Bobby Steveson signs a deal with the WWE. Wonder how much this is about getting their foot in the door with Gable.
Gable signs an nil deal with wwe. He will wrestle NCAA this season and WWE is seeing up a gym for him in Minneapolis so he can train
Sounds like he will also make limited appearances at WWE events during his senior year. Once the school year ends he will officially start full time. The ESPN front page article on him oddly refers to him as Gable Steveson 4 times and Gable "Stevenson" 9 times. Looks like his freestyle career is over (as expected). Hell of a way to go out.
Good move to get that cash ASAP and continue with his degree. I wonder if WWE will really work out all that well for him long term but clearly wants to do it.
So looks like Dake is an antivax guy hiding behind the “think critically” defense. Not shocked, but disappointed.
it takes a strong suspension of disbelief to follow wrestlers beyond the mat and enjoy their personalities. the "liked by" and RTs i get on my feed are extremely cringe at times.
Anecdotal evidence, but growing up and going to matches/tournaments, 99% of the kids dad's were meatheads so this isn't surprising
I think he'll do extremely well. He's been heavily recruited by them for years. He'll be one of their big stars a la Brock or Kurt Angle.
Brackets are out. Some notable early matchups with potential WT ramifications: Fix vs Gross in QF Suriano vs Tomasello in QF JO vs Zain in QF (first match for both of them! Green, JO, and Zain are all on the top half of bracket, Pantaleo and Deakin are top 2 on the bottom) Wrestling starts in 45 minutes.
Kennedy Blades is UNREAL. I don't know if I would have let her wrestle. She's choked completely unconscious, wakes up, they give her maybe 5 minutes to regain her bearings. They restart the match, she hits a double leg from hell 5 seconds later for 4 and gets the pin. WILD. Then Kylie Welker pins her opponent in 39 seconds in her semi. Gonna be a highly anticipated final between two junior world champions. Future of the women's freestyle team in that one.
Those two are absolutely nuts, wouldn’t put it past the winner to take the whole thing as 17/18 year olds. JB is definitely past his prime and Dieringer looks good but I think JB will find a way. I like McKenna but man do I want to see Yianni at a World Championship
2021 USA Wrestling World Team: 57kg: Thomas Gilman 61kg: Daton Fix 65kg: Yianni Diakomihalis 70kg: James Green 74kg: Kyle Dake 79kg: Jordan Burroughs 86kg: David Taylor 92kg: J'den Cox 97kg: Kyle Snyder 125kg: Nick Gwiazdowski That is a fucking amazing team.
If I was making my dream team for Team USA, it would be this team, with two replacements of Olympic champ Gable Steveson and a healthy Spencer Lee. Other than that, I have no doubt these are the best guys America has to offer.
Anything less than 3 golds and 7 medals, with a lot of Tokyo medalists sitting it out, would be disappointing with this squad. Green and Gwiz probably need some draw help and Yianni is in a stacked weight(though I think all medalists from Tokyo are sitting it out), everyone else should be expecting a medal
Way too early predictions: 57kg: Thomas Gilman: SILVER/BRONZE 61kg: Daton Fix No clue what this weight even looks like yet, but he looked world class this weekend. 65kg: Yianni Diakomihalis GOLD 70kg: James Green NO MEDAL 74kg: Kyle Dake SILVER/GOLD 79kg: Jordan Burroughs SILVER 86kg: David Taylor GOLD 92kg: J'den Cox GOLD 97kg: Kyle Snyder SILVER 125kg: Nick Gwiazdowski NO MEDAL/BRONZE
Saturday Oct 2: Fix, Dake, Taylor, Gwiz Sunday Oct 3: Gilman, Diakomihalis, Burroughs, Cox Monday Oct 4: Green, Snyder Wrestle up to finals then medal matches are the following day.
These along with Abasgadhi Magomedov at 61kg and Abdulrashid Sadulaev at 97kg should be Team Russia in Oslo. 57kg: Mutaliev is 2-0 against Gilman, although both those matches were in 2019. He did get teched by Uguev at Russian Nats this year. Mutaliev beat Gamzatov and Tuskaev for the spot, not exactly an easy task. I think that would be a close match. 61kg: I don't think anyone is beating Magomedov as he is really the undisputed #1 going into worlds, but Fix looked outstanding at trials. 65kg. Shakhiev is outstanding and earned his spot with a convincing win over Chakaev, also outstanding. Certainly think Shahkiev is favored over Yianni going in, but Yianni at his best can compete with anyone in the world, I think. Shakhiev lost a close one to Rashidov at Russian nats this year then took gold at euros. 70kg: Beating Kasumov (who beat Shiraev) and Baev makes Zherbaev maybe the #1 70kg in the world. Those 4 are arguably the undisputed top 4 at 70kg in the world with Bekbulatov out with injury. A little surprised to see Zherbaev come out on top, but well earned for certain. I don't see James Green beating him, but Green is certainly a different beast at 70kg as opposed to 65. 74kg: Finally one where I think USA has a distinct H2H advantage. Give me Dake 8 days a week over Bizhoev. 79kg: I don't care how much time passes, if you get beaten up by Mason Manville and Mark Hall, you aren't beating Jordan Burroughs. Ever. 86kg: Iran/Russia/USA has been the story here for a while, now. Finally Naifonov gets another crack at David Taylor. In their first match, he was up 4-0 on Taylor before getting completely overwhelmed, giving up 14 consecutive points, and getting pinned. Taylor is a heavy favorite in the rematch, if Naifonov even gets to Taylor. HYC might be in the way, again. 3 in a row to the Good Guys. Taylor hasn't lost since those 2 matches to Cox at 2017 trials. 92kg: Another Iran/Russia/USA weight. Kurbanov is the best Russian by a good amount, imo. He won Russian Nats, then Euros, and now the wrestle-off. Ghasempour, and especially Cox, are the best in the world, though. Which Cox shows up? At his best he is unbeatable, but then he loses to a no-namer in the Poland Open. I've got Cox but will be watching this one closely. 97kg: We all know this one. Snyderlaev IV. I don't see any reason for a different result here, but Snyder will be ready. 125kg: Gwiz lost their last matchup 7-7 on criteria. I think that's one he can probably win, but both are considered underdogs to medal with Geno, Taha, and Zare wrestling. Overall I give USA the H2H advantage at 74, 79, 86, and 92. Russia at 57, 61, 65, 70, 97, and 125.
