As I was walking down the steps at Carver-Hawkeye Arena in Iowa City, Iowa before the start of the Big Ten Tournament this past weekend, I ran into an old friend of mine, Mark Churella. I sat down beside Mark and said, “You know, it has been 26 years since the Big Ten Finals in here in Iowa City. That’s where I witnessed the greatest match I have ever seen.”
We both knew we were talking about the championship match in 1979 between Mike DeAnna and Mark, which Deanna won by a score of 6-4 in overtime, after a 14-14 tie in regulation. Mark laughed and said, “I think a better match was two weeks later when I pinned DeAnna in the national finals!”
I laughed then, and we proceeded to talk about that incredible 14-14, 6-4 overtime finals match. Mark said he had never been more tired in his life. I told him how proud I was of both of them for putting on the greatest performance on a wrestling mat I have ever seen.
Like an Ali-Frazier heavyweight title fight, there is no shame in losing a great battle. It was only fitting that the best match of the finals this year was between Mark Churella’s son Ryan, and Iowa’s freshman sensation Mark Perry at 165. Both wrestlers competed like champions, with Ryan winning 6-5 on riding time in a terrific match full of great scrambles.
Just like in 1979, when DeAnna beat Churella, this year’s final’s match brought no shame for being on the losing side. Iowa’s Perry showed much more courage and heart in losing this match than he showed in winning his semifinal match, one in which I felt he did not wrestle like a champion. To me, winning and losing isn’t what determines a champion, it is how you win and lose that really counts. The other final’s match that impressed me was Mack Reiter’s pin over Mark Jayne.
After the finals, a few ex-wrestlers commented to me about how few points were scored in most of the finals matches, and how it wasn’t as exciting as in past years.
It has long been my belief, shared by many, many others that scoring and excitement are down in wrestling from what they were in the past. I wondered, is scoring really down, or does it just seem that way. I took it upon myself to do a little research.
I have researched the total points scored per match from the Big Ten finals from 1976-2005, and the NCAA finals from 1976-2004. I then divided them into 5-year time-frame periods, and figured out the average points scored per match during those same time frames.
When averaging the scores, I threw out all pins and defaults.
NCAA finals
Points per match
Pins
1976-1980
13.4
6
1981-1985
12.0
1
1986-1990
11.2
3
1991-1995
10.8
3
1996-2000
8.5
1
2000-2004
10.5
1
Big Ten Finals
Points per match
Pins
1976-1980
12.2
5
1981-1985
12.3
6
1986-1990
11.3
2
1991-1995
10.0
2
1996-2000
9.9
0
2001-2005
8.4
2
While looking these statistics up, I also came across a couple of other interesting facts. In the NCAA finals, from 1976 through 1986, there were zero matches where no one scored an offensive point in regulation (takedown, reversal, or near fall).
From 1987 through 1999, there were six matches where nobody scored an offensive point in regulation. From 2000 through 2004, there were nine final’s matches where nobody scored an offensive point in regulation, including five matches in the year 2000 alone.
In regulation in the 2000 finals, there were 66 points scored in ten matches in regulation, and 25 of those points were scored in Cael Sanderson’s match. That means the other nine matches had 41 points scored in regulation. That’s less than five points per match. In the NCAA finals, from 1978 to 1983, there were ten pins. From 1984 to 1993, there were six pins in the finals, from 1994 through 2004; there were two pins in the finals.
For those of you who say that the level of competition is greater now, and that is why there are no pins, here is a sampling of some great wrestlers who were pinned in the NCAA finals between 1978 and 1983 includes John Azevedo, Bruce Kinseth, Mike DeAnna, Dave Schultz, and Bruce Baumgartner twice. That dog don’t hunt.
With this brief statistical analysis of the NCAA finals and the Big Ten finals, I can only conclude what many have long believed, that scoring, pinning, and certainly excitement in college wrestling is down from the past. Even way down.
