What college fanbases are following freestyle now?

[Jimmy Cinnabon]

Penn State has a lot of active guys competing.  Minny, Lehigh, Ok State, Cornell each have 1 guy competing.  Iowa has Spencer Lee.

Aside from Penn State are any of these other college fanbases even watching men's freestyle?  Seems odd to have such low representation/view interest across the US.

 

[okokzach]

Ok State has 7 guys competing at senior Worlds (6 freestyle, 1 Greco). The fans are definitely watching 

[Jimmy Cinnabon]

1 minute ago, okokzach said:

Ok State has 7 guys competing at senior Worlds (6 freestyle, 1 Greco). The fans are definitely watching 

I stand corrected - who are the 6 freestylers?  The OK St forum seems to hardly be discussing it.

[okokzach]

45 minutes ago, Jimmy Cinnabon said:

I stand corrected - who are the 6 freestylers?  The OK St forum seems to hardly be discussing it.

55kg: Jayden Raney  (Greco)

57kg: Roman Bravo-Young

57kg: Rin Sakamoto

61kg: Jax Forrest

74kg: Mirzo Khayitov

86kg: Zahid Valencia 

125kg: Wyatt Hendrickson

[Caveira]

I saw the stands at u20 on flo’s vids.  Freestyle fan bases are pretty abysmal.   There may have been more psu wrestlers on the squad than fans in the seats. 

[alex1fly]

17 hours ago, Caveira said:

I saw the stands at u20 on flo’s vids.  Freestyle fan bases are pretty abysmal.   There may have been more psu wrestlers on the squad than fans in the seats. 

International freestyle is a mess. I've seen junior high sports that are better organized and better attended. It's embarrassing anytime I try to share it with a non-fan and annoying when I try to watch anything. This is where Flo has actually been helpful with being able to find replays. Though that takes someone to go through all the footage and upload/code each match separately which they don't always do but I'm grateful when they do!

[Caveira]

33 minutes ago, alex1fly said:

International freestyle is a mess. I've seen junior high sports that are better organized and better attended. It's embarrassing anytime I try to share it with a non-fan and annoying when I try to watch anything. This is where Flo has actually been helpful with being able to find replays. Though that takes someone to go through all the footage and upload/code each match separately which they don't always do but I'm grateful when they do!

Fair. I just want the annual freestyle style rule changes being pushed on folkstyle to stop.    That Along with the narrative that the world stage is more important to justify said stylistic changes.  some even go so far as say just dump folkstyle altogether.   

the narrative that we’re not competitive enough on the world stage is also nonsense imo.  Somehow our u20 team just dominated to world first place …. All while pesky folkstyle didn’t somehow ruin them!   

Folkstyle is a far more entertaining product.   Let’s keep it that way.   

[Coastal]

19 hours ago, okokzach said:

55kg: Jayden Raney  (Greco)

57kg: Roman Bravo-Young

57kg: Rin Sakamoto

61kg: Jax Forrest

74kg: Mirzo Khayitov

86kg: Zahid Valencia 

125kg: Wyatt Hendrickson

It's going to take some time before OKST gets back into freestyle as RBY and Valencia haven't been with the Cowboy club long enough to really build a fanbase,  Sakamoto lost his only varsity match and Khayitov isn't much of a prospect, failing to win NJCAA last year.   Most people still think of Air Force when they think Hendrickson

Raney and Forrest should have them excited but it might take a few more cycles of having contending recruits for fans to go out of their way to pay attention.

[bnwtwg]

7 hours ago, Caveira said:

 

the narrative that we’re not competitive enough on the world stage is also nonsense imo.  Somehow our u20 team just dominated to world first place …. All while pesky folkstyle didn’t somehow ruin them!   

That's an age group trophy. Seniors is all that matters when it's all said and done. It's not like anyone is saying "That Richie Lewis was the baddest dude I know! He won a U23 world title!" And don't forget the Fix vs Lee slander on Lee's age group accomplishments that was being brought up merely months ago as further proof.

