Drop Wrestling?! IOC loses perfect vision for 2020 Olympics...

Badminton, Table Tennis, Equestrian, Synchronized Swimming, Pentathalon, Trampoline, Taekwondo and Judo are all deemed more worthy Olympic sports than the original sport of wrestling!  It is a travesty, an outrage, a f*ing joke to put it mildly. 

The sport of wrestling is the original hand to hand combat of two warriors (no gay jokes please, save that for the speedo wearing fake wrestling).  The moves in wrestling have helped form some of the greatest martial arts, such as the two mentioned above.  It is a base for what is one of the fastest growing sports of the last 10 years in Mixed Martial Arts.  The best fighters in that sport have a strong background in wrestling.  The biggest reason, wrestling helps you learn to control someone and keep from getting controlled or in poor situations when you are competing hand to hand.  I have seen videos from special ops units, police units, self-protectionetc. and the background is once again wrestling.

So what got us to this point that the wrestling community is outraged and anyone with half a brain that enjoys the Olympics is going, WTF?!

I have to be honest, the availability for viewing of wrestling is awful in the Olympics.  First, it usually is only aired for a gold medal and otherwise it is available.  Then, the only matches you will ever see are at a local HS or when ESPN does a finals on crack speed aired at seasons end or if you get the Big 10 network.   Otherwise, most people have never seen a match.

The next issue is the scoring in freestyle and the best 2 out of 3 periods format it has became.  I know this was done to eliminate all the tie matches, but it is boring and tough to get into.  I like collegiate wrestling because of the format and the matches seem to be higher scoring, even at the Div. I level.  I watched a few matches this summer and went, what is this crap?!  2-1 with holding of legs in freestyle and pummeling in greco is not entertaining.

Here is how I change it and how I make it more interesting:

• Takedowns are worth 2 points unless backpoints or freestyle points are awarded.
• You have 10 seconds to turn a guy.  If he escapes, you don't turn him or you let him go, he is awarded a point.  This is almost like the take him down, let him go of collegiate.
• The person with the most turns wins if there is a tie after a sudden death overtime period.  The second tiebreaker is most takedowns.  The third tiebreaker is most escapes.  The 4th is judges decision based off more aggressive wrestler.
• Give a wrestleback opportunity.  This isn't an overloaded HS tourney.  This is the world's best.  A guy shouldn't have to be piggy backed to the next round.  There is enough time.
• Eliminate women's wrestling.  I don't care what people say but unless them women can beat the men, wrestling is like football to me, unless you can compete on the same level, don't make it it's own sport.  No problem with soccer, basketball, etc. because those are sports that have long had solely female teams.

Locally in the US to garner attention

• Wrestlers are funky looking dudes with ugly ears (me included), but I remember being able to see John Smith, Kenny Monday and Bruce Baumgarter win the Olympics.  I remember the big deal it was.  I remember how big of a deal it was when a CO transplant won it in 2008 in Henry Cejudo.  This year there was no hype for our two gold medalists.  I guess that was the case for the world.  Make it a big deal like they did in the late 80s/early 90s! 
• If you can show Canoe on TV for prelims you can make the semifinals and medal matches a priority.
• Do like they did in the Athens and Beijing games, give each sport a channel on your 5 NBC channels and allow viewers to view around the clock on something other than an AWFUL feed to a computer where the bandwith was never coordinating properly on anything I tried to view wrestling live on.  I don't care what time it is on, repeat it or tape delay for when people are up, but don't judge ignore this sport.

So IOC and USOC, listen to the fans and listen to this main reason I have:
Wrestling is a sport that is decided by two warriors going head to head with no help.  A coach is a voice that is toned out other than in between breaks or when the ears open briefly to catch something that can't be seen with a head in the mat, against the side.  I have ran for 3.5 hours before and been spent physically.  I have wrestled for 6 minutes and felt the same thing.  No other sport, other than the warrior sports of boxing and MMA have I seen something like that.  Wrestling takes 100s of hours for less than 10 minutes on the mat to get to that gold medal round in the Olympics.  It is one of the few pure Olympic sport where you don't try to throw a match (see your crappy badminton play), it is not judged (for the most part) by a group, it is not something that belongs in a backyard or gym for show (trampoline); it is two warriors that don't get paid beyond minor endorsements to make a simple living doing something they love to attain what every wrestler seeks at some point from pee-wee to that level, that gold medal (or at least a medal).  You are telling wrestlers in college in the US, in Olympic training centers worldwide, that wrestling is not a sport worth trying to improve upon.  The sport is already underappreciated and tough to say hey, you should wrestle instead of play this sport because of these reasons.  Don't take the one reason the BEST of the BEST in this sport keep pursuing the sport and putting it all on the mat by eliminating wrestling in the Olympics.  Fix your mistake and keep wrestling in 2020 and forever.