The Professional Wrestling League of India wrapped up this week with Adeline Gray's Mumbai team taking the championship trophy. I was in India to profile Adeline for ESPN and was impressed with wrestling's newest venture into the professional realm. The in-arena and on-camera production values were second-to-none and the interest within the wrestling community was much higher than I anticipated. Also, women wrestlers were not only prominently featured, but were often the stars of the event as witnessed in the applauses, cheers and media requests.
But that's all I'll report for now. Unfortunately a few days after landing I had an emergency appendectomy. I don't know if India was somehow the cause, but it certainly felt a little too coincidental.
Anyway, I'll keep this week's column shorter to allow me more time to relax, and you, likely in a hungover stupor, to reflect on the decisions you made last night.
To your questions …
Q: Is it just me, or is Kyle Dake simply David Taylor's Kryptonite? And this is from a huge Taylor fan who thinks he's one of the best ever college champs. But he just can't get past Dake. Why not drop back down to 74 kilos where he matches up much better against Jordan Burroughs?
-- Lon S.
Foley: That would be a terrible idea! David Taylor may not have won many matches against Kyle Dake, but there is even less chance that the Penn State grad is going to outwrestle Burroughs two of three times.
I just finished watching "Terry" and couldn't help but see some hope for Taylor in the story of Kendall Cross. All he really has to do is focus on the one guy …
Q: How well do you think Eric Grajales will do in MMA?
-- Gregg Y.
Foley: Nobody can predict the long-term success of an MMA fighter because there are too many variables figuring into their in-cage and out-of-cage progression.
From a tactical standpoint I think Grajales is well-suited to succeed in MMA. He's extremely athletic, which means he should pick up striking and jiu-jitsu faster than most. Grajales is also talented with upper-body throws, which means he can control where the fight goes much better than a leg-first wrestler. In that way he could be a lot like Daniel Cormier the current light heavyweight champion.
A knock on Grajales is his conditioning. He's gassed quite a few times, though it's not clear if that's from weight cutting, bad dieting, or just a stunted Vo2 max.
As we've seen with Conor McGregor, Grajales may just need to learn how to promote himself for fights. If he can get the media interested and pump up ticket sales then he'll get a chance to fight in the bigger organizations. If he sits back and hopes that results speak for themselves, then he'll be passed over for fighters willing to engage fans and motivate them to push play on a $70 PPV package.
Q: It seems that the Aaron Pico hype machine has been very quiet lately. There was a time when the young kid was the hottest thing in amateur wrestling with speculation that he could beat Brent Metcalf while still of high school age. Since showing himself to not be invincible there is a lot less excitement around the young man. He's kind of blended into the rest of the group on the senior level.
But he is 19! He's handling guys that were multiple-time NCAA champs in senior level freestyle tournaments while being the age of true freshman. My question is do you feel Pico is under appreciated? If he never achieves world medal success before he moves on to MMA he will never be mentioned in the same breath as other great wrestlers who have big NCAA success. Even though it's an easy assumption that he would be a multiple-time national champ. I say "easy assumption" because he's beating old champs right now. The same thing for Henry Cejudo and he even won a gold medal. But since he didn't have a long illustrious college career he fades to the back of our minds. Your thoughts?
-- Dustin K.
Aaron Pico battles Logan Stieber at the U.S. Senior Nationals/Trials Qualifier (Photo/John Sachs, Tech-Fall.com)As you mentioned, Pico is still young and being developed in a way that is unfamiliar to many in the wrestling community. If you look at the international World champions you'll see that most are roughly 24 years old, or the approximate age of Pico during the 2020 cycle. I think it's fair to assume he'll progress the most over that quad, though nothing is guaranteed, especially with MMA looming in the background.
I've talked with Pico about all of this on several occasions and I get the sense that he's enjoying the opportunity to see the world and meet interesting people. He's confident and mature in a way that almost nobody his age can match. Another four years of bopping around the world to train and learn about the world is (in my mind) to great an opportunity to pass up -- perceptions of his success at home be damned.
Taking everything into account, and assuming he makes a run at 2020, I don't think he'll fade away at all. I think that win or lose Pico is someone who will be talked about for a long time to come because he had the courage to take his own path and has pursued it with passion.
MULTIMEDIA HALFIME
Points for technique
Points for control
Did you miss @WelchTwin1's gator roll to win the #Midlands53 title last night? Wanna see it? #AlwaysAggressive https://t.co/PuZ7wLNwmt
��" Purdue Wrestling (@PurdueWrestling) December 31, 2015Q: The U.S. has yet to qualify 86 kilos for the Olympics. If Kyle Dake is the one to get that done, will he be given a bye to the finals at the Trials? They have done this in years past. It was offered to Nate Gallick in 2008.
-- Frank C.
Foley: No. Only returning World medalists are given a bye to the finals.
Q: College wrestling: low single, whizzer, funk, stalemate. Endlessly.
-- @wrestlingnomad
and …
Watching Midlands we need rule changes like United World Wrestling. Matches slow. Not enough action. Don't incent riding & no OT.
-- @alliseeiscooper
Foley: The most immediate rule change needs to be the elimination of the four-point and three-point stance. The last time I was excited to watching a 19-year-old shimmy across the floor on his knees was when watching the final scene of Dirty Dancing. Stand up. Wrestle.
The second most immediate should be the out of bounds, which at this point has become the NCAA most noticeable rules failure.
Overall the push against the boredom of folkstyle has been a result of international wrestling receiving more online visibility. With easy Facebook and FloWrestling access to the sport more American fans are being forced to witness the contrast in action.
When dissecting the on-the-mat differences it's easy to see that there are simply more scoring techniques in freestyle. Part of this comes from the premise behind the sport that technique -- not control -- is of value.
That can be hard to digest, so take for example a wrestler on the international level is awarded four points when he nails a feet-to-back throw like a headlock of lateral drop. That same maneuver in folkstyle doesn't account for any points. Only if the wrestler is controlled on landing and held to his back does the offensive wrestler earn a separated two point takedown and subsequent two or four point back points.
That example gives us better understanding why such a large proportion of wrestlers are competing from the four-pint stance. There is no incentive to try, only to control, so the game plan is to draw your opponent close, bring their head down and wrestle in a way that is best mimicked by two cats in heat fighting over a ball of yarn.
Brandon Slay, who has the interests of USA Wrestling in mind, tweeted …
I love wrestling & don't hate Folkstyle (wrestled it for 16 yr). But, Folkstyle should think more internationally for TeamUSA to prosper.
��" Brandon Slay (@CoachSlay) December 31, 2015
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