Saving the World Cup

dAVID tAYLOR PINS yAZDANI WHO HAD JUST WON OLYMPIC GOLD AT THE 2017 WORLD CUP IN IRAN

Mentioning the World Cup and D1 National Duals is a lightning quick way to get my skin to crawl. Part of the fun of this half hearted (well full hearted but part-time) accidental foray into wrestling media over the last decade is learning about the history of events. Both the World Cup and D1 National Duals have a frustrating history while currently not having a plan for a next one despite the fact that they are/would be awesome! I attended the 2018 World Cup in Iowa City and it is on my list of best wrestling events I have ever attended.

BURROUGHS NEARLY KILLS rEZAEI GHALEH IN 2015

Backing up, the Men’s Freestyle World Cup was held every year from 1973 to 2019. From what I’ve been told it was largely a “good will” sort of event through the cold war years with the Soviet Union, USA Iran, Japan Cuba, etc. It wasn’t always everyone’s “A” team, but the event went on. Toledo, Ohio hosted 17 of the first 19. In my not so humble opinion, it really wasn’t until 2012 that the event took off. Internet streaming and social media helped shine light on how fun international freestyle duals can be.

Star power always helps any event and sport. Jordan Burroughs worldwide emergence and trip to Iran in 2012 got main stream news attention. Iran and Russia coming to Los Angeles in 2013 also caught some eye balls, and in 2017 it became a controversy with Iran hosting it. In 2018, the politics continues when Russia and Iran did not make the trip to Iowa City. In Dan Gable’s own words though, “excuses come easier when you don’t know if you can win.” The World Cup has never been perfect with everyone’s A teams ready to go, but that doesn’t mean to not do it. We need a World Cup every year even though politics and war are not helping. Yes, a World Cup without two of the top three programs is tough to fathom but sometimes you have to deal with reality on reality’s terms. In 2018 we sat and watched an excellent couple of duals as USA defeated tough teams from Azerbaijan and Japan. The Americans’ lineup went Gilman, Maple, Stieber, Green, Burroughs, Dake, Taylor, Cox, Snyder and Gwiazdowski. The event is worth saving.

This where I throw out a couple options, and am open to other suggestions.

Option A is a “friendly World Cup”. After years of being plagued by politics and financing, just get some countries you know that are friendly and that will show up. So we have USA, Japan, and Mongolia. I would potentially throw Azerbaijan, Turkey and Georgia as options too. Armenia is another decent option, but not sure how much the conflict between them and Azerbaijan factors in. Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan seem to be down for events, but I worry about funding. Transfers have boosted some countries depth, and these countries seemingly are neutral and funded including Serbia, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Bahrain, Albania, Uzbekistan, Greece and Poland. Out of the 17 countries named, I’m sure we can get 8 of them in the same place.

Option B is a bit wild, but remember how awesome that one RTC cup was? So competition without Iran and Russia may cause some luster to be lost. Maybe the top RTC’s face some friendly countries. There actually used to be a club championship that Titan Mercury went to. It was fun, but a little confusing on what teams were made of. However, selling an event where Nitany Lion, Hawkeye, Cliff Keen and New Jersey faced off with Japan, Mongolia, Mexico, and Puerto Rico (or an assortment of above countries) should be damn easy.

Any other ideas? Tweet them at me @bloodround