Biggest over performance at Worlds

[Eagle26]

We had a lot of great performances at worlds. Which one was the most surprising and most impressive to you? Some of my top choices include 

1. Real Woods taking bronze in a loaded weight. Even though he didn’t have quite as good of wins as some others, I would have never picked this result!

2. Levi beating a former world champ on his way to the finals! Didn’t know what to expect from him. Honestly was predicting DNP and never would have picked him over Usmanov but glad he proved me wrong! 

3. Zahid dominating everyone including Ghasempour. I did have Zahid picked to win, but never would have guessed the margin of victory and out scoring his opponent 49-0.

4. Jax being so close to a bronze medal while still in high. Not exactly surprising but incredibly impressive. I was very impressed with his win over Suda and wouldn’t have called that one. 

5. Trent coming back from 8-0 to win his world title. I thought he had a decent chance at gold, but it was a bit of a wildcard. I certainly wouldn’t have expected such an amazing comeback!

6. Helen winning another gold, pinning her way to the finals and getting a last second takedown to win the championship! I knew she was still amazing, but what a tournament for her!

6. Snyder winning another gold with Taz and Azarpira in the weight. He didn’t have to beat Taz but I didn’t have him picked to beat either one. I did figure he would be right in the mix so not quite as surprising to me. 

I think that’s my order. I chose Real as number 1 simply because if you would have told me these before the tournament started, it’s the one that I would say was the most unlikely. What do you all think? Any others to add?

[juniorvarsity]

North Korea was a surprise to me.

[Eagle26]

8 hours ago, juniorvarsity said:

North Korea was a surprise to me.

That’s true. I was just looking at our results, but they were definitely impressively 

[MPhillips]

Iran GR is notable if not more...

[Lucho]

3 hours ago, MPhillips said:

Iran GR is notable if not more...

I felt like before the tournament we could send 5 guys to the finals (Esmaeili, Farokhi, Mohmedi, Saravi and Mirzazadeh). The over performance was more so I think at 55 and 63kg. Ahmadi beating Azizli and Keshtkar teching Muradov were completely out of nowhere results. Ahmadi is good but I didn't think he was that good shame he lost his finals match to another incredibly talented wrestler. 60 and 77 performed more or less to how I thought it would turn out in terms of not medalling. Its more a combination of Azerbaijan doing incredibly poorly and other heavy hitters losing early (Alexanyan, Luis Orta Sanchez etc). 

[GrandOlm]

Team:

Japan FS: A lot of there stars were out and they still easily grabbed third place.

Iran GR: What a beatdown. Double or almost double the points of number 2? They can win two more golds tomorrow and sweep all the weights 82kg and north. 

Individuals FS: Han was a surprise gold. I'll throw Haru and Baran some bones for beating people beating a heavy favorite and getting an all time best result in your 30s. 

Individuals Greco: Lolua and Amoyan. Lolua won a field that included a rising prodigy and a dominant champion. Amoyan upset the olympic champ who made it to the finals. For non golds, I think Kyrl and Elias took the biggest scalps while medaling. 

I think the candidates for biggest under performers are a stronger bunch, but that's not what the thread is about. 

[RawDog]

I agree with real woods being most surprising.  He seems to have jumped levels quickly considering he was in a couple nailbiters just to make the team at wtt.

Levi is pretty surprising as well.  I think we have several guys better than him at the weight and if he didn't perform well it would have been a bitter pill to swallow.

Not surprised at all with Jax and Zahid after watching they way they handled Vito and Dake.

Helen and Snyder have been doing this for a minute, it's just what they do.

We all knew Trent was capable, glad he was able to put it all together and get it done.

[ATKreATK]

I dont think anything was more impressive than the overall performance by the Iranians. But that Hidlay comeback was awful close. I was truly impressed with the development displayed from Zahid. Hes a whole new animal. 

[nhs67]

On 9/20/2025 at 7:20 AM, Eagle26 said:

We had a lot of great performances at worlds. Which one was the most surprising and most impressive to you? Some of my top choices include 

1. Real Woods taking bronze in a loaded weight. Even though he didn’t have quite as good of wins as some others, I would have never picked this result!

2. Levi beating a former world champ on his way to the finals! Didn’t know what to expect from him. Honestly was predicting DNP and never would have picked him over Usmanov but glad he proved me wrong! 

3. Zahid dominating everyone including Ghasempour. I did have Zahid picked to win, but never would have guessed the margin of victory and out scoring his opponent 49-0.

4. Jax being so close to a bronze medal while still in high. Not exactly surprising but incredibly impressive. I was very impressed with his win over Suda and wouldn’t have called that one. 

5. Trent coming back from 8-0 to win his world title. I thought he had a decent chance at gold, but it was a bit of a wildcard. I certainly wouldn’t have expected such an amazing comeback!

6. Helen winning another gold, pinning her way to the finals and getting a last second takedown to win the championship! I knew she was still amazing, but what a tournament for her!

