billyhoyle

It is a bigger deal, but you're confusing what is important with what makes somebody famous/notable. Not everyone thinks becoming famous is important.

It changes the relative value of takedown compared to an escape or reversal.

No. You are still 1 takedown away from tying the score.

It's pretty obvious if you just think back at some of the athletes who were good at one weight, then put on a significant amount of weight in a single offseason and suddenly got a lot better. Maybe a 197 who goes up to 285 and dominates after being good at 197. Or Somebody who jumps from 174 to 197 in a single season and can muscle everyone around without a problem. Sometimes you even see it from 125 to 141-and sometimes those athletes go to MMA and later do test positive for steroids (like Lesnar).

I hope they are better, but if they were I think he would have walked through NCAAs.

*whistle . They got rid of the edit button here.

I don't think his knees are good. Just based on observing him wrestle.

You're allowed to bounce your opponent once. Two times and it's double dribbling, so the ref blows the winner. Three times and you're out of here.

Think of these guys not as athletes but as characters in the show that represent components of the zeitgeist for the people who watch WWE (mainly disgruntled men). Why was Angle a great character for that show at the time? It wasn't just that he was an Olympic champion-He was a throwback to the era in which pro wrestling was largely a USA vs Enemy show (e.g. USSR, Iran, etc). Wrestling fans in the 70s/80s waved the flag and there was a clear enemy. Angle was an American "hero," who showed up at a time when the fanbase was becoming more isolated from the mainstream of the country-there no longer was that enemy. So he was the perfect antivillian-where the fans could show their dislike for a character who was supposed to be loved. (There is a great article about this shift in Pro wrestling over the years, but I can't find it). So what does Gable represent in the WWE story? The Angle angle is played out. In theory, you'd think he could be another Lesnar type-where Lesnar is just an absolute monster and represents a genetic freak/incredible athlete. Except Gable doesn't look like that at all, and actual skill/real athleticism doesn't matter at all. So what is the point of Gable being on WWE? The current Zeitgeist is still populist/anti-establishment, but Logan Paul has seized that. How is Gable close to as compelling a character as the Paul brothers, KSI, etc, who represent the current heel of the wrestling fan (influencers/mainstream popular celebrities)? What does Gable's character represent?

Couture is a great example of excelling at the highest level in two sports. Hendricks Jones, and Lesnar were not at the world level in wrestling, and Lesnar is exceptionally rare in that he is the perfect type for WWE. Ever since Lesnar went from 171 to 285 pounds, he was ready for stardom in WWE. Also, Hendricks and Couture both rose to success at a different era in MMA, when it was an actual sport that highlighted the best athletes. Now it is all about who can be the biggest clown.

I don’t see it. Going into college, he was a junior world champion and seemed likely to win world/Olympic gold medals. Year after year he was sent out there on one good leg and now I’d be surprised if he makes a world team. Is there any doubt his prospects are worse now than they were prior to college?

1. I mean for the average person watching on tv. You want team scoring to be simple and easy to follow. Obviously I know how it works. 2. If you add a team championship, moving the individual tournament from a 3 to a 2 day event is a good idea. Fans don’t show up on Thursday. 16 individual qualifiers means the conference tournaments are more important. It also would mean more AAs from smaller schools because there would be fewer at large qualifying spots from the big 10. 3. Where did this idea come from that everyone should compete in the post season 4 times no matter how long it takes? If you spend 3 years with various types of redshirts, you should get 1 or at most 2 postseasons. 4. Good suggestions. Feel free to not like my ideas, but there’s no question this past season was a disaster. Changes are needed.

He never actually gave himself the time to heal properly. I never thought such a focus on the NCAA results over long term health made much sense.