[Caveira]

14 hours ago, bnwtwg said:

That's an age group trophy. Seniors is all that matters when it's all said and done. It's not like anyone is saying "That Richie Lewis was the baddest dude I know! He won a U23 world title!" And don't forget the Fix vs Lee slander on Lee's age group accomplishments that was being brought up merely months ago as further proof.

We are dominant on the world senior stage.  
 

according to Google the us finished on the senior world stage 

2015 2nd 

2017 1st 

2018 2nd

2019 2nd

2021 2nd 

2022 1st

2023 1st 

let’s not say we don’t do well senior level on the world stage.   Fans just don’t care on the whole for freestyle vs folkstyle imo.  
 

As a whole far more fans care who wins an individual or team ncaa title vs who wins worlds or oly gold.   I think I’m being reasonable with this opinion here as well.  

Edited 6 hours ago by Caveira

[alex1fly]

21 hours ago, Caveira said:

Fair. I just want the annual freestyle style rule changes being pushed on folkstyle to stop.    That Along with the narrative that the world stage is more important to justify said stylistic changes.  some even go so far as say just dump folkstyle altogether.   

the narrative that we’re not competitive enough on the world stage is also nonsense imo.  Somehow our u20 team just dominated to world first place …. All while pesky folkstyle didn’t somehow ruin them!   

Folkstyle is a far more entertaining product.   Let’s keep it that way.   

100%.  The “change everything to freestyle” arguments come up when we do poorly at an international event. As if the system is failing. Those same folks are quiet when we do well at an international event. 

Funny enough, though, when I talk about wrestling to non-fans I almost ALWAYS say freestyle wrestling. Because goal #1 gets them to not think of WWE/WWF. Then if they’re actually interested or Im feeling  zesty I’ll explain folkstyle or college wrestling. But heck I didn’t even know it was called folkstyle until I joined these forums a few years ago. It was always just college wrestling or Olympic wrestling. 

[bnwtwg]

35 minutes ago, Caveira said:

As a whole far more fans care who wins an individual or team ncaa title vs who wins worlds or oly gold.   I think I’m being reasonable with this opinion here as well.  

People care about the laundry, not the style.

[Caveira]

31 minutes ago, bnwtwg said:

People care about the laundry, not the style.

Then why do more fans go to NCAAs vs the us open or final x.    Why are there 10x more posts on the college forum vs the international.   Why do only a small % of folkstyle wrestlers participate on the freestyle circuit.    What % of posts on flow wrestling are folk vs free.   Their business model is clicks.  Surely …. They cater to the one that gets the most clicks right ?
 

Freestyle is simply more boring than folkstyle to the average fan.   Are their fanatic freestyle fans.  100%.  But they’re a small % of the overall fan base.  

Edited 5 hours ago by Caveira

[TNwrestling]

3 minutes ago, Caveira said:

Then why do more fans go to NCAAs vs the us open or final x.    Why are there 10x more posts on the college forum vs the international.   Why do only a small % of folkstyle wrestlers participate on the freestyle circuit.  
 

Freestyle is simply more boring than folkstyle to the average fan.   Are their fanatic freestyle fans.  100%.  But they’re a small % of the overall fan base.  

I think it has more to do with following college or high school athletics than the style of wrestling. 

[Caveira]

8 minutes ago, TNwrestling said:

I think it has more to do with following college or high school athletics than the style of wrestling. 

We (the community) have been saying that for years.   I simply don’t believe it.  
 

Look at participation numbers at the high school or college level.   Why is there dramatically fewer athletes competing in free …..    as a 16 year old high school kid for example.   Good sport is good sport.  People would watch it or attend if the product was fantastic.   MMA for example.  Good product.  People pay to watch it.  It came from nothing…..  To now super stardom.  

[MPhillips]

1 hour ago, Caveira said:

Why do only a small % of folkstyle wrestlers participate on the freestyle circuit.

Weird there isn't a folkstyle world championship.