The closest thing to RAF would be Real Pro Wrestling back in 2005. RAF is successful because they are doing everything exactly opposite of what RPW did.
I’m grateful RAF got rid of challenge bricks. I wish UWW would, too. Video replay has ruined sports other than MLB’s pitch challenge which adds entertainment and comic relief to a mostly boring sport.
I’m joking for it being why… well, it could be. But, no, it was just a high school tournament. Jake Plamann was a Greco guy who never did a whole lot in folkstyle (except beat Askren). He wrestled at the USOEC at NMU after high school.
How dare you call someone who self-identifies as autistic a dummy!
https://www.forbes.com/sites/brianmazique/2026/07/15/ben-askren-opens-up-about-autism-spectrum-traits-says-hes-never-been-formally-diagnosed/
He’d have more fun if he’d adopt a a pro wrestler schtick for next season like Hokit did with The Incredible Hok… Nevermind, he’d probably do The Undertaker and be all dark and emo.
… pretty sure calling them “complimentary” is so when he doesn’t actually follow through with the calls, you can’t ask for a refund… they were “free”… then again, I might be overestimating his shrewdness.
Why is folkstyle even being discussed? It’s an American-only, children’s style of wrestling. It stops existing for everyone at age 23, before one’s prime, except for those who want to live out their high school glory days rolling around with out of shape dads at old timers tournaments.
There was no money in folkstyle up until a few years ago… and if it’s about money, you’re making a good point for getting rid of folkstyle altogether. It’s a dead end outside of coaching the next generation to a dead end.
Most NCAA finalists have a near-zero chance of making a FS world team, so why don’t they just show up to the greco open and walk through it to a world team, if they are as superior of athletes/wrestlers as you’re contending?
I naively thought Cejudo backed off and was going to carry Merab for another period or so after he knew he could win whenever he wanted… then shit went off the rails.
Wrestling Merab looks miserable… He reminds me of a spazzy, super strong, athletic junior high kid who got talked into going out for wrestling mid-season after he watched a few meets.
That was my first thought… he had a preexisting injury. Knees are weird, so it’s hard to say, “It didn’t look like anything happened to cause too bad of an injury.”
Then you have Jax…
This popped up on the Twitter feed today, and the next post in the feed was coincidentally a video of Snyder giving an interview… I couldn’t help but start cracking up.