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In the last 4 global tournaments, we are 11-0 at 65kg against everyone not named Rahman Amouzad. Yianni silver to Amouzad, Lee 3-0 then falls to Amouzad in the quarters, Zain falls to Amouzad then defaults, Woods bronze from Amouzad's bracket If you're undefeated other than 4 losses to the best guy in the world, aren't you actually very good??

Ok, count me in. What a freaking legendary performance. Like someone said …. He scored 20 points in that match but lent a bunch to his opponent. What an incredible comeback. Count me in as a big time fan. WORLD CHAMPION

Lose to Carr and you’d still have your knee. Maybe think about that next time!!!

The call from Cael in an hour or so... *RING RINGGGGG* Kyle: Hey coach! Cael: Hey, man. Just wanted to be the first to tell you... Kyle: Thanks man, but everyone here has... Cael: ...NOT spend it on hookers and blow. Kyle: ... Cael: I'm serious about this, Kyle. Kyle: ... Cael: Nod if you understand me. *Kyle nods* Cael: No hand the fone to Jamie *hands fone to Jamie* Cael: Did he nod? Jamie: Who, Kyle? No. Cael: DAMNIT GIVE HIM THE FONE BACK! *Jamie looks around... can't find him anywhere* Jamie yells: Yo, where did Kyle go? Random person: Oh, him and Zadick were running out the doors together laughing and bouncing around Jamie: Damn. Did you hear that? Cael: ... *three seconds of silence* Cael: Damn it.

Trent Thicclay. World Champ.

I'm just a lurker around here as I rarely have anything worthwhile to add, but I had to create an account for this thread. I am a HS coach and took a group of my wrestlers to a camp this summer where Trent was a clinician. He did an outstanding job communicating his techniques to a wide spectrum of wrestlers and I'm excited to see them put to use this season, but that's not what made me a fan. This camp has somewhere around 200 boys and girls in 7-12 grade. During one the sessions, after showing an underhook technique (what else?), Trent was walking around and giving pointers as most clinicians do. One of my wrestlers will be a freshman this year. He wrestled a couple of years in elementary but quit until coming back last year as an 8th grader - pretty green, but smart and willing to learn. As Trent came by, we chatted a little bit and I mentioned that the kid that was in front of us likes underhooks but sometimes has trouble getting to it. Trent pulled him aside and worked with him for 3-4 minutes 1-on-1 with some tricks to get his tie. He made the kid feel like the most important person in the room. Whether the technique sticks or not, that kid will remember the way a world champ treated him when he didn't have to and there were higher level wrestlers around that he could have focused on. I have always enjoyed watching he and Hayden wrestle and they seemed like genuinely good guys, but Trent is something special and I'm glad he finally got his due.

Not sure I have ever been happy for someone to win a match. Trent works so freaking hard and has always been one of the best guys but just never the best guy in his bracket, finally gets it done when it matters most.

How do we feel about Team USA’s performance so far? Spencer: 1-1 (eliminated) - Disappointing. Jax: 3-2 (5th) - This feels really good, especially when you consider that he (arguably) should have been a medalist. Real: 1-1 (still hope for a bronze) - About what I expected. Duke: 1-1 (11th) - Can't be mad about this effort. Carr: 3-1 (going for bronze vs Sidakov) - About what I expected, but in retrospect it feels like he could have been a finalist. Haines: In the finals - Better than I expected. Zahid: Champ - Not a surprising result, but his dominance was at least slightly more that I expected. Hidlay: In the finals - Feels about right. Snyder: In the finals - Snyder just medals in world/Olympic events. Hopefully he can get another gold. Wyatt: 0-1 (17th) - Not that surprised, but slightly disappointing.

