"Final X", A Moment for Women's Wrestling

Final X presents an opportunity for Women's Freestyle to garner a lot of fanfare that they deserve. In 2015, I sat in Madison at the World Team Trials and Women's Senior level freestyle was fun to watch from a pure fan's standpoint. The 2016 Olympic Trials brought even more entertainment, and watching these two world championships and the Olympics have made me a sold fan of the product. It's very entertaining, and the talent in the United States is getting deeper. 

After Prowl and other attempts to main stream the trials into something that more resembles a series, league, or a guild USA Wrestling has landed on "Final X". The finals of the World Team Trials will be split to three different main events, each featuring men's and women's freestyle weight classes. The events will be held in front of invested collegiate fan bases in Lincoln, Lehigh, and State College. 

The two main benefits to this improvement are fans and time to build up the matches. Previously, the time between setting the final best 2 of 3 participants and the whistle blowing was about three hours. "Getting to know" the women finalists will be a great benefit to the growth of women's wrestling. Of course, it will also give time for others to hype the high-profile matches as well. 

The opportunity to showcase in front of what are expected to be large crowds and a good size streaming audience is of course incredible. The product is great and the women's team is full of endearing characters. This also gives the chance a women's series "steals the show". Similar to fans at the World Cup not expecting they would be talking about Japan vs Cuba the next day, the best back and forth series could come from anywhere and what better place to do it than a sold out Rec Hall, packed Snake Pit or Burroughs & Green's faithful in Lincoln. As former rivals did in Carver-Hawkeye at the World Cup, playing to these crowds will be a big step in the advancement of Women's Wrestling.