NCAA Wrestling

[Dr J]

AJ Ferrari wrestled unattached with Marinelli in his corner. He beats Zach Glazier of Iowa in the finals in OT, throws a punch, flips him off, and gets disqualified. The guy couldn’t behave himself for a week. What a dipshit.

 

[Dr J]

Good lord. He’s done with college wrestling.

 

[Fluffernutter]

If Iowa says "no," where does he end up?

These are the bottom five right now:

Davisdon
VMI
CSU Bakersfield
Sacred Heart
Presbyterian

 

[Fluffernutter]

I guess every now and then, wrestling needs a heel. I see the match, the punch, the bird, and the split all over social media last night and this afternoon. I know I'm supposed to be upset about it. Clearly many many people are. But, I'm just not going to get worked up over it. If anything, he becomes a foil that people tune in to jeer. Heck, it might bring more eyes tuning into ESPN8 in March to watch March Matness.

 

[Fluffernutter]

Speaking of making the sport more viewable come March, I'm digging the 3-point takedowns. Seems more risk-taking in college matches this year. Higher scoring. I am hoping we will see less matches being decided by riding time. This too will help viewership.

 

[Dr J]

I guess every now and then, wrestling needs a heel. I see the match, the punch, the bird, and the split all over social media last night and this afternoon. I know I'm supposed to be upset about it. Clearly many many people are. But, I'm just not going to get worked up over it. If anything, he becomes a foil that people tune in to jeer. Heck, it might bring more eyes tuning into ESPN8 in March to watch March Matness.

I’m not worked up about it, either. Truth be told, Brands probably handles it internally, we don’t hear about it again, and he gets another chance. It’s just baffling that a guy can be so stupid. His behavior is clearly under a microscope—they’ve had to have had talks with him about it already—and the first tournament back he’s fighting teammates and flipping off the home crowd.

It was a slap, not a punch, though. You can clearly see his hand is open, so people are making more of it than it was. You can tell the other wrestlers don’t like them very much, and no doubt Glazier was trying to get under his skin. Rathjen got into it with Anthony Ferrari after beating him in the final and gave him a Ferrari Flex to mock him, as well.

 

[ChickenBrother]

I guess every now and then, wrestling needs a heel. I see the match, the punch, the bird, and the split all over social media last night and this afternoon. I know I'm supposed to be upset about it. Clearly many many people are. But, I'm just not going to get worked up over it. If anything, he becomes a foil that people tune in to jeer. Heck, it might bring more eyes tuning into ESPN8 in March to watch March Matness.

I’m not worked up about it, either. Truth be told, Brands probably handles it internally, we don’t hear about it again, and he gets another chance. It’s just baffling that a guy can be so stupid. His behavior is clearly under a microscope—they’ve had to have had talks with him about it already—and the first tournament back he’s fighting teammates and flipping off the home crowd.

It was a slap, not a punch, though. You can clearly see his hand is open, so people are making more of it than it was. You can tell the other wrestlers don’t like them very much, and no doubt Glazier was trying to get under his skin. Rathjen got into it with Anthony Ferrari after beating him in the final and gave him a Ferrari Flex to mock him, as well.

Is it just me, or does that incident look not entirely all on AJ? Hard to see with the ref in the way, but it looks like after the ref blows the whistle to stop the action, AJ posts on Glazier's head while he's standing up(a la Jones on Cormier at the end of the round), which prompts Glazier to come up into a single. Then the ref steps between them as they face off and AJ only slaps Glazier AFTER Glazier attempts to shove AJ's chest.

 

[Fluffernutter]

Two wrestlers.
Same team.
One varsity spot.

Favre vs. Rogers 2.0

 

[Dr J]

Is it just me, or does that incident look not entirely all on AJ? Hard to see with the ref in the way, but it looks like after the ref blows the whistle to stop the action, AJ posts on Glazier's head while he's standing up(a la Jones on Cormier at the end of the round), which prompts Glazier to come up into a single. Then the ref steps between them as they face off and AJ only slaps Glazier AFTER Glazier attempts to shove AJ's chest.

For sure Glazier played his role in it. There was most likely some trash talking going on, too. For me, the bigger story is that he couldn’t collect himself afterwards and went bonkers on the crowd. Guy has zero self control.

 

[Fluffernutter]

 

[Fluffernutter]

The entire tweet from above:

This story is kinda playing “second fiddle” to the Ferrari thing and, candidly, it shouldn’t be. Below is the biggest wrestling story of the weekend IMO, and it should be shared far and wide. As Allyson Schwab notes, parents, in particular, should be aware of who is recording / photographing their children.