Freestyle tournament is done. USA came in 2nd behind Iran (their Toot Squad in the stands was like 12th man in the football stadium!) Final Top Ten and other sundries: Final Top 10 Team Standings 1. Iran - 145 2. United States - 134 3. Japan - 111 4. Russia - 96 5. Azerbaijan - 83 6. Bahrain - 53 7. Kazakhstan - 48 8. Kyrgyzstan - 41 9. North Korea - 35 10. Mongolia - 30 10. Ukraine - 30 10. Uzbekistan - 30 Team points are calculated according to UWW’s top 10 placement points for world championship team scoring: Gold - 25 points Silver - 20 points Bronze - 15 points Bronze - 15 points 5th - 10 points 5th - 10 points 7th - 8 points 8th - 6 points 9th - 4 points 10th - 2 points Of note, Russia and Belarus are not in the official team rankings because they are competing under " United World Wrestling.” However, we chose to include them in the above standings to show how those countries are performing at the World Championships. Here's a detailed breakdown of the scoring: Rank Country 57 61 65 70 74 79 86 92 97 125 Total 1 Iran 20 25 10 15 15 15 20 25 145 2 United States 4 10 15 10 20 25 25 25 134 3 Japan 6 20 25 25 20 15 111 4 Russia 8 25 10 2 15 4 2 20 6 4 96 5 Azerbaijan 15 8 10 15 15 20 83 6 Bahrain 8 15 15 15 53 7 Kazakhstan 15 4 15 4 10 48 8 Kyrgyzstan 20 6 15 41 9 North Korea 25 10 35 10 Mongolia 20 10 30 10 Ukraine 8 2 8 6 6 30 12 Uzbekistan 15 15 30 12 Armenia 15 10 25 12 Greece 25 25 12 Poland 10 15 25 24 India 6 10 8 24 16 Albania 2 20 22 16 Georgia 4 10 6 20 16 Hungary 4 6 10 20 19 Slovakia 15 4 19 24 Puerto Rico 8 10 18 20 Mexico 10 6 16 20 France 6 10 16 22 Canada 2 10 12 22 Bulgaria 10 2 12 28 Germany 4 8 12 24 Moldova 10 10 24 North Macedonia 10 10 28 Latvia 8 8 28 Switzerland 8 8 31 Belarus 4 4 32 Türkiye 2 2 32 China 2 2 32 Italy 2 2 Cuba 2 2 Team USA Results: 57 kg: Spencer Lee - Eliminated 61 kg: Jax Forrest - 5th Place 65 kg: Real Woods - Bronze 70 kg: PJ Duke - Eliminated 74 kg: David Carr - 5th Place 79 kg: Levi Haines - Silver 86 kg: Zahid Valencia - Gold 92 kg: Trent Hidlay - Gold 97 kg: Kyle Snyder - Gold 125 kg: Wyatt Hendrickson - Eliminated The remainder of the schedule: Wednesday, September 17 4:30 a.m. ET – 9:00 a.m. ET: Qualification rounds – WFS 53, 62, 68, 72 kg; Repechage – WFS 50, 57, 65, 76 kg 10:30 a.m. ET – 11:30 a.m. ET: Semifinals – WFS 53, 62, 68, 72 kg 12:00 p.m. ET – 2:00 p.m. ET: Medal Matches – WFS 50, 57, 65, 76 kg Thursday, September 18 4:30 a.m. ET – 9:00 a.m. ET: Qualification rounds – GR 55, 77, 82, 130 kg; Repechage – WFS 53, 62, 68, 72 kg 10:30 a.m. ET – 11:30 a.m. ET: Semifinals – GR 55, 77, 82, 130 kg 12:00 p.m. ET – 2:00 p.m. ET: Medal Matches – WFS 53, 62, 68, 72 kg Friday, September 19 4:30 a.m. ET – 9:00 a.m. ET: Qualification rounds – GR 60, 72, 97 kg; Repechage – GR 55, 77, 82, 130 kg 10:45 a.m. ET – 11:45 a.m. ET: Semifinals – GR 60, 72, 97 kg 12:00 p.m. ET – 2:00 p.m. ET: Medal Matches – GR 55, 77, 82, 130 kg Saturday, September 20 4:30 a.m. ET – 9:00 a.m. ET: Qualification rounds – GR 63, 67, 87 kg; Repechage – GR 60, 72, 97 kg 10:45 a.m. ET – 11:45 a.m. ET: Semifinals – GR 63, 67, 87 kg 12:00 p.m. ET – 2:00 p.m. ET: Medal Matches – GR 60, 72, 97 kg Sunday, September 21 10:30 a.m. ET – 11:30 a.m. ET: Repechage – GR 63, 67, 87 kg 12:00 p.m. ET – 2:00 p.m. ET: Medal Matches – GR 63, 67, 87 kg D3

https://www.facebook.com/share/r/17U8AgMM1K/?mibextid=wwXIfr Spencer answers the question himself here. The interviewer was very direct and almost brutal (maybe some cultural differences), but I think Spencer handled it well. Kudos to him for that!