Unlike most sports, wrestling does an extremely poor job of keeping statistics. If scoring drops 2% or 10% in football, basketball, baseball, hockey or almost any other sport, those in charge know about the decrease in their sport and they make rule changes to prevent the dramatic drop in scoring.
Sadly, this is not true in wrestling, either at the international level, or at the collegiate level. While I just took the NCAA and Big Ten finals over the last 30 years, I’m sure that it is probably an accurate picture of the scoring in college wrestling overall during that time period. I have no way to look any further into this, as it is very difficult to find statistics and records in wrestling.
It looks to me as if scoring in wrestling has dropped over 30 percent in the last 30 years. That does not bode well for the sport’s popularity, does it?
Do you think anyone in wrestling is aware of this trend? I would venture to say that scoring in freestyle wrestling at the highest levels has fallen at close to 60-70% from its high in the late 70’s. It is my belief that a decrease in scoring and a decrease in pinning means a decrease in excitement.
What would happen in any other sport, if scoring continued to decrease at anywhere near the rate that it does in wrestling? The powers that be would find a way to increase scoring, not decrease it. Yet the powers that be in wrestling are conjuring up Beach Wrestling to rekindle the excitement. What’s next, grappling Alaskan Brown Bears?
In one of my previous articles, “The Rules of Enragement,” I wrote about how FILA wrecked freestyle wrestling. The rules FILA has made over the years have also negatively affected college wrestling, mostly by a trickle-down effect.
Many of our top college coaches and assistant coaches have wrestled or coached internationally. They bring this style of wrestling back into their college rooms. When high-scoring wrestlers like Stephen Neal and Cael Sanderson come along, to compete at the highest levels in freestyle, they are forced to “tone it down” in order to win. It is not my intention to go into all the various reasons why scoring and excitement are down in college wrestling, but rather to help with a solution.
I believe that solution could be RealProWrestling.
I am not sure what the exact rules are for RealProWrestling, but from what I have heard the matches so far have been high scoring and full of action.
This is what wrestling needs, at all levels. RealProWrestling can help college wrestling survive and prosper in many other ways besides excitement, and the wrestling community needs to back RPW as much as possible, at all levels.
I would really like to see RealProWrestling make it. Everyone involved with wrestling should do whatever they can to help RPW. For some, that can mean just watching the matches on television and telling other wrestling fans about it and making sure they watch it too.
For RealProWrestling to make it, the matches must be high scoring, exciting and full of action. Right now, freestyle wrestling does not fit the bill at all. College wrestling is nowhere near as high scoring and exciting as it was 25-30 years ago either.
If RPW is not higher scoring and exciting than college wrestling currently is, then it will fail, regardless of how well it is marketed and promoted. I believe the rules that RealProWrestling has come up with will give the wrestlers the chance to wrestle an aggressive, high scoring, exciting match, I just hope today’s wrestlers can do that.
Here is some unsolicited advice for Toby Willis and Matt Case, the founders of RealProWrestling, and for the wrestlers and coaches that will make or break RPW, and maybe even college wrestling also. Money talks. In both boxing and ultimate fighting the top paid athletes are not just those who win, but those who create excitement. Find a way to reward the most exciting wrestlers, not just the wrestlers who win the most.
Don’t become a “feeder” system for FILA and USA wrestling. Have different weight classes than FILA because seven is not enough. And 265-pound weight limit is too light for heavyweights. Make it unlimited, just like the old days. That could lead to future matches between Steve Mocco, Brock Lesnar, and Stephen Neal, among others.
While FILA feels that shorter matches lead to more action, we found out otherwise. Shorter matches take away the conditioning and “heart” that is so vital to our sport, and in a shortened match one misstep will decide the winner, thus wrestlers will be afraid to make that mistake.
Recognize however, that heavyweights are different, and that lighter weights can wrestle longer at a higher pace. Possibly have heavyweights wrestle shorter matches. In boxing, heavyweights have more power, and the fans love to see knockouts, thus heavyweights get paid top dollar. This does not hold true for wrestling, reward those who create action, regardless of weight class.
