ILLINIWrestlingBlog

Greco fans: Joe Rau wins, Zac Braunagel loses. The ref in the Brawlnagel match called Zac for passivity twice. I swear on the souls of my children! Not only did the ref eschew the usual call "A" for passivity in the first period and "B" in the second, but this dude called Zac Braunagel for passivity twice. It's like it started raining upwards! Will the mantle of true heel be taken from PD3 and handed over to the PSU crowd? Booing Jordan Burroughs is a nice start.

So, the last person to beat Jesse Mendez was Kannon Webster during the Summer of 2023?

If we all decide to believe in making weight, then Spencer Lee will have to make weight again tonight. So, everybody, join in with me: "I do believe in scales. I do believe in scales. I do believe."

How often do you think they shout "Gas Tank Gary" during the Flo Watch Party? I am willing to bet that 27% of the conversation has revolved around 0-2 Pat Downey, Jr.

If Downey was really a rebel, he would've forfeited to the bye.

Zane Richards and Ellis Coleman winners. GO ILLINOIS! The kids are tough, but the greybeards cleaned up in those two matches.

This sucks. He woulda been a tough out.

Joe Rau with the win 7-0 at 97 kg Greco. Announcer (is that Mike Mal?) with some kudos to ILLINOIS Greco.

Zac Braunagel broke "The Wall" aka Ben Provisor. That's a two-time Olympian that he beat. GO IRTC!!!

Wick versus Marsteller is Laurel and Hardy. Crazy different body styles.

Ringer with a beautiful Fireman's and go-behind on Mark Hall. 5-2 winner.

Green gassed. 6-3 Mendez now with 26 seconds left.

Green had 3.15 hours to rehydrate. Green up 1-0 with a step-out. Takedown on the edge for Green 3-0, Husker, but it was white-paddled. Shoulda been two there, folks. The refs are calling stalemates on front headlocks in 2 seconds! What gives?

Mendez versus James Green. Love this!

Not many tech falls so far. What's up with that? These matches are going the distance for the most part. This is the kind of camerawork that we need for wrestling. The announcers (at least on mats 3 & 4) are very good and knowledgeable. So far, Peacock impresses.

Just lost Mat 3 camera. I was going to come on here and praise them. Then, disaster!

Downey was a one-period wrestler. He hurt one of his elegant legs.

The camera operators are moving the cameras to follow the action! The cameras show bright colors! The cameras were not once owned by Thomas A. Edison! Pantaleo got away with not getting close to Gross for about 12 re-starts there. First winner, Larkin, was my first upset. Wow!

Downey / StallRocky in two on Mat 1. For the morbidly curious. I'm going to start on Mat 1 to see the skeleton we used to call Alec Pantaleo versus Seth Gross. Let's Go!

I'll be on Trackwrestling on their dashboard to pick out the best of the four mats with the most intriguing matchup and then bouncing back and forth.

I just did this, and I appreciate the thoughtfulness of putting your strategy on this board. Navigating the other way would have been a pain. I realized that, but then I saw the light. This'll be so much easier. Bump for awesomeness. Cheers!

This was an excellent thread. Don't know how the match lives up to this thread with the beer miles, the beerfest, the shaft and all. Wrestling needs more of this!

OTHER BRACKETS I'm mostly interested in 57 kg Freestyle and 77 kg, 87 kg and 97 kg Greco, but there are some other great brackets here. 97 kg Freestyle: One of the first matches out of the gate will be two fatties having to make weight and wrestle in the first round: Tony Cassioppi and Christian Carroll. J'Den Cox and Isaac Trumble are my picks to meet to see who gets to face Captain America. This is a great bracket! 86 kg Freestyle: Not really a great bracket, but PD3 and Stallrocky in the first round is intriguing in the way Stalin versus Hitler was. I do think that Brooks versus Dieringer in the semis of the challenge tournament is a quality, quality match. That is a must-see match. 74 kg Freestyle: Burroughs, Dake and Nolf. That's a winner by itself. But what makes this bracket really "fun" is the bottom of the bottom half: Haines versus Cenzo to face Nolf. There will be Lion blood on the mat here. What makes it especially intriguing for this match (and for all of Friday) is that the wrestlers only have one shot to win or lose. In a perfect world, why not do like the NBA with a best of three in each round? It would probably require two weekends in a row, but seems a little random to me the way it is. One lucky leglace.... All the Women's weights: They have somebody already sitting in the Saturday best of two finals at each weight, and they are all huge names in the sport. So, Friday, kinda meh until the semis; Saturday, WOW! MORE ABOUT PEACOCK If Heaven only offered Peacock streaming, I'd be like, I'm good. I'll just roam the Earth as an untethered spirit. After going through most of the offerings, this is my list of things to watch before the month is over: Oppenheimer, SuperBad, Heroes (a few episodes maybe) and Scrubs (a few episodes maybe). I think this is how the negotiations went between Peacock executives and the executive producers for 99% of the movies on the streaming service: PEACOCK: We will give you $7. PRODUCERS: Is that per view on your service? PEACOCK: No. We will give you $7. And yet, I'm very happy to pay $5.99 plus tax to watch the OTTs. Additionally, according to the internet, Peacock will upload a replay of their sporting events within 24 hours of their completion. FINAL THOUGHTS I'm sorry y'all have to deal with my antsy-in-the-pantsy-ness until I get banned. But, c'mon, man, clear the mats and start the matches!

Looks interesting! Good audience and critic scores on Rotten Tomatoes. I will check it out while it is free and available. I would've likely missed it otherwise (and without your recommendation). Cheers! Back to the topic at hand, we posted a Moneyball look at the opponents of Zane Richards, Danny Braunagel and Zac Braunagel here. I very much like the fact that Zane will probably be much fresher when he faces Spencer than Spencer will be when he faces Zane. The cause was missing the US Open (that Zane won), and the effect is having to wrestle Nico Megaludis about 3 hours after making scratch weight, while the IRTC wrestler faces the winner of the 8/9 seed. Also of interest, the average age of the two men facing the Brawlnagel twins in the first round of the OTT is 32½. Both of the baddies have been Greco mainstays for years. If my calculations are correct, Danny and Zac were in sixth or seventh grade when Ben Provisor and RaVaughn Perkins were wrestling in Senior Greco National tournaments. Was a year enough training for the young guns to unseat the greybeards?

It costed me $5.99 plus tax. Seems like a fair price for a month. Supposedly, I can cancel any time. On top of that, there are movies and tv shows. I haven't seen Oppenheimer, so that's a good deal, but my goodness, there's a lot of trash. The Dog Who Saved Halloween? This website needs a font to show when you're dead-*******-serious. I'm serious, The Dog Who Saved Halloween. Is that why are brains are all mush? I will certainly cancel the service within a month. In any event, I wanted to ask this question: Does anybody know when brackets come out? I heard it was today, but that narrows things down to the next 16 hours or so, and I want to get to work on a Moneyball post. If you know, but don't want to say in public, please send me a direct message. Cheers!