D3, you are a treasure to these boards. Thank you for all you do.

Hidlay > Brooks

If Harutyunyan made the finals and pulled Spencer back in and he took a bronze, then I don't think this noise is anywhere near as loud. If Khadi didn't pull Dake back in 2021, everyone would have said that Burroughs should have been the guy at the Olympics. Repechage is a fickle b1tch. At the end of the day, I don't think Spencer respected Harutyunyan enough, and it cost him. You can't take any match for granted at Worlds, and to me it looked like Spencer went into the match thinking he was the better wrestler and would win, and when Harutyunyan gave him more than he was expecting, he couldn't regroup mid-match and it snowballed. IMO it was kind of similar to the US Open match between Mesenbrink and Carr where Mesenbrink won a couple of early exchanges and things just unraveled for Carr leading to a tech. My biggest question with Spencer is whether or not he still loves wrestling. After being denied his 4th HS state title, the battles with knee injuries from his senior year of high school in 2018 until preparation for the 2024 Olympics, the pin in the NCAA semis to stop him from being a four-time NCAA champ.. you have to imagine he has some demons to battle after giving so much to the sport and feeling let down by shocking losses when all eyes are on him, and by his own body when just as he's feeling fully healthy again, another heartbreaking injury and long road of recovery takes place again.

PS underhooks don’t work on me Uppercuts though...

HIDLAY IS A WORLD CHAMP!!! comes back from being down 8 points!!!! WOW

This has always been one of my favorite interviews, but this hits different today. Hayden Hidlay must be a very proud brother.

Are you talking about a mythical GOAT of men's and women's freestyle wrestling? If she gets to 8 golds I still don't put her close to Burroughs. It's apples and oranges. There is zero need for the comparison. But if one is made it isn't close. One of the biggest arguments for JB over John Smith is that in JB's era you had multiple Russians and fewer weight classes, meaning more competition. That is a legitimate argument. There is no argument for the idea that the competition in women's FS is anywhere close to the men's side. I'm not talking about levels, I'm talking about depth of competition. The sport is young and will need decades to catch up. Winning titles in a still developing sport that only has a few tough nations is simply not the same. It should be enough to just celebrate her accomplishments in the field of women's wrestling and his in the field of men's wrestling.

Longtime posters here know there is only one correct answer:

RESULTS 57kg spencer lee, 1-1, DNP 61kg jax forrest, 3-2, 5th 65kg real woods, 4-1, 3rd 70kg pj duke, 1-1, DNP 74kg david carr, 3-2, 5th 79kg levi haines, 4-1, 2nd 86kg zahid valencia, 5-0, 1st 92kg trent hidlay, 5-0, 1st 97kg kyle snyder, 4-0, 1st 125kg wyatt hendrickson, 0-1, DNP HIGHLIGHTS hidlay breaking through snyder back on top zahid jumping levels and dominating everyone! levi haines breaking through & showing he's a world-class freestyle threat woods medaling in what has always been one of the toughest weights for us amazing efforts by the young guns jax & duke, especially jax going deep was really impressed w/ carr's performance in prolly the deepest weight. 1-2 more years and he'll be on the podium 3 champs w/ 5 medals total is def better than I was expecting TAKEAWAYS what're your main takeaways?

I took the time to actually just watch Helen instead of trying to post about it. She's truly an American legend and I've reached the point where I just want to make sure I watch whatever matches she has left.

HELEN MAROULIS PINS JAPAN

I've been on the bandwagon for a long time. Fan of his brother as well. Those guys met up with legends in their finals, Nolf (Hayden damn near won), Brooks (might have been juiced). I saw Trent wrestle live up close at the 2023 NYAC tournament. He beat a super savvy Kentchadze who ended up winning worlds that same year down a weight. He also beat Alex Dieringer that day. I knew then was a serious contender at the world level. What a machine this weekend. Wrestled his style, his pace, imposed his will on everyone he wrestled. From bride's maid to the f'ing bride! Congrats to the Hidlay family! Forever a world CHAMP!

