GrandOlm

Went back and saw some of Taz's matches. He does sometimes muscle-athleticism his way to some scores, but there is artistry to his game. Impressed that Baranowski wrestled him that tough. Never managed to score, but you could tell that he's still a high level grappler and a formidable human. Poland might not even have a 1,000 active wrestlers across all age groups. For them to produce a 97 kg wrestler like that and have a couple of other quality guys is commendable in an age of America, Dagestan and the likes.

This whole episode has got me thinking about perspectives. There's a lot of happiness that Ben had a successful lung transplant, but it also mean that some unknown person definitely died (probably young and probably tragically).

His takes that irk me the most are his unabashed prisoner of the moment stands (his job is to be a hype man so that colors his views) and his general refusal to acknowledge most of wrestling before the 2000s.

Didn't see the matches but from the score lines it looks like Taz wiped the floor with the field. That Hushtyn guy he beat is actually one of Sadulaev's bad matchups. He's wrestled Sad close a number of times and has scored wrestling moves on him on multiple occasions. Not that it really matters, but just a tid bit. I'm a little surprised that people like Baran are still wrestling, and that he hasn't retired yet. There is a slim chance that a 36 year old him will win an Olympic medal. Maybe it's just the economic situation has been improved

It will be interesting to here what his thoughts are on that it appears that it was hobby and lifelong passion that nearly took his life ( a staph infection from grappling?). These moments can radically change people, I'd like to hear what Ben thinks about this whole thing once he's stronger and collected his thoughts.

The Ghasempour comparisons that they're bringing up are not valid. Ghasempour can wrestle at another weight class like 92 kg at worlds. Even for the olympics, he has the option of trying out 86 or 97 kg. So it's not like it's one guy stopping him. Masoumi is 6 ft 6. There is no other weight he can make. You know who is a good comparison, Yasmani Acosta. He could have stayed put and not had a career behind Lopez and Oscar. Acosta transferred and now he's an Olympic Silver and World Bronze medalist.

Yousefi is puzzling. He destroyed Semenov. The same Semenov who is winning major silverware and having a wonderful career, while Yousefi rots on the bench.

Why would he do that? The competition so much fiercer at 97. 86 might be better than the good old Punia and Amine days, but it's still a weak weight. A 5 ft 11 man can't make 190 lbs anymore after years of weighing that much? Nonsense.

Geno is better than Mesh. Geno is not retired yet, as far as I'm aware. Though he might be retired by the time Masoumi is eligible to compete post transfer. Gable is also better than Mesh, but he's not an active wrestler for now. I don't think we know where Hendrickson stands yet. Yes he pulled off a nail biter of a major upset in another ruleset. But he also just gave up a million points to someone who wouldn't have medaled at worlds. For all we know, he might not be able to beat someone like Deng.

The extreme weight loss has made him look younger since his face was so puffy and wrinkly before. Blond fro is gone, he looks like a man who time traveled from a bygone decade ( a Seinfeld set or even the 70s). He is very weak. Hopefully the worst is past him.

Masoumi should look out for himself. This system's backwards way of selecting wrestlers has chased many great competitors out of the sport. No one is going to remember his loyalty when he's 36 and retired with no world level medals. It's the Zare's who will get cushy jobs and respect. Unless they are paying him a handsome amount that will leave him set for life, I'd take the 3 year hit. Wait it out and go win world and olympic medals. Even if you never beat Zare, don't waste away your entire career.

Yes Mphillips and Bntwg, Kyle Dake alone equaled Japan's production over 30 years. But it's just Russia, promise.

Mediocre at the world level. Roughly meaning outside medal threats to two rounders that don't get blown out by some other medalists. Also on aggregate meaning only rarely producing a world champion over extended periods of time. I consider 97 kg to be a heavy weight. I think of 85+ kg to be a heavy weight. Japan has won like 2 gold medals over 30 years at the 70 kgs (middle weights). If they start winning world golds or even consistently winning medals of other colors at those weights, I'd consider that they evolved past what they were. I don't see it yet.

Japan's historical profile has been good lightweights, mediocre middle weights, bad heavyweights. And they still haven't broken that mold as of yet. It's why I think of them as like a tier 1.5 island. They are better than your Turkeys and Georgias, but not as good as the countries that have strong squads top to bottom like Russia, US, or now Iran. Being bad a heavier weights is not unique to wrestling for Japan. In judo they've had no answer to Teddy Riner who has run rampant and broken all the records at super heavy. In sumo, Mongolians have dominated the sport and the last great champion who was ethnically Japanese retired all the way back in 2003. Their big star in boxing right now is a light weight etc...

