BAC

This mirrors my thoughts exactly. People forget how awful we were internationally when Burroughs came around. The prior year, we came away with zero medals at worlds. No one was staying for more than a single Olympic cycle. Jordan's success, blended with his longevity, really paved the way for one of our strongest freestyles era ever, with the guys you mentioned plus a couple others. But as much as I enjoyed it, it was hard to miss the lack of depth... the fact that apart from 5-6 guys, there was no "next man up" who was going to be able to replicate that success. But I agree we're now, belatedly, advancing that next wave. And, while we may not have half-dozen future 3-4x world champs, we have depth. There's at least 2-3 guys at every weight where you can say, "Yeah I can totally see that guy medaling at Sr. worlds," and that's a new development for the US.

Ohio accounted for 3 of the 61kg wrestlers: Blaze (US/Perrysburg), Brown (Canada/St. Eds), Ayoub (Puerto Rico/Dublin Coffman). Looked like the Ohio state tournament out there.

I'd pick the 2001 bracket by good margin. You've got 3 NCAA champs in there, plus two of the best of all time to never win a title, Snyder and Roller. Especially Snyder. Even the 7th/8th finishers were absolute monsters.

I'm sorry, but I'm having a hard time seeing how this is going to work. The main problem is that it's just freestyle. Don't get me wrong -- I love freestyle. No other sport I'd rather watch. But the truth is, the bleachers are pretty empty even in nationals and WTTs. It's a small community, not particularly moneyed, and it's hard enough to get them to come out when there's actually something on the line. We know the typical attendance figures for freestyle events, and we know they aren't financially viable. I just don't see the plan. It isn't that nothing's being done. I see the social media, I see the prize links to high school teams, the drawing for a free camp. That's nice. Maybe it bumps the attendance a bit. But even if it's on the above-average side of a typical freestyle event, that's still a long way from being financially viable. Forgive my rant, but: 1. Better Cross-Selling They could have tried to cross-sell it with another sport which similarly has a modest fan base -- e.g. BJJ, grappling, judo. Not seeing that. Even if it's just one or two match, these smaller sports can cross-sell. They'd also be wise to find a way to work with MMA on this, because otherwise, MMA will see them as competition. Maybe build in some advertising for them, and have some UFC people there. We can't portray ourselves as some sort of minor league for UFC, but the sports are symbiotic and both can play off that. Similarly, it sucks that Hulk passed, but I'd have thought they could cross-sell to the pro wrestling crowd too. Not my jam, but those guys fill huge arenas. Maybe they were trying, I don't know, but that's going to be a tough sell without a pro wrestling "face". They also could mix something else in the event which pulls out the non-wrestling crowd or at least wrestling fans' families or significant others -- e.g. some well-known performer at intermission, MMA celebrities, etc. Not seeing that either. The reason it's so important to attract an audience outside the typical freestyle crowd isn't just that the numbers are too low without them. It's sponsorships. Companies like Defense Soap and Rudis only have so much ad money to go around, and to be viable, you need to attract some of the bigger dogs. 2. Making the Event More Exciting If they're not going to do any of that stuff, then they really need to do something to amp up the excitement level in the wrestling itself. But I don't see that either. For example, build in mini events within the wrestling itself. A big prize if someone hits a 5 pointer, or a pin under a minute, or something that creates a huge incentive to do something wild. Something that totally changes the complexion of the match to see if anyone's going to pull it off. I'm not seeing that. They could shake it up by mixing up the rules to make it more offensive-action oriented or throw-oriented, or dramatically change the scoring, so it's constant attempts to score. (I made a separate post about that a while back.) Doesn't appear to be in the works. They also could mess with the scoring by giving guys a "handicap" like it's golf (e.g. spotting points to the underdog), so you can have more on-paper mismatches or bumping up weights. But everything I've heard so far is that it just isn't varying much from a standard freesyle dual that doesn't vary much from tradition. 3. Where's the "League"? The most frustrating thing to me is that what's billed as a "league" really just looks like a Flowrestling Night in America event. If you're gonna do a league, do a league. Have a draft, talk it up. Have the "teams" based in specific cities. Create an actual team, which develops actual fans, who actually follow said teams. Get creative about how team score is kept to keep it exciting. Get the smack talk going, get the interviews before and after going, have a process for trade, have a well-known coach for each team -- even if the coach(es) are crossover guys. Maybe have the coaches wrestle if the team score is tied. If this is too heavy a lift, maybe contract with the RTCs. Those are existing teams of freestyle athletes who have no one to compete against except themselves when not in international competition. Even better, if you do that, maybe doing a licensing deal with universities, you can tap into collegiate allegiances to build out your fan base. Why not link up with them? In fairness, my guess is that they know there's too small a demand to create an actual league right out of the gate, and they're doing this event more to whet the appetite and build a brand, sort of a "proof of concept." I agree that makes sense, as the fan base is too small as it is. But even if so, that should be made more clear, and the design of the event should serve as a buildup to that -- explicitly, and with some context for the vision, so it gets talked up. It's also all the more reason to really change things up and do something extraordinarily fan friendly and action-friendly, widening the audience while exciting the bases. 4. Unique matchups. What's more, even among existing fans of freestyle wrestling, you need to create a product that they want to see. For that, you need good matchups. Honestly, they're pretty lackluster. Several are decent, but it begs for a headliner. Get me a Gable vs. Snyder, or Spencer vs Jax, or Nickal versus an actual bear (OK maybe not), or AJ vs. Starocci, or Starocci vs. Bartlett (LOL), or Taylor vs. Dake part XVIII. Or go the generational route, putting in the top current guys against some top high school guys with huge social media followings. They've done some of this, pulling in Nickal and old-timers like Palmer and Caldwell. *** Bottom line is this: What I'm seeing is a lack of risk taking. The built-in audience is simply too small for this, so you need to do something more than just talk it up on twitter and having drawings, because even if that works you'll still fall short. A rehash of RPW or RWL is going to hit a wall real fast. Maybe they've got Elon Musk secretly bankrolling them for $500 million and so they're fine with taking a loss, so they can afford to make it an event for freestyle purists. But I suspect all they've really got it some decent seed money, which is going to dry up real fast if they can't present a viable vision with a path to profit.