Whatever Cael's reasons were in 2012, change is needed now. I don't think there has been a less interesting NCAA season in my lifetime. The winner was a foregone conclusion from the start, and nobody is graduating ever because of so many different type of redshirts and the covid year. 1. A dual should decide the NCAA team champion. Enough with making the team championship a 3 day event that requires an excel spreadsheet to figure out what the standings are. Qualifying for the dual championships (an 8 team tournament) should be entirely based on regular season dual performance and not a qualifier tournament. Every dual should be important, just as every NCAA football game is important. 2. Because of this team championship, the individual tournament should be a 16-man bracket. Hold it over two days instead of three. Nobody even shows up on Thursday or Saturday morning, and barely anyone shows up Thursday Night. Going to a 16 man bracket could eliminate two of these pointless sessions. 3. Redshirts need to be eliminated. College football, basketball, and baseball effectively have no redshirts at this point, since the best athletes all go professional. In Women's basketball, the best players are foregoing their extra years of eligibility to go pro. In wrestling, we have 6th year college "students" who grayshirted and graduated high school at 19 getting 5th place. 4. Wrestlers and "wrestling culture" needs to make some effort to become a bit more mainstream. This means maybe some rule changes to encourage more action. Shortening the matches a bit to 5 or 6 minutes and decreasing a tech to 10 points. We also have to get as many matches back on streaming services that people actually have access to (ESPN, Fox, BTN, CBS, etc). How can a better product be put on the mat in front of more people?

Maybe T-Money can give him some advice. It just seems obvious that he is not very good at being what WWE wants (Logan Paul). He has been with them for a year and they have barely used him. He is one of the very best amateur wrestlers on the planet though, so it makes perfect sense that he will be returning to the sport-it's great news for US Wrestling. How many people are there at Gable's level of talent/superstardom in one sport, that can then go and achieve that same level in something else? Bo Jackson is pretty much it. Ohtani if you count pitching/hitting as different enough skills even within the same sport. Michael Jordan couldn't in Basketball/Baseball. Askren couldn't do it with UFC. Cejudo comes to mind as somebody who did, but UFC wouldn't pay him because he wasn't a draw. Cormier I guess?-but he played out his wrestling career before transferring over and probably ended up with a better MMA than wrestling career. To succeed at the highest level in multiple things is the exception, not the rule.

They have to pass the NCAA Clearinghouse..If you are recruited for a B10, B12, ACC, Pac12 sport, you are almost always going to get in if you qualify. The same is not true for the Ivies, where many of the teams may give a slight advantage but still have stringent admission standards. But big donations have a significant impact on how ivies treat certain sports.

The difference is the B10, B12, Pac12, etc almost universally let their athletes in. The Ivies do have fairly stringent academic standards in sports without ultra rich donors.

The degree to which an Ivy lowers standards depends on the sport and donors behind it.

Why aren't they using him at all though? It has been a year.

I'd say it's 50% due to the merger and them realizing that Logan Paul and social media influencers make better WWE wrestlers than Olympic champions. 50% due to Gable just not being "good" at WWE "wrestling." And honestly, I think him being true to himself and not pretending to be one of these awful characters is a good thing! It's better that what he is actually good at is a real sport-and he is one of the best that I have ever seen do it. What WWE career? He has been working for the company for a year and has barely been used at all.

I think there are two options for success. One is to create a persona that catches on with their dumb audience. The other is to be absolutely massive like Lesnar or some others, which is in itself a persona. Gable doesn’t have either of those. What he does have is being an elite athlete and incredible wrestler, which doesn’t matter for WWE and seems to matter less than ever for UFC.

Logan Paul is now the main draw in WWE. Ferrari obviously won’t me be in it, but my point is he would have excelled.

The problem may be that WWE decided he isn't their type. In WWE, actual wrestling talent means nothing compared to being a character like Logan Paul or roided-up like Lesnar. Gable is an incredible wrestler, but maybe not what WWE is looking for. And with UFC and WWE merging, he probably isn't what UFC wants either. Over the past five to ten years, UFC's business model has shifted from being an actual sport to more of a WWE-like show. The UFC WWE crossover athlete that will sell PPVs is Logan Paul. I'm sure Jake Paul will be one as well. A.J. Ferrari would also have been an absolute star in both UFC/WWE if not for the fact that he seems to want to go to prison. And of course, people who put on exciting fights like Bo Nickal will have success in UFC, just not at the level of a Logan Paul.

I hate archery!

Anybody have insights into what happened here? Did WWE decide to focus on Logan Paul types instead? Obviously this is great news for the sport and team USA. As a fan, I'm very happy to see this.