6. Snyder winning another gold with Taz and Azarpira in the weight. He didn’t have to beat Taz but I didn’t have him picked to beat either one. I did figure he would be right in the mix so not quite as surprising to me. 

I think that’s my order. I chose Real as number 1 simply because if you would have told me these before the tournament started, it’s the one that I would say was the most unlikely. What do you all think? Any others to add?

Trent was never down 8-0.

[nhs67]

On 9/20/2025 at 10:27 PM, RawDog said:

I agree with real woods being most surprising.  He seems to have jumped levels quickly considering he was in a couple nailbiters just to make the team at wtt.

Levi is pretty surprising as well.  I think we have several guys better than him at the weight and if he didn't perform well it would have been a bitter pill to swallow.

Not surprised at all with Jax and Zahid after watching they way they handled Vito and Dake.

Helen and Snyder have been doing this for a minute, it's just what they do.

We all knew Trent was capable, glad he was able to put it all together and get it done.

Who is better than Levi, domestically, at 79 KG?

[Truzzcat]

23 minutes ago, nhs67 said:

Who is better than Levi, domestically, at 79 KG?

Nobody that was active this year at the weight could argue kyle,JB,KOT potentially I think JB medals against the same field and kyle wins that field not sure about KOT.

[LemonPie]

US Greco. They won 2 or 3 more matches than I thought they would 

[nhs67]

1 hour ago, Truzzcat said:

Nobody that was active this year at the weight could argue kyle,JB,KOT potentially I think JB medals against the same field and kyle wins that field not sure about KOT.

I agree with you. KOT is a maybe, and JB is also a maybe.  The last time JB wrestled the Iranian who ended up taking bronze, he lost at the 2024 Worlds.  And while Usmanov won in 2023, JB didn’t even make the team that year - father time is undefeated.  As for Dake, he’s an unknown to me as well.  Too many of his matches are uncomfortably close for me to call him a clear upgrade.

[Eagle26]

3 hours ago, nhs67 said:

Trent was never down 8-0.

My bad. Down 10-2, huge difference  

[BAC]

Maybe I'm in the minority here, but I wouldn't include Woods on this list at all, much less at/near the top.

His bronze was unexpected, yes. But to me, the only thing surprising about Woods was his draw.  Woods was maybe the 7th or 8th best wrestler there, but then when the draw came out, only one of the superior guys was on his side of the bracket, while the other bracket had the other 5 or 6 studs who are likely better than him.  It was an extraordinarily fortunate draw that gave him a path to a bronze on Amouzad's coattails.

To Woods' credit, he took full advantage of the gift that was given to him, wrestling to his full potential and avoiding any upsets.  That's no small feat.  But there's nothing I saw in his wrestling that showed me he's better than what I thought going into Worlds. If you draw that bracket 10 times, 9 out of the 10 times there's going to be more than one other stud in his side of the bracket and he doesn't medal. 

I see Woods as a Joe Colon or Brandon Eggum type guy... he unexpectedly got a shot at the world team and rode his draw to a medal, which is AWESOME, but the odds of him making another world team (let alone medaling again) are slim. Happy to have him prove me wrong.

Edited 1 hour ago by BAC

[BAC]

My top 2 are Levi and Zahid.

Zahid's improvement was really just jaw dropping.  Not just the one sided win over Ghasempour, but the dominating win in the finals against the Japanese guy who had absolutely demolished him 2 years ago.

Levi I had as a likely DNP.  But he knocked off a world champ, and was just a hair away from a world title. I've been whining for months about how Dake should've been at 79kg until the Olympics, and while that may still be true, Levi definitely shut me up.

[Truzzcat]

Just now, nhs67 said:

I agree with you. KOT is a maybe, and JB is also a maybe.  The last time JB wrestled the Iranian who ended up taking bronze, he lost at the 2024 Worlds.  And while Usmanov won in 2023, JB didn’t even make the team that year - father time is undefeated.  As for Dake, he’s an unknown to me as well.  Too many of his matches are uncomfortably close for me to call him a clear upgrade.

Part of my reasoning for dake is that he has beaten kougi in the past at 74kg and I think both guys are probably most optimal at 79 at this time. Nohkodi I think was probably not in the same form this year he had torn his ACL at last years worlds so I do not know how much time he actually spent on the mat, generally aggressive recovery is 8-9 moths if everything goes well. As for usmanov and I have not seen a ton of people discuss it but he is either too big for 79 now or he lost a step. Saipudinov killed him in repechage and he had absolutely nothing for levi. I believe he narrowly won his match prior as well. More so my thought was if you give levi,kyle,JB the same draw I think they all get to the same point maybe JB or kyle win it KOT I am not as sure of. I think Hamiti could have a very promising freestyle career as well but he definitely has areas he needs to improve upon. Its also worth noting that Ruiz beat the Ukranian who pinned evloev (evloev pinned kougi this year) and only lost to Nohkodi 2-1 so Ruiz is also very much in the mix imo.