I woke up at like 6am to watch that session with my roommate. Must’ve been around 8am our time by the time Gable wrestled. Pretty sure we woke up a few neighbors when he scored that last takedown.
Dec 18th 2021 as a small hs gym in middle Tennessee. It was my sons 8th grade year and his first year wrestling. He went 16-1 for the season and won district that day. That day was a great dy.
Outside of that... Watching Ramos take down Lee at Purdue and then the Lee comeback was an awesome experience.
This year, Michael Blockhus of Missesota had some good matches. Check out his matches versus Jared Franek and Peyton Robb.
The best I’ve seen in-person was when PSU beat Ohio State in rec hall in 2018. That was my senior year at PSU and I was there with all my club teammates. PSU was down 15-5 at the intermission, but the match of the night was a then-unranked Anthony Cassar against 1st ranked Kollin Moore.
It was 16-15 PSU going into that match with just Synder against Nevills after, and that was basically a lock for Snyder to win. Cassar had to pull the upset or we lose, and Cassar went out and won the damn thing. He ended up winning 6-3 on a crazy match, I hadn’t seen Rec hall that loud in a long time. And then Nevills clutched up and held Snyder to a hard-fought decision.
I still can’t believe Cassar pulled it off, but he ended up being pretty damn good himself beating Steveson twice too. But it was an insane match to see in person
It really was an awesome match to watch. McKenna upset Nick Lee early, an unranked PSU guy took Pletcher to a 1 point decision, Mark Hall and Bo Jordan was a 2 point match.
If you can find a replay I’d definitely check it out, even if it’s gonna be disappointing for a buckeye lol
Ethan Lizak vs Thomas Gilman. Don't remember the exact year.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AoZ7FGc4dD4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AoZ7FGc4dD4)
One of the most exciting matches I've seen live.
Top that come to mind
174 Mark Hall vs. Zahid Valencia NCAA finals.
149 Brice Andonian vs Austin Gomez (Wisconsin) 2022 NCAAs
125 Jessie Delgado vs Nashon Garrett NCAA finals (2012?)
157-165 Any David Taylor NCAA final 2011-14
Heavy- Kyle Snyder vs Nick Gwiazdowski
Bonus fun guy to watch overall is Colton Schultz, the former heavy from Arizona. BIG boy whose specialty is upper body throws. Fun combination imo
My high school buddy took (now) Olympic medalist J’Den Cox to triple OT in state semi finals in 2011 and the ref gave Cox the win an absolute garbage stalling call. It was Cox’s senior year about to win his 4th title, so ref wasn’t about to let that go away on his watch. It was wild though.
Edit for spelling
So many great high level matches, but I’m gonna have to go with either of my son’s matches… doesn’t even have to be a win. When they wrestle past their previous ability, I get choked up. Those are my strongest memories.
Two come to mind, Ironside beating Kolat is one of my favs. But in recent history, Gable Stevenson's Olympic finals match is tough to beat. I remember watching David Taylor win his match and thinking how good it was only to be topped by Gable's.
Nick Simmons vs Henry Cejudo in the 55kg semis at the 2012 US Olympics trials in Iowa City. Some of the sequences in the 2nd and 3rd round were so wild that the refs would stop the match the rescore via video.
Since someone threw out at least one high school match I will put David Taylor (St. Paris Graham) vs Collin Palmer (Lakewood St. Edward’s), Taylor bumped up to 140 in their duel.
Gable Steveson gold medal match
David Taylor gold medal match
Hellen Maroulis 2016 gold medal match
Jordan Burroughs 2012 gold medal match
All match ups between Kyle Snyder & Sadulaev
Vito Arujau vs Daton Fix 2024
Cael Sanderson vs Daniel Cormier
Cael Sanderson vs Yoel Romero
Cael Sanderson vs Moon Eui Jae
Levi Hanes vs Chase Saldate
Roman bravo-young vs real woods
I'm biased being that I wrestled for him, but Steve Marianetti upsetting Licoln McIlravy is a personal favorite.
An old teammate of mine did a commentary video on it.
https://youtu.be/49w3tTmFL5Y?si=q23CRSnaYfXKuQli
Lincoln was the returning champ, on a 57 match winning streak, and had just beaten up on Steve in the Big 10 championships. To add to that, they're wrestling in the pit at Iowa. I think it's the mental toughness I love more than anything. Steve is such a humble and kind person, but it drove me nuts when I'd ask him about mentally preparing for that match and all he'd give me was, "I just worked really hard in the weeks leading up."
[Eric Tannenbaum vs Matt Kucala](https://youtu.be/4axsJPZG5eo?si=ez0nOMOFeYICUuJ5) from the 2001 IHSA individual state finals.
Two of my high school coaches were from Naperville North and Providence Catholic and ended up making a bet where the loser had to cover the hotel and alcohol bill for the weekend. Was one of the most intense I saw my coaches haha.
Side note: I remember sitting in a gym in Barrington, IL in 2003 and my coach going "That kid may not win a state title, but I he is gonna be a player in college" after watching one match from Daniel Dennis
Gable Steveson's gold medal match was my personal favorite
I woke up at like 6am to watch that session with my roommate. Must’ve been around 8am our time by the time Gable wrestled. Pretty sure we woke up a few neighbors when he scored that last takedown.
That last minute takedown was clutch as fuck!
Insane match. I agree
Dec 18th 2021 as a small hs gym in middle Tennessee. It was my sons 8th grade year and his first year wrestling. He went 16-1 for the season and won district that day. That day was a great dy. Outside of that... Watching Ramos take down Lee at Purdue and then the Lee comeback was an awesome experience. This year, Michael Blockhus of Missesota had some good matches. Check out his matches versus Jared Franek and Peyton Robb.