Hmm. Seems inconsistent. Earlier you were saying that we don't need to convert folk into free since we just won Cadet free. By that logic (that changing folk rules depends on success in the international styles) I figured you were saying that since we got throttled in Cadet greco that must mean we ought to make folk more like greco. Seemed like solid logic to me.

So you're saying we should convert folkstyle to be more like Greco so we can make the Greco team better? Interesting thought.

The executive order is plainly unenforceable as impermissible executive legislation. Though directionally appropriate it's also ill considered and will serve only to inject added chaos to an already messy environment.

I agree it's a bad take by Pyles, but I can't get too upset. It's a fine line between stating the obvious (that Vito wasn't himself) and not giving due credit to the victor, and I think Pyles was just trying to make sure he wasn't disrespecting Jax. That's laudable, but here, he came off as denying the obvious.

It was hard to watch. After watching Vito slump off the mat in the first match, while Jax skipped off, the result of the second match seemed like a sure thing. It's been a while since I've seen a wrestler whose cardio was that bad. I don't want to judge since we all know Vito is coming off some sort of injury, but dang, I can't help but wonder if there was something else Vito could have done while he was getting wrestling-ready to keep his cardio up. Ride a bike, swimming, anything? Both matches his tank was empty at the 4 minute mark.

I've shuffled the rankings in my head of "who's the best P4P high schooler?" about 3-4 times the past 6 months, between Blaze, Jax and PJ. I wonder if I'll need to do it again after today. One thing's for sure -- the US has never had 3 current high schoolers who were as good as those three. And I doubt it ever will again.

Agree with this. If anything, it's a feather in Cornell's cap that they had 3 guys in Final X (including Dake), which is outstanding. Second only to PSU (with 4), right? What's more, each of these Cornell Final X'ers have world medals to their credit. Any recruit worth having is going to know full well how credentialed Vito, Yianni and Dake are, and that Cornell produced them. There's zero shame in losing to a high schooler when they beat everyone else too.