WAAAAA! Pay attention to me instead! WAAAAAAAA!

I would just like to go on record and say that we don't need Aaron Brooks to come back. He can stay away because we like WINNERS in 'Murica and we just won 86 and 92 and we're going to win 97 tomorrow by golly.

I told you we should feel good about it being 10-5, guys.

Hidlay is an absolute MONSTER for that comeback. They tried to hose him.

Honestly, only our book-ends laid a dud. Everyone else wrestled tough. Carr, Duke, Real, Jax - despite not bringing home Gold (or Silver) all wrestled to their potential (I think).

Team USA has had a great performance! Yes We expected more out of Spencer yet we didn't expect to be in the team hunt and we are. Can't say enough about our current staff and USA Wrestling system. We are continually competing for medals. Great job TEAM USA and finish strong!!!

Good for him. Don't be in a hurry.

Flo wants access. That's the end of it. It's a crappy closed-off ecosystem because our sport is too small. Also, Snyder simultaneously looked like he could not wait to get out of there while also wanting to be anywhere but "home with his family." Just own it and quit being a hypocrite. Literally just say "folks, I screwed up real bad and I'm glad Taz lost and Sad wasn't here to give me the ass kicking I deserved. Did I mention I did a really, REALLY bad and hypocritical thing? Because I did and I have to own that the rest of my life and now my family does too." Would go a long way, and spare them some decency.

Don't sleep on Adeline Gray either, who has 6 golds. Previously, a fair argument could be made to put Adeline ahead of Helen for the women's GOAT title. Even now, she's got one more gold than Helen. But Helen has an Olympic gold that Adeline lacks (over Yoshida to boot), and Helen's total medal haul is greater, including three Olympic medals to Adeline's one. For me, this most recent gold puts Helen ahead. But Adeline's a legend, and a great ambassador for the sport.

1. I would bet my bottom dollar Pyles first got permission from Camp Snyder and USA Wrestling before lobbing that softball question. 2. Snyder literally used nothing but the easiest, generic Christian cliches and wrestling cliches for the entire interview. He said nothing. In the end, I guess that is fine. Maybe that is who he really is, and his life is really none of our business anyway. To each their own...

Bounced back after losing to Gilman, who had all the momentum with a big near-4, by ending his career with a techpinfall. Chipped away to come back from a quick 6-1 hole 90 seconds into the match vs Zhou at the olympic global qualifier. It's okay, bad losses happen. Snyder has taken a few over the years. The world's P4P Taz just lost to a guy he should beat 10/10 times. Blaydes got teched out of the building this morning. Did you see the part above about Gilman getting techpinned? Dake was teched by Kadi and nearly teched by Takatani. Taha would have been teched by Gable if he didn't run backwards for 3 mins straight. Amouzad just teched Kiyooka, and a year ago Kiyooka beat the absolute crap out of him for olympic gold. In the words of Aaron Rodgers: "R-E-L-A-X"

