No Holds Barred: Jason Bryant on Nov. 1 College Wrestling All-Star Classic

On this edition of No Holds Barred, host Eddie Goldman spoke with wrestling journalist Jason Bryant of Mat Talk Online.

Our subject was the 2014 NWCA All-Star Classic, the college wrestling all-star meet which takes place Saturday, November 1. The location is the Palestra on the campus of the University of Pennsylvania, in the heart of Philadelphia.

Held at the start of the 2014-15 college wrestling season, this event is its semi-official kickoff.

We spoke with Jason Bryant by phone Friday.

"We got seven number one vs. number two matchups," he said. "All around, it's a real kickoff."

Five defending NCAA Div. I champions are slated to compete: Ohio State's Logan Stieber, Northwestern's Jason Tsirtsis, Oklahoma State's Alex Dieringer, Missouri's J'Den Cox, and N.C. State's Nick Gwiazdowski. Several other wrestlers who are ranked number one in this year's preseason polls will also hit the mat.

Plus, there will be five showcase matches, including a women's freestyle match between 2014 World bronze medalists Helen Maroulis (Tempe, Ariz./Sunkist Kids) and Jillian Gallays of Canada.

We discussed who these talented wrestlers are, what to expect in these matches, the state of college wrestling in America, and much more.

Here is the lineup:

(Rankings by TheOpenMat.com)

125: #3 Alan Waters, Sr. (Missouri) vs. #4 Joey Dance, So. (Virginia Tech)

133: #1 A.J. Schopp, Sr. (Edinboro) vs. #2 Mason Beckman, Jr. (Lehigh)

141: #1 Logan Stieber, Sr. (Ohio State) vs. #2 Mitchell Port, Sr. (Edinboro)

149: #1 Jason Tsirtsis, So. (Northwestern) vs. #2 Josh Kindig, Sr. (Oklahoma State)

157: #2 James Green, Sr. (Nebraska) vs. #3 Ian Miller, Jr. (Kent State)

165: #1 Alex Dieringer, Jr. (Oklahoma State) vs. #2 Nick Sulzer, Sr. (Virginia)

174: #2 Robert Kokesh, Sr. (Nebraska) vs. #1-NAIA Brock Gutches, Sr. (Southern Oregon)

184: #1 Gabe Dean, So. (Cornell) vs. #1 Jack Dechow, So. (Old Dominion)

197: #1 J'Den Cox, So. (Missouri) vs. #2 Scott Schiller, Sr. (Minnesota)

285: #1 Nick Gwiazdowski, Jr. (N.C. State) vs. #2 Mike McMullan, Sr. (Northwestern)

Showcase Matchups:

Women's FS 55kg: World #3 Helen Maroulis (United States) vs. World #4 Jillian Gallays (Canada)

133: #1-Division III Alex Gomez, Sr. (Ithaca) vs. #17 Kevin Devoy, So. (Drexel)

141: #1-NCWA Ryan Diehl, So. (Liberty) vs. Jordan Laster, So. (Princeton)

149: #3 Devin Carter, Sr. (Virginia Tech) vs. #20 C.J. Cobb, Sr. (Penn)

184: #3 Lorenzo Thomas, Sr. (Penn) vs. Clint Morrison, Sr. (Rider)

For those unable to attend in person, the event will be streamed live on Flowrestling.org, and requires a FloPro subscription ($20/month). It will also be televised in the U.S. several times on tape-delay on Fox College Sports.

For more information, go to http://www.nwcaonline.com/NWCAWebSite/Events/nwcaallstarclassic.aspx.

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Thanks, Eddie Goldman
EddieGoldman.com

I just listened to this Podcast.

The guy on the podcast hyped Flowrestling a little.

Let me tell you, their website is an absolute mess. No order whatsoever. It is a disaster area.

I was once a paying member of that site.

You can't find a single thing. Trying to locate something is a needle in the haystack ordeal.

They don't post full event videos. Just spliced up videos, and they send them into the heap of the giant wasteland.

It isn't that hard. Hire some tech people to organize your website.

I sent them an email about it, and I got back some stupid automatic response, that wasn't even 'thank you for your comment, we'll look into it'; but was more like 'we are really glad you like our site, keep following us.'.

Brock Gutches, and his brother Bryson, actually use to train with us at my high school. I heard he was wrestling at the All Star Classics.

I try to find some footage of the All Star Classics. The first thing on the screen is a giant spoiler about his match plastered on the front page.

How exactly can you expect to get paying subscribers with such awful conditions?

I would gladly be a paying subscriber.

But, they have to fix their damn website.

Spend the money. It'll be worth it.

People will actually give a shit about your site, that way, and pay for it.

Flowrestling is notorious for being a mess. The problem is that most wrestling people accept garbage and mediocrity, and have zero - zero - clue how to use media. And they don't listen to good advice because they have no frame of reference outside of what they have seen in schools. So wrestling dies, or kills itself, bit by bit. Meanwhile, one wrestler after another wants to fight for Zuffa.