2018 World Cup to Iowa City

United World Wrestling has announced that the 2018 World Cup for Men's Freestyle will be held in Iowa City on April 21-22. The annual event has grown in popularity over the past few years as live streams have made the entertaining aspect of freestyle duals accessible. 

Los Angeles has hosted the event for the past three years, and while the location didn't make for great attendance, live streams allowed fans to watch some of the United States' biggest stars wrestle as a team against some of the world's best competition. We also saw some great exciting action in this year's World Clubs Cup when Titan Mercury won with some thrilling come from behind wins. 

The 2017 World Cup will head back to Tehran where the Iranian fans packed their arena and applauded Jordan Burroughs every move back in 2013. CNN even did a wonderful story about it.

Uploaded by Dāngqián xīnwén on 2013-07-22.

Now Iowa City (aka the midwest) gets its turn. Attendance at the Olympic Trials this year was good & passionate but could have been better. Personally, I have criticized USA Wrestling for too many senior level freestyle events being held in areas that miss the larger wrestling-centric markets. This opportunity is something that's incredibly exciting to think about with midwest fans being able to show up and root on a team featuring a lineup full of stars. 

The World Cup is held every year featuring a host country and the top finishing teams from the previous year's World Championships. 

Freestyle duals are awesome and now one of the best examples of that will be held in Carver-Hawkeye Arena, the Yankee Stadium of wrestling. This is exciting stuff!