Eagle26

Interesting that looking at the individual rankings, there wasn’t a single upset in the individual matches, but the dual overall was a big upset

Good point. I don’t think we need a 6 week break for final X (we used to do it the next day). I don’t want to go back to that but I think we could do a two week break. So we could do WTT Olympic weights mid May, two weeks later Final X Olympic weights, two weeks after that WTT non-Olympic weights, and two after that Final X non-Olympic weights. You would finish in the same six week time period. I’m sure there’s other issues we haven’t thought of but it could probably be done if we wanted to.

I like the idea… where does US open fit in though? I wouldn’t think we need them done that early so I’d be ok pushing things back a bit if we need to

Olympic weights WTT should be a week or more before the other weights. Then allow the losers from Olympic weights to challenge at the other weights. That would give us our best team and we’d get to see some interesting matchups. I like Zahid at 92 but don’t think he’s going to give up on his Olympic dream at 86.

Taking a page out of Cinnabon’s book?

I thought you were including college in this… I meant if someone went undefeated with 4 ncaa titles a la Cael Sanderson, they would be pretty well off.

Well, Steve Fraser has made his living through the sport and many of us remember his name almost 40 years later. An Olympic gold medal means a lot in this country even in obscure sports that never get any publicity for the rest of the four years (Greco is one of many such sports). I do agree that it’s a bit of an exaggeration to say it’s worth more than going undefeated through all of amateur wrestling though. I’m sure if someone did that, they would be pretty well off too.

I think Dean wins this first one, but I’m sticking to the prediction I made on the old forum… Beard pins Dean in the NCAA finals a la Bubba Jenkins vs DT

I’m sure anyone would rather be an Olympic gold medalists as that is the height of the sport. Now, Olympic bronze or silver vs 4x NCAA champ could be a debate… I’m not sure where I’d fall on that one. FWIW, I don’t think Spencer is putting his 4 NCAA titles above his dream of Olympic gold. I think he believes he can do both and that competing in a limited folkstyle schedule won’t hurt him. The plan could work, but unfortunately he keeps running into more injuries so who knows. Also, I think his desire to return to the collegiate mat is more for his team than it is for his personal glory.

Well, there were multiple people saying that the hype around that bracket was overblown. But yeah, it is not what the OP is talking about so we should stay on topic. And it appears to be a really good topic… I’m seeing lots of stuff thrown out here, but it seems only one other example of 3 PRIOR national champs in one bracket was the one mentioned from 1982. I would’ve thought it happened more often than that but I can’t think of any off the top of my head. So it’s a pretty historic weight class this year.

Re the 2008 149 weight class… I understand that it doesn’t really make sense to count future accomplishments. However, it can be a useful tool to see the talent that was there. Only one person can win per year so even if there was national champ caliber talent, they may not have had the previous accomplishments to show it. Examples would be Bubba Jenkins wrestled up at 157 the previous year and DNP but it was easy to see his talent that year. Same with Caldwell, he DNP at 141 the previous year losing a crazy match to Lang and then pinnned by Jaggers in the consis. Plus we all know JB’s rate of improvement was incredible and was clearly National champ caliber in 2008 despite what he did in 2007. If you want to say that Caldwell, Jenkins, and Burroughs had no previous accomplishments so they don’t add to the depth of that weight, that’s a little crazy. Re current 165, that’s pretty awesome we have three previous NCAA champs in the same weight. Is that really the first time it’s happened since 1982?! If so, that’s really impressive

Geno Petriashvili

This forum is better already

Well, I really thought about just riding off into the sunset, but I checked this out and it felt like home! Even though I don’t contribute as much as others, I read a lot and I feel like I know you guys so I couldn’t just walk away lol.