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Candidates for top four: Burroughs- seven world level golds (including one Olympic gold), ten total medals (wrestled across rule changes, during the six weight classes era, had to fend off DT and Dake at home) Smith- six world level golds (including two Olympic golds) Snyder- six world level golds (including one Olympic gold), 11 total medals Bruce- five world level golds (including two Olympic golds), 13 total medals Dake- five world golds, eight total medals DT- four world level golds (including one Olympic gold), six total medals Kemp- three world golds (US boycotted 1980 Olympics), four total medals Gable- two world level golds (including one Olympic gold) Menhert- two Olympic golds

I may be off. I get it. But in freestyle Bassett just went through Valencia, Bartlett, McKenna, Woods (2x), and then won a world title in what is usually the deepest weight class (and where the US has struggled for decades). So I think Bassett at #1 P4P is a reasonable (but potentially wrong) projection. We’ll just have to see how it goes.

As far as I know, Bassett is only the fifth NCAA wrestler to compete as a reigning world or Olympic champ. (Uetake, Smith, Snyder, Steveson being the others.) That has to count for something.

In my view P4P lists are pretty worthless practically — especially pre-season lists — but it’s fun for fans. How do you see it? Here’s what I have… 1- Bassett- reigning world champ 2- MM- reigning Hodge winner 3- Jax 4- Barr 5- LL 6- Henson 7- McEnelly 8- Robideau 9- Vega 10- Duke

Team USA: Most total golds across all three styles; team champs in both men’s and women’s freestyle.

You can’t take the RBY haters seriously. They’re just PSU haters, and there’s no fixing that.

RBY is in the world finals. He obviously believes in himself.

Incredible. Let’s not forget Dake had to go through Zahid who blitzed the field last year. And to do it at 35 years old. Wow. He’s now a 5x world champ. That’s serious.

Is it possible to watch a wrestling match, be entertained, and be happy for whoever wins?

Traditionally the critique of American freestylers was that they had limited technical skills but huge gas tanks. Is this still the perception?

I think it’s a choice about allocating time. Do you go to international events during the college season? How much time do you spend on freestyle versus folkstyle? How much time do you need to rest and when do you rest? Etc. I obviously have no answers — but if you’re a world champ while in college, it seems like there are multiple avenues open.

Snyder’s now a six-time world-level champ (with 11 total world-level medals). Fantastic. He’s now top three is US history with JB and Smith. And he’s only 30. He’s now got a chance to equal or surpass JB’s seven golds.

UWW does not have to sell streaming rights at all, and if it does it can insist on specific contractual terms.

The young man is impressive and obviously has a lot of options. I wonder how he navigates college wrestling. Does he take the Snyder route of lighter college competition while keeping up with freestyle? Does he go all in on college? It’ll be interesting to see.

Too bad for people like me. If UWW can earn extra cash by allowing additional barriers in the US and allowing Flo to profit as a middleman, it makes sense from that angle. But I don’t see why UWW can’t require Flo to provide event-specific purchases. I’m not sure it would be much different from UWW’s perspective.

The USA’s had little luck at 65kg for almost 20 years (IIRC). But Bo got it done. Congrats!

The entire model of FloSports is to buy up streaming rights to niche sports (overlooked by other broadcasters) and then require yearlong subscriptions for access. It creates a huge barrier for casual fans and even for more interested fans. As applied to UWW Worlds, FloSports simply purchases the right broadcast UWW’s feed in the USA exclusively. So instead of being able to purchase access to Worlds with UWW+, Americans have to instead purchase a yearlong Flo subscription that makes no sense to most people. Honestly it’s too bad UWW even allows that type of thing.

Snyder right now has five world/Olympic golds. Another gold would give him six (and 11 medals overall). That would land him in the top three US wrestlers for sure (with Smith and Burroughs).

Let's have a single thread for discussion. This will help those of us without Flo to follow the action. (UWW+ allows people to purchase streams of specific competitions. My understanding is that Flo bought the rights to UWW streams in the US but requires a yearlong subscription for any access at all. I do not appreciate that.)

57- Han 61- Uguev 65- Amouzad 70- Ibragimov 74- Aoyagi 79- Kougioumtsidis 86- Kadiev 92- Hidlay 97- Tazhudinov 125- Zare

I really love what RAF has done: focused on entertainment, which is what money-making sports must do. It seems to me that there is a way to have a high-stakes competition while also having multiple entertaining “cards.” The National Duals could be changed into the following format: multiple cards in multiple locations over multiple weekends. Winners (judged by weight class and team) keep going, losers are out. Tournament scoring. The final card would hopefully look like an all-star meet. I have to assume ESPN would be interested in something like this. Is this just a mini NCAA tournament, but drawn out? Yes, but it’s also a great idea. Think about the NBA Cup. This is a golden opportunity to improve the experience for spectators.

Penn State 125 - LL 133 - Blaze / Ono / Desmond 141 - Blaze / Ono / Desmond / Davis 149 - SVN / Davis 157 - Kasak / Duke / Sealey 165 - MM / Kasak / Duke / Sealey (James gray shirt?) 174 - MM / Kasak / Duke / Henckel (Haines ineligible?) 184 - Welsh 197 - Barr HWT - Mirasola

Is J James gray shirting next year? Does it depend on Haines’s eligibility? I believe the appeals court’s recent ruling means he’d be ineligible and I don’t know whether the Supreme Court will consider the matter…

Zahid out scored his opponents at worlds last year 49-0. He is our best wrestler and our biggest lock to make the team.

57- LL 61- Blaze 65- Woods 70- Zain 74- Carr 79- Haines 86- Zahid 92- Hidlay 97- Snyder 125- Wyatt