Turkey sending a full team, all of their Olympians(including Taha), and other experienced guys like Killicsayan and Kaya(65/70). Confirmed Tokyo medalists, outside of the US contingent, so far: RUS - Sadulaev and Naifonov Turkey - Akgul Iran - Yazdani and Zare Georgia - Geno? Not sure I’ve seen official confirmation Unsure: Conyedo, Bajrang(going if he’s healthy) Definitely not: Uguev, Rashidov, Sidakov, Abdurrakhmonov, Salas, Sanayev, Kumar, Kadimagomedov Not confirmed but not expected(I’m sure I’ve missed a few confirmations): Amine, Otoguro, Aliyev,
Are the Buckeyes back? This is about Nick Bouzakis, the #1 overall recruit in 2022. Already have a commitment from Nick Feldman (top 3 overall recruit), and Seth Shumate (still a big time recruit but not quite considered can't miss anymore). If they also land Jesse Mendez, that would make the consensus top 3 recruits in the country in one cycle.
Tom Ryan only recruits guys who don't know mat wrestling, then doesn't bother teaching them. (rumors were that they were working mat wrestling a lot with echemendia in the off season. lies.)
Brackets dropped for all weights.., then some had to re-drawn(thank god because Fix and Yianni had terrible draws in the whoopsie versions). 61 - Fix opens with a veteran from Bulgaria, tough but winnable. In his quarter is 2019 World Champ at 61, Lomatdze, and junior world medalist from India Ravinder. Rest of the top half has Haruntyunyan from Armenia(struggles at 57 but has a lot of good wins at 61) and number 1 seed Askarov of KAZ. Does avoid Magomedov and the 2 young guns I think will make some noise in Hasegawa and Amouzad. Medal very possible and would be disappointing not to here 74 - Dake is all by himself in the top half, Salkazanov, Bizhoev, and Emami all bottom half. Should be an easy trip to the finals 86 - Same for DT, nobody in the top half is capable of slowing him down. Naifonov and Yazdani on the bottom in a reverse of the seeding at the Olympics. 125 - Brutal draw for Gwiz, going to have to beat Zare just to get to Taha in the semis. Can’t see a medal here
Was out all day then had to get to sleep early to wake up at an ungodly hour to watch wrestling. 61kg: Daton is 2-0 and has looked great with two easy techs. He has Ravinder of IND next, then Harutunyan of ARM, then heavy favorite RUS in the finals if he wins those two. 74kg: Dake won his match in under a minute. He probably has Eryilmaz of TUR next, then Tsabolov formerly of RUS, then likely Bizhoev of RUS in the finals if he makes it that far. 86kg: DT teched Makoev 11-0. Smooth sailing for him until he gets the HYC-Naifonov winner in the finals. 125kg: Gwiz is on the opposite side of the bracket from Geno, but if Geno is the #1 guy in the field, then #2-#8 might be on Gwiz's side. He is 1-0 with a win over Dhesi but he has Zare of IRI next and that's likely a loss. Zare gets the winner of Taha and Khizriev (Taha) and that's likely a win for Taha. Not looking good for Gwiz's medal chances.
WOW! Bizhoev was beating Salkazanov 2-1, all three points in the match were shot clock points, then Salkazanov gets a stepout to win with 1 second left in the match! Russia goes DOWN. Big team race implications. Salkazanov gets Kentchadze in the semis. THEN Nurykau gets a takedown on Tsabolov with 3 seconds left to win 7-7! Two biggest competitors for Dake go down. Dake wins 5-0 and gets Nurykau in the semis.
That was ugly… Salkazanov hits a late duck to knock off Bizhoev and Nurykau stuns the former Russian world champ, now Cabalov of Serbia, Khetik Tsabalov with a last second TD. Dake vs another Belarussian in the semsis
Daton wins a scramble position to get 2 on Ravinder, then a series of three guts (2 with an arm, 1 without) to go up 8-0. Finishes it off with a single leg for an easy 10-0 tech in under 2 minutes. Meanwhile, Abasgadzhi has pinned his way into the semis.
Magomedov looks fucking mean, and good. Hasegawa is tough but that won’t slow him down too much. Fix will have Haruntyunyan, who has looked very good as well, but a winnable match for a shot at gold