedowns scored in regulation in 174.

A single takedown scored in 157, 184, 197 and HWT.

 

141 and 165 were the ONLY matches with multiple takedowns scored...

Not true in the HWT match. Gable and Wyatt each had a TD. 

[Schuteandscore]

On the contrary I liked these finals.  My all time favorite round of any tournament is the semis, especially with the blood round going on and usually the finals are lopsided and anticlimactic.  This year, even in the no take down matches, I saw a lot of action and I genuinely didn’t know who was going to win.  That hasn’t been the case in the past and really enjoyed this years finals.

[CHROMEBIRD]

I enjoyed the finals, and the fireworks of the last match cannot be denied whether you're a hardcore or casual, fan or hater. However, this is a very good point:

 

[Scouts Honor]

guys. we aren't going to get the basketball fans.

if a wrestling guy isn't going to watch, why would anyone who isn't want to watch.

they dont' watch freestyle either. so don't go there with rule sets.

 

this is why everyone loves basketball:

the worst bball player on the team can have a good day. and think he is great and love the sport.

the worst wrestler on the team, is probably not ever going to have a good day... unless he really sticks with it and has the right attitude about growth ( and in this day and age... that probably won't happen) . and won't think he is great and so won't love the sport.

[Scouts Honor]

the finals are super tight... if you can live thru the 15 minutes of boredom and love the 1 minute of terror, then this is the sport for you.

[Zahnarzt]

Totally disagree with the OP.  I thought majority of the matches were fantastic.  And pretty awesome that 8 out of the 10 champs this year were first-time champs, which is pretty incredible considering 7/10 weight classes had at least 1 returning champ in the mix. 

[Rassling2]

I disagree. PSU didn’t totally dominate which opened up opportunities to other wrestlers and teams. 

[Rassling2]

[1032004]

125, 133, 149 were not great.  But 7 out of 10 ain’t bad 

[Rassling2]

5 minutes ago, 1032004 said:

125, 133, 149 were not great.  But 7 out of 10 ain’t bad 

I watched it again this afternoon and have to say all the matches were exciting, at least for me. 

[alex1fly]

Not a lot of stall calls. That's my only complaint with the finals. It reminded me of the Superbowl where the refs call fewer pass interferences.

The OP reads like it was written by someone that didn't actually watch the finals.

[TylerDurden]

It's not the 3-point takedown that is the problem. No matter what rules you have in place, coaches and wrestlers at this level always will find what they consider to be the most advantageous strategy to win a match.

IMO, the biggest problem is the application of the stalling rule. It absolutely was not applied the same in the finals as it was in the regular season. 

Officiating is a challenging job for a variety of reasons and I understand they they may want to "let the wrestlers decide the match," but deciding not to call the rules the same way in the finals matches is at least as influential as they think calling the stall is. 

[RandolphTJones]

I don't disagree with JC's latest piping hot take, but the ending to that HVY match was all worth it. Had even non-wrestling fans buzzing.