BAC

That Ortiz/Sonnen thing was painful to watch. I like the idea pulling in the MMA stars to help cross-sell with that fan base, but I don't think there's anyone out there that wants to see Sonnen and Ortiz on the mat again. Even putting Ortiz on the mic seems like a mistake, as it makes the whole event look unserious -- especially to MMA fans, who know Ortiz was put to pasture by the UFC over a decade ago.

Maybe not, but I'm not sure I see Mendez beating Blaze either.

Stanich beat Bassett 3 times, who beat Bartlett, who beat Mendez 2x. Fun with the transitive property!

I don't. I think we're reading too much into a single match, in Stanich's first tournament after jumping two weights. Given all his other results, it's far more likely that the lopsided Mendez score was an outlier. I think he's really matured into the weight physically. I'd probably still pick Mendez, but I think it'd be more like his matches against Bartlett and Hardy.

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.