wrestle87

Name checks out

The list will be way too long for the people above KOT. You can absolutely make the argument for Steveson being one of the top few two time champs in history. People are forgetting a huge one, John Smith was a 2x champ.

It's just always been there, and it is an unpoliced part of the sport, and always will be because ultimately the highest competition is what drives the financing of the sport. You can say "yeah no", but that doesn't change the reality of competitive sports, even at an amateur let alone professional level. Purported morality on a subject is only useful so long as there is a mechanism in place to support the preferred behavior. There isn't, and there never will be, because the incentives of competition have not and will never prioritize "ethics" over success. If 80% of all professional athletes in the world are on something, and nobody is doing anything to correct it because the incentive structure is crafted to encourage it, are we really talking about something that is wrong, or are we just talking about the true cost of playing the game that people just choose to stick their heads in the sand about? I saw this having had my butt handed to me in a few different settings by opponents clearly on some extra assistance, nobody did anything, said anything, or enforced anything, and it is that way at every high level of every sport. So...? At some point we just have to evolve the conversation about sports and the risk-reward for seeking the highest level of athletics. Fair competition is a myth btw. Nobody has ever cared about that, they only say it to preserve audience dollars.

It’s definitely a thing, but you can never pass judgement until you see what family members look like. Genetics is the ultimate performance enhancer, and it is undefeated in potency and reliability long term. ”Holy crap that dude has a barn door back…and so does his brother, and his dad…and his grandpa too?!”

I’m having a hard time lining up a shove to the back of the head being egregious but Shapiro vs Johnny Lovett…nah nevermind.

You asked this seriously so it merits a serious answer. The best thing I can offer is first go watch a film called bigger faster stronger. It is extremely honest and very well done. Then, go do some reading about the history of exogenous testosterone supplementation in athletics. Modern athletics and training evolved on the back of the development of the exogenous androgen/anabolic supplementation. They are intimately linked simply because they work, not just for performance gains but also maintenance of joint integrity and tissue recovery under enormous training loads. There are some old interviews back in the day with the 1950’s-60’s wrestling coaches where they went drinking with the german coaches after the olympics one year, and the dude got too hammered and told them they’d been supplementing with a test derivative, I don’t recall which, it was relatively new at the time. Anyway the US coaches went back the next day and put the whole team on it. Guess who did really well that next cycle. It was unknown and nobody cared. Which is the way it should be. Steroids got vilified when people started having things to sell (professional sports and WWE mainly), and IP’s to protect(Pharma). It’s much easier to control people’s actions by manufacturing morality rather than explaining a complex topic, this was entirely where Reagan came in and just…did Reagan things. Steroids and protein powder, creatine etc are all the same vein of concept, even sports in general, it’s something with a risk reward profile that people participate in for a desired outcome. Our society just vilifies certain things out of convenience or in support of ulterior motives.

They're not telling the truth.

Shhhh….we’re not supposed to speak to athletic realities when it’s about americans, only about big bad non-ally country athletes.

I couldn't agree more. I am so thankful for current athletes that coaches are gradually doing away with the concept of using coaching to exorcise their own personal demons on their wrestlers. That used to be 90% of coaches in the sport. Now it seems like, at least at the collegiate level, it's more 50/50. The Iowa program is a fundamental part of the sport in the US. We need them to be successful based on the modern standard. It used to be that broken and angry was good enough to win titles. It's not anymore. Depending on the match I'm 50/50 whether I root for a hawkeye wrestler, but I will always root hard for the program. If that program struggles, the entire sport will be facing some bad headwinds in the near future.

I seriously underestimated where they would land, especially after conferences where it looks like the whole team was about to lay an egg. Guess coach Taylor thoroughly subscribes to Dan Gable's old chart of peaking workload a few weeks before tapering to peak for performance. Whatever my worries were, and they were certainly there, he gets to put his coaching stamp on the two biggest (over)performers of the tournament. Yeah, he knows what he's doing, and is going to be a problem for many coaches for a long time.

I would love to be very very wrong about him. If we're being completely objective, the trends just don't support it. If you watch the matcast, he walks up to the other coaches and says "I did that (tried to rip his arm off) because he fishhooked me during the match." 99% of the college wrestlers I ever met and competed with, myself included, went their entire athletic lives without ever getting into anything other than a series of handshakes after a match regardless of the result. How many wrestlers have you met who start flinging excuses the first thing after a loss? It's rare, a bad look, and typically a rather revealing look into the individual. If you take one of these things alone, I'm 100% on board "yeah, it happens, just leave it be". Gets into it with an opponent he's clearly dominated the whole match AND comes up with excuses as part of an interview after his 2nd consecutive loss? That just smacks of a sore loser. Again, I hope he's healthy, stays healthy and never has any health issues and can finish out his career because he is a massively entertaining wrestler. He is also still a young man who should be given leeway on his road to maturity. That said, when someone is still growing and behaves poorly, they need to be called out on their antics.

