The real problem with RAF sustainabilty?

[BruceyB]

After responding to @okokzach's question about who would have the longest match streak of title defenses, it made me think that there are two very significant obstacles that the organization will have to navigate (outside of $)

The first is two-pronged regarding college wrestlers. One issue being that so far we don't even know if college athletes can compete in the events. In every domestic weight class, the majority of top contenders are still in college (if not high school). The other problem is that even if college athletes can participate, when would they? These top college athletes are getting paid to wrestle for their school, I don't see any coaches signing off on a RAF side quest. After the college season is WTT and worlds for these guys.

The issues with college athletes leads to the very real issue of the lack of truly competitive athletes to pull from. Just look through domestic rankings and you'll see that most of the guys on the U.S. ladder are still in college. A lot of weights only have 2 or 3 active wrestlers. Pulling guys from RTCs or coaching because they have name appeal won't lead to a good product, they might sign-up and wrestle, but they aren't going to be the best version of themselves. I'm curious if international guys would be interested in signing with RAF. I think it could be really beneficial for more casual fans to watch given the "just root for the USA" concept that would give even the most casual of fans a rooting angle.

What do you guys think? Are there enough active wrestlers that could realistically climb the ranks and challenge for a title to make RAF a long-term success?

[Interviewed_at_Weehawken]

20 minutes ago, BruceyB said:

After responding to @okokzach's question about who would have the longest match streak of title defenses, it made me think that there are two very significant obstacles that the organization will have to navigate (outside of $)

The first is two-pronged regarding college wrestlers. One issue being that so far we don't even know if college athletes can compete in the events. In every domestic weight class, the majority of top contenders are still in college (if not high school). The other problem is that even if college athletes can participate, when would they? These top college athletes are getting paid to wrestle for their school, I don't see any coaches signing off on a RAF side quest. After the college season is WTT and worlds for these guys.

The issues with college athletes leads to the very real issue of the lack of truly competitive athletes to pull from. Just look through domestic rankings and you'll see that most of the guys on the U.S. ladder are still in college. A lot of weights only have 2 or 3 active wrestlers. Pulling guys from RTCs or coaching because they have name appeal won't lead to a good product, they might sign-up and wrestle, but they aren't going to be the best version of themselves. I'm curious if international guys would be interested in signing with RAF. I think it could be really beneficial for more casual fans to watch given the "just root for the USA" concept that would give even the most casual of fans a rooting angle.

What do you guys think? Are there enough active wrestlers that could realistically climb the ranks and challenge for a title to make RAF a long-term success?

I think the plan is to try to get quite a few international guys, but that won't happen until after Worlds.  This helps with that problem, a bit.