In summary, allegedly, a couple of people, including the person referenced below (who is purportedly an Illinois - not Iowa - wrestling official) have been taking videos of kids, clipping a provocative photo from the video, and using that photo as the thumbnail for the video on YouTube. The apparent intent behind the provocative photo is to attract “non wrestling” people to watch these videos. Essentially, people who may be attracted to children. I don’t know what the large volume of views do, but I suspect it’s money related.

Wild. Simply wild.

A well known person flipping off a crowd is certainly dramatic, and deserves negative attention. But, a person allegedly exploiting children for person gain? Well, IMO, that should be the “attention getter” of the weekend.

 

[Fluffernutter]

 

[Dr J]

The entire tweet from above:

This story is kinda playing “second fiddle” to the Ferrari thing and, candidly, it shouldn’t be. Below is the biggest wrestling story of the weekend IMO, and it should be shared far and wide. As Allyson Schwab notes, parents, in particular, should be aware of who is recording / photographing their children.

In summary, allegedly, a couple of people, including the person referenced below (who is purportedly an Illinois - not Iowa - wrestling official) have been taking videos of kids, clipping a provocative photo from the video, and using that photo as the thumbnail for the video on YouTube. The apparent intent behind the provocative photo is to attract “non wrestling” people to watch these videos. Essentially, people who may be attracted to children. I don’t know what the large volume of views do, but I suspect it’s money related.

Wild. Simply wild.

A well known person flipping off a crowd is certainly dramatic, and deserves negative attention. But, a person allegedly exploiting children for person gain? Well, IMO, that should be the “attention getter” of the weekend.

I already looked into it. No videos of my kids, thank goodness. Hopefully this pervert gets blackballed by the sport. Obvious what he’s doing, but I think it’d probably be hard to stick him with a legal conviction.

 

[Fluffernutter]

I already looked into it. No videos of my kids, thank goodness. Hopefully this pervert gets blackballed by the sport. Obvious what he’s doing, but I think it’d probably be hard to stick him with a legal conviction.

I was volunteering with the local high school over the holiday break. One of the kids was on a receiving end of a lateral drop...but still won the match.

Anywho, the next practice, all the kids were talking about how the video of the lateral drop was in TikTok. He was a bit bummed that a viewer wouldn't have known that he actually won the match.

It made me think about how there was no social media when I was a high school kid. I'm not sure how I would have handled videos of me getting ragdolled on the Internet. And that's not including creeps watching youth wrestling videos for inappropriate reasons. As a parent, I'm sort of glad my two kids are involved in sports that are far removed from wrestling, swimming, gymnastics, etc because of the creeps.

 

[Fluffernutter]

 

[Dr J]

So it looks like AJ Ferrari is for sure sticking around Iowa. He was at the Iowa v Minnesota dual last night. For all his faults, he probably spent half his night taking pictures with kids and signing autographs despite just sitting there trying to enjoy the matches.

 

[dsdoubled]

So it looks like AJ Ferrari is for sure sticking around Iowa. He was at the Iowa v Minnesota dual last night. For all his faults, he probably spent half his night taking pictures with kids and signing autographs despite just sitting there trying to enjoy the matches.

Yeah let's not forget that he is really good and the Brands' are incredibly competitive. Plus they came up in a time of rough around the edges, tough guy types.

 

[Dr J]

Yeah let's not forget that he is really good and the Brands' are incredibly competitive. Plus they came up in a time of rough around the edges, tough guy types.

Word is AJ is taking an Olympic redshirt, and his brother is redshirting, as well.

 

[dsdoubled]

Word is AJ is taking an Olympic redshirt, and his brother is redshirting, as well.

Interesting. Isn't the Olympic weight 89kg? I think Taylor has shown he is clearly the very best in the world but AJ could make some noise otherwise. History has shown, especially in recent years, if you have strong age-group results on the world scene and if you can win a DI title, you're likely world team material. Brooks seems poised to make a big leap though now that he is presumably focused on freestyle.

Look what Pat Downey was able to do in a similar situation to Ferrari.

 

[Dr J]

Interesting. Isn't the Olympic weight 89kg? I think Taylor has shown he is clearly the very best in the world but AJ could make some noise otherwise. History has shown, especially in recent years, if you have strong age-group results on the world scene and if you can win a DI title, you're likely world team material. Brooks seems poised to make a big leap though now that he is presumably focused on freestyle.

Look what Pat Downey was able to do in a similar situation to Ferrari.

I don’t think it’s for him actually taking the year to qualify for the Olympics. Word is the AD didn’t want him on the team after his antics at Soldier Salute, so they’re using it to maintain his 3 years of eligibility to give things another semester to blow over.

Odds of him behaving for a semester and still being on the team aren’t great, in my opinion. He’s already teasing a jump to mma.