A lot of the “visibly injured” guys ARE the ones that wrestled shorter seasons though. I was actually thinking that this tournament seems to be evidence of the benefit of testing yourself throughout the season. Many of the guys that did not make the finals or did not look great were the guys that sat out for extended periods or for key matches (yes some had legit injuries): Ferrari, Alirez, Figueroa, Shapiro, Teemer some notable examples
The only finalists that wrestled less than 22 matches prior to the tournament are O’Toole (20) and Steveson (18). And of the rest, only Byrd (23), Ayala (22), and Henson (22) had less than 25. 6 finalists had 28+ matches coming in including both finalists at 141 (both of them over 30) and 157 + Spratley and Keckeisen.