CHROMEBIRD

I feel like there's already a lot of excuses for Sadz before this hypothetical, which diminishes the excitement of the match to an extent... He's old, he hasn't looked like himself lately, he's distracted with Russian military stuff, etc. etc. Don't get me wrong, it'll be an extremely hyped matchup if it happens, just too bad it didn't take place 4 years ago when both guys were firmly atop their respective mountains.

That's 1% better than someone flunking outta school there

Right, get some floor seating in there. It looks bizarre with that setback, assuming that the rendering is to scale. They could even push the two rows of mats a little closer together to accommodate more seating

I wonder if Vegas could be enticed to host Nationals. There's a lot going on in LV at that time of the year with basketball and conventions and what not, but USAW has had several events there. Not sure if there's enough space for NCAAs though.

Paralympics ended less than a month ago, and NBC has been promoting the OGs and PGs as a bundle, so I guess the content is still somewhat "new"

Age cheating is weird. I get that Russian wrestling is so deep that they may have to resort to age cheating to give good wrestlers a chance to compete at a younger division at Cadets/Juniors/Uxx, but I would expect it to slow down development of legit age level Russians or even increase attrition. Intuitively, you'd eventually see this catch up to them when they can no longer age cheat but we don't really see them getting owned by other countries at the Senior level.

It would be pretty wild if D1 wrestling grew out West because of AJ Ferrari, but I'd love to see it happen.

Agreed. My hypothesis is that most wrestling fans will travel-in to whatever city Nationals is held at anyway. Drawing local interest and exposing non-fans to college wrestling's biggest event would then be gravy and good for the sport. I'm all for seeing NCAAs in the South, West, PNW as long as there's a suitable venue and incentives for the cities to submit a proposal to host the event. Imo, fanbase and location are big challenges in planning NCAAs, but the biggest hurdle is that wrestling is essentially an individual-based championship tournament across 10 weight classes, and many wrestlers managing their weight for multiple consecutive days. I love love love the individual tournament as it is, but must admit that a dual-based championship format would offer much more flexibility with the format, scheduling, and location/venues for Nationals. For example, under a dual championship format we could have geographically-dispersed group stages that go into a knockout round like soccer, or have "regional" early rounds or pods across the country, like basketball or the CWS, with the finals in an arena that can host a dual championship. That would be dope as hell, but I have a tough time imagining it working in an individual championship format.

Thanks. That would make more sense. It was a hell of a visual seeing them standing side by side!

That's a good idea. I saw the video @CowboyYe2024 posted above and was like "THAT'S his training partner??" No disrespect to Jake Andrews (at least I think that was Jake Andrews), but the optics were jarring, so say the least. Maybe the staff could bring in some freestyle or international guys now that school has started. Also: Andrews is listed as 6'4" on the CSUB roster and after seeing that video... I don't think so. Isn't Ferrari around 5'11"-6'?

Yeah, I think StL is almost a tradition by now. There are many on this board who could probably book travel to Nationals and get around to their go-to spots in their sleep.

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Iowa campus on Halloween weekend should be lively and fun. PSU just before election day could be wild, but BB's probably used to it by now as a Pennsylvanian. Plus tOSU will be in town for football. Okie State might be a little dull the weekend before Thanksgiving, with midterms and everyone getting ready to leave town. But he'll get to experience a home dual at Gallagher, and the turnout will probably be good. Probably none of this matters, just fun to think about.

Is the pricing cheaper this year than usual since it's Small Worlds? I was wondering about that.

I assume they want to monetize the long tail. People had the same complaint about Flo. Flo used to put all of its videos behind a paywall for a couple of weeks, then release them later on YouTube as "free" (YouTube vids are still monetized, but it doesn't cost the viewer anything) content. BTN was also did the same, I think now they just release select matches onto YouTube. Although BTN usually releases their videos in a day or two rather than weeks.

I assume the T in TMS now stands for Thicc. Whoa!

That sounds dope as hell, but def check the news before heading to Italy. I was there last month and got out just before Storm Boris brought flooding and landslides

I thought exactly the same and thought it was a tech there. Also Sadz didn't seem to be rusty or gassing hard, more like he was on cruise control. It looked like he was wrestling at practice, not really taking the match seriously and doing just enough to get the W. Weird to see.

Smart way to keep AJ out of trouble. Just put a mirror in front of him. According to legend, he's still posing and admiring himself.

When people say Marinelli turned the team around, maybe they mean Moriah? Joking aside, he wrestled at a really deep and tough weight. I seem to remember his senior year bracket being especially brutal. Wasn't his recruitment was kind of a big deal at the time as well?

This is awesome. Thanks for pulling it together. Will it be updated moving forward with future tournament records, or is it more of a snapshot in time? Also hell of a run that Ol' Johnnie had from '86 until retirement. Went 168-5 (161-3 going into his last Olympic run). Pretty mind blowing to see Dave Schultz's numbers, too. He was closing in on 500 wins + 600 career matches at the Senior level. By comparison, JB and Adeline, two of our most accomplished current wrestlers (and who many think have aged out of the sport) have about half the matches he had.

Looks like Mizzou is going. If not, isn't PSU hosting the All-Star Classic in November? That's another possible opportunity

Can Mes make 157? I seem to recall talk last season that he should have gone 157 and Haines 165, as they would both be closer to their natural weights. But maybe I'm misremembering.

Yeah, I'm digging this Weird Nicky phase. I honestly can't tell if it's earnest or satire but I'm here for it

JB isn't defined by his blast double. I'd say it's more his longevity and ability to adjust his strategy and style as he got older.