Establish a “world” champion at each weight class. At some point in the future, bring foreigners in to wrestle. I would love to see some of the top foreigners wrestle under rules that reward aggressiveness, conditioning and heart, instead of just maintaining position. I think Toby Willis and Matt Case have done a great job so far in getting RealProWrestling off the ground, and RPW has a great chance to succeed, if our wrestlers will do their jobs and create action and scoring.
I challenge every wrestler who steps on the mat and takes a paycheck from RealProWrestling to do everything in your power to wrestle in an exciting and aggressive manner. If you cannot do this, do not step on the mat and take their money. In professional boxing, if a fighter tries to protect his lead he is booed by the fans, and penalized by the officials, his manhood is questioned.
This happened in the recent fight between Oscar De Le Hoya and Felix Trinidad. De Le Hoya tried to run late in the fight with a big lead and the judges gave the fight to Trinidad. RealProWrestlers must learn to have this boxer’s attitude to attack and score the whole match, not just do what it takes to win, which seems to be the current state of wrestling.
Many of the wrestlers in RPW are assistant coaches in college programs across the country. If RPW succeeds, this will help save college wrestling in the long run. If we can get our college wrestlers to aspire to and emulate RPW’s exciting style, instead of FILA’s screwed up rules, which penalize aggressiveness, our sport can thrive.
If RPW can succeed, hopefully FILA will adopt many of their rules. As of now it seems as if Americans have virtually no say in international wrestling, maybe RealProWrestling can change that and save wrestling for everybody.
There is no question that wrestling currently does not get the publicity and exposure that it deserves. College football and basketball head coaches get paid over two million dollars a year, and assistant coaches are also very well paid.
Bench-warmers in the NBA, NFL, and MLB make millions of dollars a year. I know of no other sport where athletes train harder and need more mental toughness than wrestling. Yet, most of our top wrestlers can barely afford to stay in our sport. There is more money in wrestling now than there used to be, however it is still not enough.
Many of our best people in wrestling have gotten out of the sport to make their mark in the world in other ways, because they could make more money. With RPW, we have a chance to keep some of these great people in wrestling, both as competitors and coaches.
Wrestling is at a critical point in time. College programs are being killed, scoring and excitement are down, international weight classes are being dropped, and the outlook is not good. As I look into my crystal ball 15 years into the future, in the year 2020, I see two different possible outcomes for wrestling.
Scenario One “The pathetic downfall of wrestling
In the first scenario, wrestling continues down the path we are on now. RealProWrestling fails, for various reasons, lack of fan support; the wrestlers did not make it exciting, etc. College wrestling is down to 16 teams, with no qualifying tournaments for NCAA’s, and no scholarships, basically club status.
College coaches are no longer paid, unless they raise the money themselves. At the Olympics in 2020, freestyle and Greco-Roman are combined into one style of wrestling with 2 weight classes. Matches are best of 3 periods of 30 seconds each. If scoreless, they are decided by some sort of clinch in which the winner of the coin toss has (by FILA’s own admission and intent) a 98% chance of winning the period. Sadly, no gold medal matches are shown on TV. However, the semifinals and finals of Beach Wrestling are shown in primetime.
Scenario Two “The incredible resurgence of the world’s greatest sport
In scenario number two, RealProWrestling is a success, thanks to the exciting style that Toby Willis and Matt Case have come up with and fine-tuned. Their marketing and brand strategy is a stroke of genius.
The wrestlers in RPW thrive with this exciting style and the go back and coach the college teams to emulate their style. FILA follows suit, and in the 2020 Olympics, there are 12 weight classes for the new hybrid style developed by RealProWrestling.
Over 100 American wrestlers and coaches are able to make over $250,000 a year and our best athletes and coaches stay in the sport. College coach’s salaries increase dramatically, and highlights on ESPN every night include both RPW highlights and college wrestling highlights.
Toby Willis and Matt Case have given a tremendous amount of money, time, energy and commitment to help our great sport of wrestling.
Let’s do everything we can to support RealProWrestling. This opportunity may never come again.
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