The only other countries that are sufficiently strong and complex enough to make a foreigners time worthwhile would be Iran, Russia, and Japan. I don't think any of these countries have an end all be all team trial. Russia has the most straight forward process. They have a tournament called the Russian Nationals (it's a direct descendant of the Soviet National Championships) where citizens from the country compete under the flag of their province (multiple entrants per province are aloud). If you win that tournament you are either the world/olympic rep or if there is a highly decorated athlete in that weight class who did not win/participate, they'll have them wrestle off with the winner of the Russian Nationals. It's important to note that Russian wrestling is dominated by two ethnic minorities, an Iranic speaking people called Ossetians and the muslim ethnic groups that live around Dagestan (Dagestani is not an ethnicity). Flo would invite a Slavic Russian wrestler from St Petersburg to try to get inside scoops on the Russian scene and it ended up not working at all because he was as much of a stranger to these two communities as Christian Pyles was. He wasn't imbedded in either the Ossetian or Dagestan scenes, so he had no interesting information to give. Iran does not have a formal process. Whoever is in charge of the national team picks the team, and whatever process he does or does not want comes up on the fly. It will be something like they'll send 3 tough guys from 125 kg to this ranking series and its understood that if someone from Iran wins it they get the spot. They do have a domestic wrestling wrestling scene. From what I've seen it's like European in soccer in that there are clubs and they can buy and sell wrestlers for their club team. So Zara and Yazdanis have clubs that they represent. I don't know how often the top world teamer Iranians actually wrestle in this club system and it features a lot of lower level competitors. The club season exists independently from what happens in international wrestling. Oh and most of their wrestlers come from a province called Mazandaran. Japan's I know the least about. I think their wrestling is based around Universities (not that it's like American College wrestling, just that Unis are the entity which provides them the framework for training and being a team). They have a tournament called the Emperor's Cup which is involved with how they pick their team. I don't remember what their other tournaments are called but I think they have one or two other big ones. I also am not exactly sure how they chose the team. I remember reading something like if you win X and the Emperors cup you're guaranteed the spot. So for watching, the easiest place to start with is youtube. Typing in Russian Nationals in Cyrillic or trying to find the federations channels. If you can't find the whole, you might find clips. Twitter might be good to check out, both English speaking and local language. Wrestling is still very much niche in Russian and Japan, so even for native speakers it's not the easiest thing to get into.

I'm surprised by them asking for donations. The Askrens are a wealthy family. Ben has been involved with bitcoin, he's the partial owner AWA and I believe has 3 gyms that he directly owns, plus all the money he has made in the entertainment industry (mma, boxing).

So how long can they keep him like this? He's been sedated for like a month now.

There is and was "professional wrestling" in the USA. That it evolved into scripted theatrics like the modern WWE isn't just a coincidence and offers valuable insights. I think the main challenge would be to somehow win over college wrestling fans. I think wrestling lacks the knockout that boxing and mma have. Pinning or throwing someone isn't the same. Scoring points especially isn't. I don't think there's that much crossover or potential with those fanbases (the singlet doesn't help either).

I think it's pretty standard in a globalized world to try to learn from the best practitioners in whatever field you're in. They are unlikely to ever face each other for real and Snyder isn't Sadulaev's main obstacle anymore, as far as we can tell.

At the risk of sounding like a one note age determinist, the probability tables for Greco as you age are even worse than freestyle at the light and middle weights. It's only super heavyweights who can go into their early 40s (Roshcilin, Lopez), but they're almost practicing a different sport from the lighter weight classes. Light weight greco is an utter grind. So destructive on the body. It's not uncommon for a guy to have one olympic cycle in him before he gets to damaged to be champion level. Middleweights are like a milder version of that. I took a quick glance at the most successful light and middle weights and I think the oldest one was 32 when he medaled gold. Americans tend to be on the older side when they first medal because they have to take a decade to catch up and learn the style. Dake doesn't have that time. He'll have an easier go at making the world team. But I don't see him doing well at the world level. 77kg is young mans weight class with Nao Kusaka (who emerged as the nr1 and is 24 years old) plus Akzhol (who might be past his prime already). Russia will have a hungry guy at 77 kg. At 87 kg he'll be undersized and have to beat much naturally bigger and younger men like Bisultanov, Losnoczi, Komarov, Takacs. 6 ft+ men who walk around at over 200 lbs.

It looks like his page on wikipedia has a typo https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Campbell_(wrestler). I have seen mistakes from them before, but they usually get things like this right. I looked at UWWs database and it lists it as 82 kg, so that's probably correct. I guess he is an example of a middleweight turned heavyweight who aged gracefully. Though his is still not what Kyle wants.

Campbell was a career heavyweight though (and even he only managed a bronze). He won gold at 1981 worlds at 90 kg and then the bronze in 1992 at 90 kg as well. The general aging progressions for Freestyle are Lightweights start declining in their late 20s, Middleweights in their early 30s, and Heavyweights in their mid 30s. There are exceptions, but that's the general trend. Dake is a natural middleweight who aged out of 74 kg (just like Boroughs) and is now trying to force 86 kg to work because he can't stand the cut and has lost a step or two.

Dake is old. He is older than Saitiev was when he retired. But he wants that olympic gold, the holy grail of wrestling, to complete his career. Dake made the calculation that a 37 year old him will have a better chance winning at 86 kg than 74. He's probably right, but I don't think he'll win at 86 kg either. He choked at the Paris olympics. That was his chance. I think he'll just have to be content as one of the many great wrestlers who never won the olympics. The sport may force him out soon.

Really? Who is there besides Zare that's really good? Akgul retired, Geno is taking the year off, and Massoumi can't make a team or get his transfer approved. Who's left from the actual field? Big boring Monkhtor and grandpa Deng? Russia is mediocre at 125 kg, they don't have anyone good. Heavyweight is not looking strong.

Yasmani Acosta transfered. He is now an Olympics Silver medalist and a World Bronze medalist. No one would know his name if he stayed in Cuba. He probably secured a nice pension with that Silver medal. If wrestling has this silly structure, that the theoretical second best in the world can't compete, then it's not the athletes who are the problem.