26 min

Short Time Topics: Yianni-Zain, 1967 East-West All-Star and your favorite All-Star Matches Short Time Wrestling Podcast

    • Wrestling

We’ve got electricians, we’ve got plumbing and we’ve got mouse ears! That’s right, the Short Time Wrestling Podcast is heading to Orlando. My wife and kids and I will head to Disney World. We’ll be hitting a few different places, spending time by the pool, sweating, having breakfast with Cinderella and everyt hing else that goes with it. My seven-year-old has been writing about this on the dry erase board for months, while my three-year-old would rather watch PJ Masks, which isn’t a Disney thing. This, however, is the Short Time Wrestling Podcast and I’m still working without a proper studio, so I’m still doing the solo show topic episode. Last time, we had a lot of great feedback with the pro wrestling topic. Before we get to all that - a quick hit on the Yianni-Zain thing. While I wasn’t at the NWCA Convention, I did get word there were some ideas being tossed around about the NWCA All-Star Classic and the future of that event. This prompted me to ask you what your favorite All-Star Classic match of all-time was. So before we get to those answers, let’s give you a little bit of backstory on the event. The East-West All-Star Classic first started in 1967 and was held after the season in Stillwater, Oklahoma. The event continued to be an East-West dual meet through 1987 when the team scoring component was taken out of the event. In 1973, the event moved to an in-season event, taking place in late January or early February until 2004. The NWCA opted to put the event in November to avoid matchups being dumped amidst concern for seed protection and coaches citing injury concerns so close to the postseason. The late November date went for eight seasons before the NWCA moved the event to the opening weekend of the college wrestling season in order to make it a kickoff weekend for college wrestling. The last two events have featured a large presence of women’s college wrestlers, which the NAIA has already created women’s wrestling as an invitational sport, while the NCAA is close to granting women’s wrestling emerging sports status. One of the most recent complaints coming from fans is that the event hasn’t been a real “All-Star” event because there are so few No. 1 vs. No. 2 wrestlers. Statistically, only one dual in recent memory (Penn State vs. Ohio State in 2017-18) featured as many All-Americans and top-ten wrestlers than the All-Star Classic typically does. Denver in 2018-19 was a notable exception as the card was split between men and women. This will be the 54th edition of the NWCA All-Star Classic. No, I do not yet know where the next edition will be, but before I get to your responses on your favorite All-Star Classic match of all-time, let’s go back to Stillwater, Oklahoma and then-Gallagher Arena, they didn’t add the Iba until later. Of the 11 weight classes – yes 11 – we had eight individual NCAA champions, and 21 of the 22 wrestlers were All-Americans. In addition to the eight champions, we had three runners-up, three thirds, two fourths, three fifth-place wrestlers and two sixth-place finishers. How many 1 vs. 2 rematches did we have? NONE! That’s right. But we did have a number of weights that shifted. At 115 pounds, third-place Glenn McMinn of Arizona State beat runner-up Jim Anderson of Minnesota 3-2. The two didn’t meet during the tournament, with McMinn falling in the semifinals to eventual champion Rick Sanders of Portland State. Sanders pinned McMinn in the quarters and then beat Anderson 19-2, in the pre-technical fall era, in the finals. 115-pound champion Rick Sanders went up to 123 pounds where he tied Michigan’s Bob Fehrs, the runner-up at 123, 2-2. Fehrs had just finished second a third straight year, losing to Lehigh’s Mike Caruso in the finals. That’s not second just a third year in a row. Fehrs lost to Caruso all three years in the finals. At 130 pounds, it was Caruso, the aforementioned champion at 123, who went up to defeat Colorado

We’ve got electricians, we’ve got plumbing and we’ve got mouse ears! That’s right, the Short Time Wrestling Podcast is heading to Orlando. My wife and kids and I will head to Disney World. We’ll be hitting a few different places, spending time by the pool, sweating, having breakfast with Cinderella and everyt hing else that goes with it. My seven-year-old has been writing about this on the dry erase board for months, while my three-year-old would rather watch PJ Masks, which isn’t a Disney thing. This, however, is the Short Time Wrestling Podcast and I’m still working without a proper studio, so I’m still doing the solo show topic episode. Last time, we had a lot of great feedback with the pro wrestling topic. Before we get to all that - a quick hit on the Yianni-Zain thing. While I wasn’t at the NWCA Convention, I did get word there were some ideas being tossed around about the NWCA All-Star Classic and the future of that event. This prompted me to ask you what your favorite All-Star Classic match of all-time was. So before we get to those answers, let’s give you a little bit of backstory on the event. The East-West All-Star Classic first started in 1967 and was held after the season in Stillwater, Oklahoma. The event continued to be an East-West dual meet through 1987 when the team scoring component was taken out of the event. In 1973, the event moved to an in-season event, taking place in late January or early February until 2004. The NWCA opted to put the event in November to avoid matchups being dumped amidst concern for seed protection and coaches citing injury concerns so close to the postseason. The late November date went for eight seasons before the NWCA moved the event to the opening weekend of the college wrestling season in order to make it a kickoff weekend for college wrestling. The last two events have featured a large presence of women’s college wrestlers, which the NAIA has already created women’s wrestling as an invitational sport, while the NCAA is close to granting women’s wrestling emerging sports status. One of the most recent complaints coming from fans is that the event hasn’t been a real “All-Star” event because there are so few No. 1 vs. No. 2 wrestlers. Statistically, only one dual in recent memory (Penn State vs. Ohio State in 2017-18) featured as many All-Americans and top-ten wrestlers than the All-Star Classic typically does. Denver in 2018-19 was a notable exception as the card was split between men and women. This will be the 54th edition of the NWCA All-Star Classic. No, I do not yet know where the next edition will be, but before I get to your responses on your favorite All-Star Classic match of all-time, let’s go back to Stillwater, Oklahoma and then-Gallagher Arena, they didn’t add the Iba until later. Of the 11 weight classes – yes 11 – we had eight individual NCAA champions, and 21 of the 22 wrestlers were All-Americans. In addition to the eight champions, we had three runners-up, three thirds, two fourths, three fifth-place wrestlers and two sixth-place finishers. How many 1 vs. 2 rematches did we have? NONE! That’s right. But we did have a number of weights that shifted. At 115 pounds, third-place Glenn McMinn of Arizona State beat runner-up Jim Anderson of Minnesota 3-2. The two didn’t meet during the tournament, with McMinn falling in the semifinals to eventual champion Rick Sanders of Portland State. Sanders pinned McMinn in the quarters and then beat Anderson 19-2, in the pre-technical fall era, in the finals. 115-pound champion Rick Sanders went up to 123 pounds where he tied Michigan’s Bob Fehrs, the runner-up at 123, 2-2. Fehrs had just finished second a third straight year, losing to Lehigh’s Mike Caruso in the finals. That’s not second just a third year in a row. Fehrs lost to Caruso all three years in the finals. At 130 pounds, it was Caruso, the aforementioned champion at 123, who went up to defeat Colorado

26 min

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