Have you ever wrestled? The way you conduct yourself in a match says boatloads about your character...

To actually address the point at hand, it would be less surprising than the sun coming up if kasak was indeed drinking a few extra dbol milkshakes during practice. God is good, but so is louie simmons, and louie built a lot of much bigger benches.

Every athletic director at all levels does. Athletic directors are really physical performance entertainment directors. The only time somebody gets busted is if they are so eye-catching as to start raising fake ethical questions which wind up threatening revenue streams. Steroids are already all over sports, they are a serious boon to orthopedic longevity in high impact or repetitive motion sports. We have just arbitrarily vilified them because....? Nobody has an answer why...we just have. Don't worry about high fructose corn syrup though, that is...you know...well there's nothing wrong with it keep buying your coke and your ozempic please.

The irony in an iowa wrestler pointing a finger at a PSU wrestler is...worth observing. Gear is everywhere. This is professional sports.

Yeah, the Iowa room DEFINITELY has never ever seen a stray needle in its time either. This is a dumb conversation entirely. "No wayyyyy, the NCAA doesn't test in any meaningful way because it's ultimately entertainment for pay?!" Kids are on gear in high school and it's blatant. Those same kids get recruited and wrestle. We think that enrolling in college is going to DECREASE the amount that they take and have access to?

Learn how to read words and do a little research. I'm sure you're all in your feelings because of something unfortunate that happened to the young man. I've watching enough of shapiro to know that, and this is putting it as charitably as possible, his behavior is "unpredictable" when his emotions get bigger than he knows how to control. This is not a new thing. In no way am saying I wish him ill, but accidents don't excuse poor behavior or being a douchebag. They also don't excuse you from being called out for same. Go to 1:25:40 and watch from there, you'll see enough.

You want a better nickname than captain america, for a dude who makes the superhero look small? No, he is captain america. Only other one I’ll consider is the lion tamer.

I have very little to say in support of anything shapiro says. He was a complete tw*t at the end of one of the matches he won, maybe his quarter, and this is just sour grapes from him. If he had been composed and a gentleman, I might listen politely and then ignore him, but this is his ego just continuing to run the show. Really love to hear what he has to say about getting big brothered by antrell taylor too. After all he’s been through with his concussions I just treat him like antonio brown. Highly talented, but unbelievably predictable, and mentally just on mars.

This is why it’s so important to show appreciation and build connections with all young athletes, so they can see and understand that they have value and identity that they appreciate outside the sport. Guys who are missing that take unnecessary risks to hang onto the only thing they value about themselves.

A lot clearly, both in technique but even more between the ears for hendrickson. He was notoriously the 3rd place king because he always had hiccups against kerkvliet. He had to get over those mental boogeymen just to have the chance to wrestle steveson, and he kept a TON of poise throughout that match.

Manning and nebraska had an outstanding year and an amazing tournament. Because people like doug schwab, lee roper, and neil erisman exist, I’m not giving manning that crown though. Antrell taylor had a fantastic tournament, lovett and hardy are both 35.

Iowa better buckle its seatbelt. It’s about to be a loooong couple of years. Bright spots were Kennedy and Keuter obviously. Kennedy placing was my favorite result of the tournament until captain america stepped in and took rob rohn’s place as the next coming of larry owings. Even though he low AA’d, heavyweight is wide open next year, Keuter is an immediate “probably” for at least the semis if not the finals. Ayala is also ENORMOUS at 133, will he make the move to 141 next year? It really looked like the weight cut just wore him down by the end of the year. Been there. There are things that food, water, and rest can’t put back into you for a long time after consistently cutting a lot of weight. Being a 2x bridesmaid is a lot of pressure, but corey clark did it. Also, lol at Ferrari the youngest being homegrown.

Dude go back to reddit. This is a forum for wrestling. @Husker_Du can you zap this thread pleeeease, for all of us.

We can say all we want. I rooted for captain america super hard. It was very cool of Steveson to actively encourage the crowd to cheer for hendrickson while they were on the awards stand. That is something his namesake is incapable of to this day. Imperfect, heel, what have you, he showed class and grace towards hendrickson in that moment, which was a big thing to do.