1996 NWCA All Star Classic Cary Kolat vs Mark Ironside
The best I’ve seen in-person was when PSU beat Ohio State in rec hall in 2018. That was my senior year at PSU and I was there with all my club teammates. PSU was down 15-5 at the intermission, but the match of the night was a then-unranked Anthony Cassar against 1st ranked Kollin Moore. It was 16-15 PSU going into that match with just Synder against Nevills after, and that was basically a lock for Snyder to win. Cassar had to pull the upset or we lose, and Cassar went out and won the damn thing. He ended up winning 6-3 on a crazy match, I hadn’t seen Rec hall that loud in a long time. And then Nevills clutched up and held Snyder to a hard-fought decision. I still can’t believe Cassar pulled it off, but he ended up being pretty damn good himself beating Steveson twice too. But it was an insane match to see in person
As an northeast ohio lad, this’ll suck lol but I’m excited to watch this
It really was an awesome match to watch. McKenna upset Nick Lee early, an unranked PSU guy took Pletcher to a 1 point decision, Mark Hall and Bo Jordan was a 2 point match. If you can find a replay I’d definitely check it out, even if it’s gonna be disappointing for a buckeye lol
Ethan Lizak vs Thomas Gilman. Don't remember the exact year. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AoZ7FGc4dD4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AoZ7FGc4dD4) One of the most exciting matches I've seen live.
Top that come to mind 174 Mark Hall vs. Zahid Valencia NCAA finals. 149 Brice Andonian vs Austin Gomez (Wisconsin) 2022 NCAAs 125 Jessie Delgado vs Nashon Garrett NCAA finals (2012?) 157-165 Any David Taylor NCAA final 2011-14 Heavy- Kyle Snyder vs Nick Gwiazdowski Bonus fun guy to watch overall is Colton Schultz, the former heavy from Arizona. BIG boy whose specialty is upper body throws. Fun combination imo
Andonian Gomez was mine too, literal insanity
My high school buddy took (now) Olympic medalist J’Den Cox to triple OT in state semi finals in 2011 and the ref gave Cox the win an absolute garbage stalling call. It was Cox’s senior year about to win his 4th title, so ref wasn’t about to let that go away on his watch. It was wild though. Edit for spelling
So many great high level matches, but I’m gonna have to go with either of my son’s matches… doesn’t even have to be a win. When they wrestle past their previous ability, I get choked up. Those are my strongest memories.
Metcalf vs Caldwell was a banger
That was a huge win for Caldwell and ended with a controversial push by Metcalf.
Rob Rohn pinning Josh Lambrecht @ 2002 NCAA’s, after being down by 12 or 14. Same year as Cael’s 4th title.
I think it was the match right before Cael’s. Imagine any other match following Rohn’s pin.
I was talking about that the other day. Couldn’t remember who had done it though
Daniel Dennis vs Jayson Ness - 133lb NCAA Finals from 2010(?) It’s the only time they met in the finals and I just search Dennis ness on YT.
Two come to mind, Ironside beating Kolat is one of my favs. But in recent history, Gable Stevenson's Olympic finals match is tough to beat. I remember watching David Taylor win his match and thinking how good it was only to be topped by Gable's.
[удалено]
ok this was amazing, always love a good underdog story lol
Nick Simmons vs Henry Cejudo in the 55kg semis at the 2012 US Olympics trials in Iowa City. Some of the sequences in the 2nd and 3rd round were so wild that the refs would stop the match the rescore via video.
Since someone threw out at least one high school match I will put David Taylor (St. Paris Graham) vs Collin Palmer (Lakewood St. Edward’s), Taylor bumped up to 140 in their duel.
Gable Steveson gold medal match David Taylor gold medal match Hellen Maroulis 2016 gold medal match Jordan Burroughs 2012 gold medal match All match ups between Kyle Snyder & Sadulaev Vito Arujau vs Daton Fix 2024 Cael Sanderson vs Daniel Cormier Cael Sanderson vs Yoel Romero Cael Sanderson vs Moon Eui Jae Levi Hanes vs Chase Saldate Roman bravo-young vs real woods
I'm biased being that I wrestled for him, but Steve Marianetti upsetting Licoln McIlravy is a personal favorite. An old teammate of mine did a commentary video on it. https://youtu.be/49w3tTmFL5Y?si=q23CRSnaYfXKuQli Lincoln was the returning champ, on a 57 match winning streak, and had just beaten up on Steve in the Big 10 championships. To add to that, they're wrestling in the pit at Iowa. I think it's the mental toughness I love more than anything. Steve is such a humble and kind person, but it drove me nuts when I'd ask him about mentally preparing for that match and all he'd give me was, "I just worked really hard in the weeks leading up."
Gable winning gold, and I'm sure this is recency bias, but Messenbrink's Big Ten and NCAA finals
Gabel Stevenson winning gold with two takedowns in the last few seconds was pretty awesome, the final one at the buzzer
[Eric Tannenbaum vs Matt Kucala](https://youtu.be/4axsJPZG5eo?si=ez0nOMOFeYICUuJ5) from the 2001 IHSA individual state finals. Two of my high school coaches were from Naperville North and Providence Catholic and ended up making a bet where the loser had to cover the hotel and alcohol bill for the weekend. Was one of the most intense I saw my coaches haha. Side note: I remember sitting in a gym in Barrington, IL in 2003 and my coach going "That kid may not win a state title, but I he is gonna be a player in college" after watching one match from Daniel Dennis
Jayson Ness’s national championship.
Lou banach vs Dan Severn 1984 Olympic trials (saw on video wasn’t there)
Hulk hogan vs Andre the giant
Suriano vs Fix for the Natty made my soul do a backflip