57 - When I see top guys take losses like that my question isn't the skill, it's their love of the sport. I hope Spencer isn't burnt out on this because he's talented enough to run the table until 2028, I truly believe that. Hoping for a huge resurgence from Spencer 61 - Wow wow wow. Jax is the man and could end up being...let me not. Not saying that wrestling is basketball, but calling this kid the potential goat is a LeBron level of pressure on the young gun. Let's let him develop and see where he is in a years time. I think he will only get better. He got hosed bronze medal match. I understand refs are human and mistakes happen, but that was all so ugly. He should be able to say he's a world medalist but alas, he cannot. He will be back. 65 - Real woods medaling here is awesome, so glad he got a lot of matches. Honestly should be more excited considering the weight class but honestly nothing here excited or surprised me at all. Wouldn't feel confident to pick him to medal again now. But he has nothing but time to train and now he sits out to Final X... 70 - Broken record, PJ is the man. PSU is going to, like they do every year, have some tight roster battles and everyone in the country is curious to see how 157 shakes out. This guy was right there with a world champ. Wanted him back in action for bronze so badly. Don't know if we see Duke at 70kg again but sure am excited to see his trajectory. 74 - Heartbreaker. Can't wrestle the way Carr did in the last 60 seconds vs Sidakov. We'd have another medal and he'd be at Final X prepping for Mitch for a whole year, now he has to run the gauntlet. He's on par, seriously good. Needs better in-match IQ and with JB in his corner I think we will be just fine at this weight no matter what. 79 - Levi is so good and still young. Undefeated Hodge szn loading? He looked so sharp in every match. His bout vs Usmanov, sheesh, calculated. Kougi has his number right now, nothing to hang his head about because that kid looks to be a top p4p in the world. Wasn't feeling good after Final X but once this guy focuses all in, watch out. 86 - KING ZAHID. Had this penciled in and boy does that run feel good. He looked other worldly. Utter dominance by him and with DT coaching him for the foreseeable future, I can see a really good run from Zahid. Not much to say because he's him 92 - What. A. Match. Watched it live and 2 since. At the break I had to double check that this was the same guy that lost to Mike Macc(what?). No disrespect what-so-ever but how did he lose to Mike Macc and then 2 months later make world finals? Anywho, Trent stormed back with the same gameplan and small in match adjustments and took him deep. That last 4 had me jump from my office chair. Pending what happens with Brooks I feel comfortable with this weight regardless 97 - Kyle has sipped from the fountain of youth and won gold again. Match vs Azapira was so boring and didn't catch much of the rest of his matches, self admittedly I was watching his supposed finals opponent Taz. Happy for him and hope he can carry this momentum to 2028 125 - Wyatt looked flat. Maybe it was the bright lights, nerves, inexperience idk. But that was a poor showing and I'm sure he knows it. He teched the guy who teched him at U23s. Unfortunate. With the injection of Parris and Kerk getting back healthy the depth will push us back to competing for medals again, trust. Team race - Runner-ups is a great finish here for us. In a "down year" we are a few performance improvements away from gold. On the other hand, we are a DNP away from bronze as Japan is on our heels. They worry me more in the Olympics than worlds but Iran is the standard. Their performance was consistent and solid at every weight. I have full confidence we will be back to winning the race in 3-4 years time consistently. Biggest question is where is Russia? Feeling affects of war? Economic issues? Losing athletes to MMA? They are still the best in the world to me and was a Sadulaev away from a 3rd place finish. Other thoughts - N Korea didn't come to mess around. No shot we find out anything about their training regiment but man color me interested. Lots of underperformers in these worlds ie. Lee, Usmanov, Sidakov, Valiev, Taz, ect. Look for our team to continue the trend of youth filling the squad because they're coming. As the time of posting this our women's team is getting decked except for queen Helen. Overall very happy with how we did

Also big shout out to Trent for getting out there and competing! That’s how you get better at wrestling…by wrestling. He was everywhere he could be the last couple years. Not afraid to take some losses for a larger goal of being a…champion! Still can’t believe it. What a match.

@Jon_Kozak credit goes to the cesspool when Pyles miraculously brings this up on FRL

Trains in the Caucasus (Daegestan/ Ossetia/ Chechnya) with Kurugliev. I'm sure he has scrapped with Sidakov plenty of times. 2018 2nd at cadet worlds 2021: 74kg 3rd at Euro olympic qualifier, went 1-1 at OG last chance 2022: 79kg 5th U23s and won senior Euros. 2-1 at worlds losing by tech to the eventual bronze 2023: 79kg won Euros, took 5th at worlds (lost in semis to Dake, Daichi for bronze) then bounced back to beat Bayramov for true 5th to win the olympic bid [side note: i LOVED that concept and hope it returns for 2028]. 2023 worlds was his coming out party. 2024: 79kg Euros 5th, olympics 0-1 bbq 2025: 79kg world champ

Someone compared it to when Dake got buzzsawed by Kadi at the 2020ne olympics and was left scratching his head. I would strongly agree with that. I also think that if they meet again, Lee will have a better gameplan. I'm not getting off the Lee bandwagon just yet.

