Whether you've watched every match this season, tuned in on occasion, or are a total newbie the nation-based rivalry of this worldwide competition should be enough to keep you up late each night watching the finals.
Though ESPN3 is carrying the coverage you can watch every match live and in high-definition at the United World Wrestling event page. That page will also automatically archive all the videos from the day and connect them to the results. So if you have a job that doesn't allow you to watch the day session (1 p.m. - 5 p.m. ET) you can come home, click on the matches you missed and catch up on your favorite athletes.
The event page will have live stream and match-by-match results with video, but also include photographs, highlight films, wrap-ups and other pieces of information. It's really a one-stop shop for everything you need in order to consumer the World Championships. It's also being presented to fans free of cost.
So go out there and make your picks, share them with your friends and talk about the best tournament of the year online using #VegasWorlds2015.
To your questions …
Q: What are the top 10 non-American storylines going into Worlds?
-- @RobbyHitch
Foley: See below.
1. Abdulrashid Sadulaev going for his second straight World title, extending his winning streak and in general being a dominant human being.
2. Will the Japanese women be able to win another World title? Or will the Chinese/Mongolian/Russians be able to make a dent in their domination.
3. Russian heavyweight Bilyal Makhov competing in both Greco-Roman and freestyle wrestling.
4. NCAA transplants competing for Puerto Rico, Slovakia, and Ireland.
5. Mijian Lopez of Cuba making headlines as a massive human being looking to throw other human beings around.
6. Russian men's freestyle team. Are they able to do better than their five gold medals from last year? Will Aniuar Geduev be able to best Jordan Burroughs?
7. India. They've been up and down the past three years and are in the first years of moving past the Sushil Kumar era. Are they able to keep up the medal count?
8. Azerbaijan's Olympic champs competing at new weights with Sharif Sharifov and Togrul Asgarov looking to make an impact.
9. What will the social media traffic be like for the championships. Would be interested to see if there is trending.
10. Georgia. They are on the move again. Excellent Juniors performance might indicate a similar outcome at seniors. Remember they won both styles in 2003.
Q: I noticed you talked about/were emailed how Jordan Burroughs is blocking good wrestlers at his weight class in the U.S. Made me think that Bruce Baumgartner might not be given enough credit for what he did. Burroughs has been blocking people for what, three or four years? Bruce did it for four Olympic cycles. That is insane to think that no heavyweight in the U.S. could win Olympic gold unless they waited twenty years.
-- Tim J.
Bruce BaumgartnerAs you noted, Bruce was a heavyweight and because of that there weren't many wrestlers competing for that position. Burroughs' domination has coincided with weight class changes at the international level and the decrease of one Olympic spot. That pressure, in addition to being at the most popular weight range among American competitors, has made the consequences of his domination more visible.
Also, and this is important, the fact that TWO of the most popular and marketed wrestlers in the sport happened to land at the same weight class has driven a lot of attention. Add in social media and you have a recipe for people showing something like frustration about Burroughs closing the door on the weight.
Baumgartner was certainly tested by his peers, but I think that nobody would argue he had the same level of talent concentration and attention. So in the end it's half-perception and half-reality.
Q: What do you make of Jordan Burroughs picking high school wrestler Mark Hall as his training partner for the World Championships? Is this a ploy to help recruit Hall to Nebraska?
-- Mike C.
Foley: Mark Hall has a kinda-sorta stance and style that resembles Aniuar Geduev, which could be helping Burroughs prepare. He's another body for James Green, too. Finally I think he tests Burroughs' speed, which is something the champ would like to keep sharp.
Burroughs doesn't strike me as the type of guy to use his Olympic qualifying year to help him land a recruit. Doesn't compute.
Q: Are the Sudanese Olympic wrestlers just hype? Do you anything about these guys? Could they really be legit 2020 freestyle competitors?
-- B.
Foley: Not sure about hype, but this is the growth of the sport on the continent and we should really be thankful that the Japanese are trying as hard as they have to make this happen. Real success won't be if one of the Sudanese wrestlers qualifies for the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, just that they will still be wrestling in 2020 and how far along the youth programs have developed.
The style of wrestling seen here is similar to many styles across Africa, including the Nuba and other ethnicities that use the exact same style in South Sudan. The takedown-only rules are simple, but that doesn't mean the sport is easy or that the competitors lack technique.
I'm sure that we will see a lot of growth from Africa in the coming years, whether it's in an Olympic style, or possibly a takedown-only style like beach wrestling.
MULTIMEDIA HALFTIME
World Championship Preview
Link: Sudanese wrestling piece via CNN
Q: Kristie (Marano) Davis' daughter Kayla won a bronze medal at the Cadet World Championships. Kristie is obviously a legend in women's wrestling with nine World medals, with two of those being gold. Is it reasonable to think Kayla could be on the U.S. Olympic women's freestyle team as early as 2020?
-- Mike C.
Foley: Absolutely. She looked great at the Cadet World Championships and is being coached by someone who has been at that level before. While lineage isn't always a predictor of success, it can be helpful to have golden bloodlines.
Kayla is still young. Lets see how she develops and grows. Her weight class will be as much a factor for her ability to wrestle in Tokyo as her technique.
Q: What you think about a 30-second tiebreaker shot clock OT? Wrestler on shot clock determined by criteria?
-- @RobbyHitch
Foley: Among the overtime rules, that's not a terrible idea. Still, that's really just adding 30 seconds for the more aggressive wrestler to play defense. I think the end of the matches would end up being similar to that slow nothingness that tends to preempt overtime at the NCAA level.
Q: How much talking between top high school recruits happens to determine who's going where and how much does that play into their decision?
-- @NathanJohn_319
Foley: "Talking" is really just reputation and (of course) high school recruits talk about the college recruitment process, including what they've heard from their friends at certain schools and their own visits to campus.
The rumor mill is powerful and the wrestling rumor mill is one of the healthiest in sports. Parents, coaches, athletes and alumnus all converge to create a reputation for a college coach and the perceptions of the recruited athlete.
Q: Will Vegas have betting odds for the World Championships? If so, where?
-- @ShogunOfSonoma
Foley: CORRECTION: Yes, they should be posted online around noon on Saturday. Good luck to anyone who chooses to gamble. I'm sitting this one out!
Q: Say there was a wrestler who has never won any major tournaments. In fact, hasn't even competed since the state tournament in 2013. Is there any way within the next year that said wrestler could wrestle his way into a spot at the 2016 Olympic Team Trials?
-- Jesus R.
Foley: The U.S. Open will be held in December with top placewinners earning the right to compete at the Olympic Team Trials in April. The Open is the main point of entry for any wrestlers looking to make a run at the Olympic team.
Wrestlers can also qualify by being the top American placewinner at the Bill Farrell and Dave Schultz, the winner of the NCAA tournament, winner of the Pan American Championships, or the person who qualifies the weight class.
If I were you I'd start training for the Open!
Q: Will Mike Zadick cut his beard now that he's a Division I assistant coach at Virginia Tech?
-- Mike C.
Foley: He better not!
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