Some pretty crazy rankings in there. Here is the entirety of Luke Simcox's resume to be ranked #16 (per WrestlStat): #74 Navida, Elias (14 - 5) #17 North Carolina 02/23 Wildcat Open 141 W DEC 7 - 0 #154 Sly, Charlie (8 - 11) #61 Gardner-Webb 02/23 Wildcat Open 141 W FALL 6:28 #92 Reihner, Blake (10 - 7) #78 Davidson 02/23 Wildcat Open 141 W DEC 5 - 0 #65 Sherlock, Tyson (13 - 7) #78 Davidson 02/23 Wildcat Open 141 W FALL 1:57 #38 Basile, Braden (11 - 6) #25 Army West Point 01/04 Southern Scuffle 141 L MD 18 - 4 #154 Sly, Charlie (8 - 11) #61 Gardner-Webb 01/04 Southern Scuffle 141 W FALL 1:46 #68 Iamunno, Joey (14 - 13) #55 Brown 01/04 Southern Scuffle 141 W DEC 10 - 3 #77 Oswalt, Ian (17 - 7) #55 Brown 01/04 Southern Scuffle 141 L DEC 10 - 5 #151 Matthews, Devin (11 - 14) #65 LIU 01/04 Southern Scuffle 141 W DEC 6 - 1 #6 Frost, Jacob (28 - 9) #13 Iowa State 12/21 Iowa State - North Carolina Dual 141 L MD 10 - 1 #3 Wilson, Josh (D3) #101 Greensboro 11/25 Greensboro - North Carolina Dual 141 L DEC 4 - 1 In sum: Highest ranked win is vs. #65 (a back-up at Davidson), with losses to #6, 38, 77 and a D3 kid. I know it's all algorithm based but what kind for formula would make a computer say "yeah he's 16th"?

No one's saying that. But if he were ramping up for a competition, there's be a stronger inference of intent to cheat. Since he wasn't, the inference cuts the other way. The point is that the supplement was allegedly purchased *after* he was sick (according to his dad), and he didn't find out about the negative test result until *after* Final X had passed. It isn't dispositive, but that too cuts in favor if it being inadvertent. Um, OK. Whatever that means. Well, the problem here is we don't know exactly what he bought, or how that product lines up to his explanation. His dad says he was "looking at his doctor’s report and all the things he’s lacking in. And he went to get supplements to replenish whatever it is that needs to be replenished." If I'm the USADA, I want to see what the doctor's report says, and whether/how the product he bought replenishes that. Again, it isn't a defense, but it might tend to show it was bought more for healing purposes than competitive purposes. Conversely, some are claiming he bought supplements that are literally called "DHEA." But do we know that? His dad says he bought "a supplement, a natural, plant-based supplement," which doesn't quite track, unless he's referring to the soy/yam from which I understand DHEA can be synthesized. I guess we'll find out. If it was literally called "DHEA," that's some next-level stupid and you can't claim it was ingested accidentally (only that you didn't know it was banned). This we won't know until the report comes out, but don't see the point in definitively stringing him up without knowing the truth. What's the basis for tagging the "asshole" label on Brooks, besides his misfortune of having gone to a college that kicked everyone's butt? I could do without his Christian proselytizing too but he's entitled to his views and I'm entitled to mine. You may find his outward religiosity cringey but a-hole is a stretch.

That's actually what my first reaction was, except salary cap, not roster cap. By "salary cap," I mean that in a program that's dependent on just 1 or 2 major donors for NIL money, they only have so much money they can spend each year. That's the salary cap. If those funds get tied up in someone who isn't starting, it's that much less they can devote to some other recruit. To free that money up, the donor needs a valid reason to break the NIL contract -- and dismissal of the team is one such reason. Can't say that's what happened here, but since Arnold was already destined to ride the pine while still collecting Nicolls' NIL money, it would make some sense for Brands to seize on the first defensible reason they had to cut him loose, thus freeing up Nicolls' NIL money for some other recruit. Nicolls making his displeasure known on the Hawk boards may have accelerated that process.

DHEA is a hormone that your body naturally produces. I assume the supplements are a synthesized version but it's irrelevant -- the point is when you buy supplements, it's likely a non-FDA approved use, which means you need to be extra careful to check the ingredients. However made, DHEA is a steroid, full stop, so he's getting dinged for it -- rightly so. The only question is whether he intended to cheat. Here, there is zero evidence of it. The fact that he wasn't planning to compete anyway points the other way. (He didn't get his test results until WTTs were over.) Yet here you are, along with 90% of other "fans," celebrating the downfall of a world team member, accusing him of lying, and all but DEMANDING the USADA find him guilty of intending to cheat. Why? Because his alma mater kicked your favorite team's azz. That's all. Welcome to Team USA, home of the worst fans in the world.