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 4 hours 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.

[bnwtwg]

The US MFS team as a whole was the biggest overperformance. We went from zero gold / five medals between olympics + worlds to three gold / five medals including at our historically worst weight and there was the added significance that this was a near-full change to a new team with Snyder being the last-gen carryover. This was an awesome tournament and should be celebrated as much.

[mspart]

I look at 97Kg FS and see Taz.   He did not look as dominant to me this year as he had a very close match before he lost.   He won the 1/4 10-9.   That is too close.  He lost the semi 5-2, and won bronze 13-10.   Definitely not the overpowering performances of the last few years.   

If someone had beaten Taz last year or the year before, you would expect him to be the champ.   But Snyder on the other side beat the guy that beat Taz.   So I believe there is a significant change that has happened at 97.   Too bad Sad could not be there, there might have been a different result.   But very happy for Snyder to be on top once again after so many years.  

mspart

[Eagle26]

2 hours ago, BAC said:

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.

I agree for the most part about his draw except I consider his win over Sujeet a pretty big upset. It all depends how you look at it. Like you said no expected a bronze out of him, so to me, that’s what makes it the most surprising… even if the draw was part of it. Honestly, I wouldn’t have called Real to take bronze even after seeing his draw, so I think he over performed 

[Truzzcat]

18 minutes ago, Eagle26 said:

I agree for the most part about his draw except I consider his win over Sujeet a pretty big upset. It all depends how you look at it. Like you said no expected a bronze out of him, so to me, that’s what makes it the most surprising… even if the draw was part of it. Honestly, I wouldn’t have called Real to take bronze even after seeing his draw, so I think he over performed 

agree on both sentiments, very fortunate draw but going in I probably would have picked Sujeet 10 out of 10 times. Sujeet was coming off of smoking Tevanyan and dudaev at the ranking series. I have been extremely pessimistic about Real since he won the spot, but he proved me wrong big time.

[nhs67]

3 hours ago, Eagle26 said:

My bad. Down 10-2, huge difference  

There is.

Being down 10-2 then rattling off 11 straight points to finish the match is more impressive than running off 13 of the next 15 points.

[nhs67]

48 minutes ago, Eagle26 said:

I agree for the most part about his draw except I consider his win over Sujeet a pretty big upset. It all depends how you look at it. Like you said no expected a bronze out of him, so to me, that’s what makes it the most surprising… even if the draw was part of it. Honestly, I wouldn’t have called Real to take bronze even after seeing his draw, so I think he over performed 

Sujeet pretty much destroyed Johnny D, did he not?

[de4856]

Well I think that you could say that we had many people over performed. Let’s start with Jax Forrest, true he beat a lot of great guys to make the team, but that doesn’t always mean anything when you step foot on the mat at the Worlds or Olympics. Jax came within a malfunctioning challenge button from a Bronze. But my point is prior to the Worlds I think his only Senior level international experience was at the Pan Ams. So although we knew Jax was good but did we know that he would be this good? To me he qualifies as an over performer. 
Real Woods did over perform because of the fact that 65 is one tough weight class and the we the USA hasn’t had the best of luck in this weight class, but the difference between Jax and Real is that Jax is still in High School. 

[de4856]

David Carr, another guy who is new to the Senior team and he only a couple of seconds away from beating our nemesis at 74 kg., in Sidakov. I think he also over performed. 
Levi Haines, gets in the finals by beating a World Champ, and nearly won the Gold. Again Levi is good but was he a World beater? Especially this early in his Senior level career. I think he also qualifies as an over performer. 
Trent Hidlay, who picked him to be the World Champ? And although he’s had some good success on the Senior level I didn’t think that he would win the whole thing on his first go round. Pretty amazing if you ask me. Another over performer in my book.