Trent's "you have to be in a dark place to beat me" interview after the semis: Trent Hidlay Knows You'll Have To Go To A Dark Place To Survive 6 Minutes With Him On The Mat After the finals: Trent Hidlay After His 'Insane' Gold Medal Match

Day 2 thoughts. Lee: Tough to watch. It wasn't just that he lost, it's that the Armenian outwrestled him in about 6 straight positions. In most of them, Lee seemed to be caught flat-footed. I hate to sound like a hater but he needs to get out of Iowa City. He just has no practice partners there, and he's not getting the kinds of high-end looks that he needs to get if he's going to run the gamut at Worlds. It seems like the Brands are so worried about eroding his confidence that they have him practicing with cupcakes, and it showed today. Carr: I thought he looked excellent. He gave Valiev all he could handle, and obviously Valiev is one of the best in the world. Many criticized him for attacking Valiev late in the 2nd when all of Valiev's scoring was off counters, but I disagree. Carr scored on him before and can score again. He just needs to make sure he isn't predictable. The match against Sidakov tomorrow should be great. Between Carr and Mesenbrink, this weight is in good hands for the next quad. Haines: I thought I was going to have to go on my bi-weekly rant about Dake not coming down to 79kg where he belongs. But then what happens? Haines takes out the world champ and is in the finals. Welp. I confess I had a DNP penciled in here and I'm so happy to be wrong. Haines keeps great position and his defense is as good as ever, and is turning it on when he needs to. Finals vs the Greek should be great. Hidlay: I've been high on Hidlay a long time and super excited to see him get his shot here, and to see him truly make the most of it. He looks like a man possessed... like a like a guy suffering from roid rage, except without the roids. Chalk him up as the Guy I Want to Wrestle the Least. I think he has a great shot at gold. *** Jax: More of the same. Threw himself into the match and wrestled fearlessly. Got into some positions he wasn't quite ready for, but I loved watching him work his slide by. Tough ending, but very legit opponent. Zahid: I thought he was even more impressive in his gold medal match than against Ghasempour. He wrestled hard all match, with no sign of waning at the end. Compare this match to the tech he took at his hands just 2 years ago, and you can really see how far Zahid has come. Super excited for him as you just know this is a product of him deciding he needed to make a change if he was to reach his goals, and he made it. You reap what you sow.

Your algorithm has some seriously dark energy.

I’m not sure if he will leave, but he needs to. Look at how RBY was moving on his feet today. I would say on top of that Iowa needs a change of direction. It’s time. Make a huge splash, go get Burroughs or Dake(I think a Burroughs/lee situation could bring Iowa back). The Brands had their time, but the sports evolved. As a die hard American it pains me to say it, but the “Iowa style” is dead in the water. At least we’re ahead of those slimy cheating Russians in the point total. Folkstyle is better and it’s AMERICAN

I haven’t seen any. Ads are driven by the user’s internet activity. Is everything OK in your life right now? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

musukaev focused on his new career now

USA! USA! USA!

Zahid is in the finals. D3

really hope Kaipanov wins not only to pull gomez and PJ back in but also can you imagine those matches. Gomez vs PJ and then the winner vs Ochir. The amount of upper body exchanges would feed families.

Anyway... Here's the mat assignments for the semis, ALL on Mat B: 1/2 Finals Day 1 Mat B Upcoming Matches FS - 61 kg 1/2 Final 96 (UWW) Zavur UGUEV (1) (USA) Jaxen Patrick FORREST (17) FS - 61 kg 1/2 Final 97 (PRK) Kum Hyok KIM (18) (IRI) Ahmad Masoud MOHAMMADNEZHADJAVAN (26) FS - 70 kg 1/2 Final 98 (JPN) Yoshinosuke AOYAGI (1) (ARM) Arman ANDREASYAN (5) FS - 70 kg 1/2 Final 99 (KAZ) Nurkozha KAIPANOV (3) (MGL) Tulga TUMUR OCHIR (25) FS - 86 kg 1/2 Final 100 (IRI) Kamran Ghorban GHASEMPOUR (12) (USA) Zahid VALENCIA (5) FS - 86 kg 1/2 Final 101 (FRA) Rakhim MAGAMADOV (6) (JPN) Hayato ISHIGURO (7) FS - 125 kg 1/2 Final 102 (AZE) Giorgi MESHVILDISHVILI (1) (POL) Robert BARAN (4) FS - 125 kg 1/2 Final 103 (BRN) Shamil Magomed A SHARIPOV (6) (IRI) Amir Hossein Abbas ZARE (2) D3

Good @$^$#^$@!%!!!!! morning all you earlybirds! I got my caffine (English Breakfast... sweet & sour) as I hope all of you have as well. Mat assignments to follow... D3