CHROMEBIRD

Any numbers being reported? I would expect more additions to the card, and maybe some drops, after WTT once the team is set. I still question the timing of this event with Worlds. I guess it's just one match, but for anyone who is actually doing this event and competing at Worlds, idk how hard they'll go, or how the 8 weight classes will shake out. I also wonder if Hulk Hogan will try to be the face of this event, or if he and the other promoters will let the wrestlers on the card shine. He's a bit of a polarizing figure even within the wrestling/pro wrestling community, and perhaps a liability to the league's stakeholders.

I feel like there's an opportunity in pro wrestling for a mouthy edgelord heel. He'd do well in that character

Maybe a more important question for you is, why do you care? For most of us here, it probably doesn't matter if someone categorizes wrestling a martial art, or a sport, or a lifestyle, or a challenge or what; just that we have gotten or continue to get what we and others want from it. What are you trying to get out of wrestling? From this and your other TLDR post, it sounds like you decided to give wrestling a try but have doubts that it will prepare you for MMA. Or that it doesn't teach you self-defense skills. Or that you think it relies too much on strength & endurance rather than technique. Or something else, I don't know, it's hard to tell if you're earnestly asking or just philosophizing, or if you're one of Jimmy's alts trolling us. But try taking a step back and thinking about what you want out of wrestling, then ask us specifically how wrestling can or cannot help you get there. You'll likely get more thoughtful and useful responses.

It does sound like he's settled in Missouri, but a lot of us thought Taylor and his family would be a fixture in State College. Folks in Wisconsin should get in his ear. MM too, when the time comes.

Why not become a full-time analyst/podcaster/influencer? He's much better at yapping than he is at taking a hit.

I thought missing weight wasn't totally uncommon in the UFC. Not saying that it happens everyday, but outside of title fights I thought if a fighter misses weight they can request a catchweight match for a lesser portion of the purse... which is kind of a BS move if you're atrophied and sucked down and on weigh-in day your opponent is like oops, sorry, I'm over but let's fight anyway? I'll also take the "soft" NCAA weight cutting protocol if it means avoiding some insane looking Cris Cyborg situations. That's an extreme example for sure, but a lot of people either don't know how to cut weight or will do it in a very reckless way if given the option.

Yeah, liver shot

Mickey knew what was up

I understand the individual words you are saying, but not when they're put together in a sentence like that

Yeah, folks on here have speculated that some programs will get around the roster cap via clubs/RTC. And while fully funding 30 schollies is a nice idea, donors wouldn't do that because there are alternatives that would likely produce better returns, like donating to the RTC, funding new facilities & equipment (and maybe having your name attached to it on a plaque, which a lot of donors dig), or giving elite guys outside NIL deals to keep them on the roster. None of this applies to Iowa ofc, because we're obviously

I didn't think the NCAA still started the 5in4 eligibility clock for international transfers or even NAIA or CC kids anymore. Like there are Euro bball players who get 4 years of eligibility when they transfer here. Maybe they weren't full time at their old unis though, idk.

I'm pretty sure we could solve the global energy crisis with 100 Mesenbrinks

Maybe Cael only filed for a one year student visa? There's already a bit of a logjam and a roster cap, and it's not like Ono could hit the transfer portal if things don't work out.

UWW has him listed at 57kg. I thought for sure RBY would be competing at 61 and maybe growing into a 65er, if not sucking back down much later in this quad before the Olympics. UWW also has Lugo listed at 57 for the US. Is he Spencer's trainign partner?

Spencer could win it on raw strength and horsepower alone. I just don't think Lilledahl will be able to handle it. Will he have learned anything from Spencer's exhibition match with Ono? Because I expect it to play out the way Nico's match against Spencer did last year(?). IIRC, Mega got in on some clean shots/counter shots but couldn't finish anything.

Not Huck Hogan

In college, I believe there's an ongoing lawsuit between BLAF and the University of Florida football player, whose name slips my mind atm, who signed away a 15% cut of his pretax pro football earnings, including signing and incentive bonuses, for the next 25 years. He plays for the Chicago Bears now. Anyway, he sued BLAF because he didn't have any support or representation and just saw the upfront $$$ and signed without fulling realizing what he was getting himself into. Nilly is another agency that gives college athletes money upfront but I think they take a % of players' total promotion & sponsorship deals (rather than pro salary) for a fixed period of time.

Best option might be to earmark or donate directly to the wrestling program, as long as it doesn't take away from what the department allocates for wrestling. My guess is that once the dust settles, there won't be much of a difference between giving to the athletic dept vs. an NIL collective, as there's speculation that they'll all fall under one umbrella or that collectives will go away altogether.

I wonder what the weight classes will be with 8 weights for men and 4 for women. Zahid and Kennedy Blades are in (also Askren) but the event is scheduled less than 2 weeks before Worlds and a week before U20s, so the timing may be a little weird for a big debut

Yeah, I've heard that there's questions around whether market value will be determined by city/region, conference, age, or any number of factors; or maybe it'll be some sort of cumbersome weighted algorithm. I believe the intent of the clearinghouse though is to provide a centralized repository where anonymized data can be aggregated and eventually give revenue athletes and coaches a better idea of their worth. For big sports it's about bringing players back down to earth on their actual value (e.g., the basketball player who told Kelvin Sampson it'll cost him at least $2.5M to play for him), and it's making sure that non-revenue athletes get paid what they're worth. Since now we have PE, VC, hedge funds, and other institutional money getting involved I wonder if could one day create offerings with financial instruments or some other illiquid asset that circumvents the $600 limit.

Wrestling will still be an equivalency sport, and under the proposed rule programs can offer anywhere between zero and a full scholarship to athletes who make the roster cap. So, a school could hypothetically distribute zero scholarships across the board, or 30 full scholarships to the wrestling team, or anywhere in-between (like .20 scholarship to one guy, .90 to another, etc. like it is today). For some reason, a lot of folks assume that the roster cap system will be better than the 9.9 scholarship limit we have now because hypothetically everyone can get paid. But there's a huge difference between can and will. Take the $21M salary cap, allocate 75% to football, 20% to mbb & wbb, 3% to baseball, and then divide the remaining 2% (around $420K) across all the remaining sports in a program's portfolio. Say the AD divides it unequally among those sports and wrestling gets a generous 10% of that amount. That's still only $42K of scholarship money to distribute. It seems far more likely that the wrestling team will get less than the value of 9.9 scholarships under the new system. Of course, this doesn't include padding athlete compensation with NIL, but that's not what we're talking about here.

Pyles had it right, but was coming from the wrong angle. Dake lost in part because of the difference in size, but it wasn't the size difference with Valencia; it was the size difference with himself. I still chalk this one up to Dake adjusting to the weight. We thought Taylor looked like *I poop my pants, don't laugh at me* right after he moved up to 86, and even Sadz took a minute to adjust after bumping up. Dake may not be our rep this year, but he'll be our guy at 86 by the end of this Olympic cycle, bye-to-the-finals bitching be damned.

It would be pretty funny if somewhere out there there's a guy named Messenbrick who looks like this and is feeling all kinds of disrespected

If you think Dake's a huge complainer on the mat now, just wait until he's in a corner with bricks to throw

Sorry, wrong PSU guy. (facepalm)I meant Starocci