SocraTease

It's clear your trajectory has been a humorless one since you cannot detect even the most unsubtle language of jesting. Want to compare your career with mine? I'm a tenured faculty member in two departments at a major research university with lots of influential publications. How about you?

What is the vision and final destination for the combat life of a wandering road warrior like Gable S.? Something like Hunger Games meets Mad Max meets Squid Games? A post-apocalyptic wasteland where the marginalized are forced to compete in sadistic, state-sponsored survival games for the amusement of a tyrannical water-hoarding elite?

I'm sensing a trajectory to Steveson's oeuvre. Next up: Rollerball.

No talk of injury, yes? He dominated his first match, right? Leading up to Worlds, he was solid at Final X and previous matches, correct? He was coming off an Olympic Silver, and the finals there was relatively close, if I recall. So consternation is warranted. Sometimes, there are just bad matchups. Or one isn't mentally in the game against an opponent. Or things start off poorly, and seem to go downhill. Look at what happened to Simone Biles. She just lost it for a while. Or the Japanese tennis player. Very elite baseball players sometimes can't buy a hit or get a throw to first. Or, closer to home, Dake and Borroughs getting smashed once ... at the Olympics (was it?). Who knows? Maybe Lee will share something. Maybe not. More importantly, I think, is how he responds the next few times out. I bet most of us who have wrestled or competed in sports at a serious level have a head-scratching loss or two

Who are some of the other big (or at least known) names (to most American fans anyway) who weren't (aren't) there at Worlds this year? Yazdani, Chamizo, Sadulaev (visa issues), Musukaev, Petriashvilli, Dake (lost domestically), Burroughs (lost domestically), Akgul, Micic, Ono (at Penn State), Arujau (lost domestically), Salkazanov, Taylor (retired), Cox (retired), Myles Amine Perhaps some of these faded into the sunset .... ? Or a changing of the guard? Updates on any of these guys?

He lost to Iranian (3-2 I think) to the Iranian, who Snyder will see in the finals. The Iranian put a lot of pressure on him, as Iranians are wont to do with underhooks and pushouts.

The "Democratic" People's Republic of Korea. What a joke. . The regime is a hereditary dictatorship that severely represses its people, and its practices stand in direct opposition to the concepts of democracy and human rights.

Why the hell didn't Carr get 2 for the apparent TD out of bounds? Why didn't Metcalf challenge that? And what kind of "fleeing the mat" was that? (It looked like a normal 1 point push out) So many questions, so little time (left)

Everyone else may need to go down (Dake) or up in weight (Hidlay, Starocci, Marsteller, McCenelly) after Zahid's dominance ... though they might not do so

Are brackets available tomorrow (Friday), which I guess it technically is now in Croatia (and even on the East coast of the US) ... or do they keep us in the dark until closer to weigh-ins? Anyone have a sense (or recollection) about this?

He looks, well, scruffier, which works. But clearly he is not wrestling freestyle right now or he would be sporting a more full beard. It seems to be de rigueur, especially internationally. Hmm. Why is that?

DT vs. Cael

Seems to conflict with this messaging and advertising. Oh, the contradictions:

Yianni is 2-0 against Bajrang

I think he was Olympic Bronze. Also has three Bronze medals at Worlds and one Silver