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Gable Steveson saga

Phantom of the Palestra said:
No and no. Part of Gable's failure to launch was WWE fans finding out about his sex assault allegations from a few years back, so that doesn't bode well for AJ. I personally can't see WWE having any interest in training AJ. Trainees are expected to show respect, humility, and shut the eff up when a veteran is explaining something to them. AJ is a loud idiot who thinks he is a genius and can't be left alone around the female trainees.
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Not sure all of that is true. Ferrari was supposedly a very hard worker and coachable at OKST.

There were issues with teammates at Blair and OKST. He was easily provoked, just ask Mastro. (Though maybe less without Fredo around?) He might have to be ordered to respect the guys in the locker room. And the women will have an issue with him.

His other issue is his recklessness. The guys need to be able to trust that he won't injure them. Otherwise he's in for a short stay, with some rough justice along the way.

Personally I hope he does go there -- and he gets saddled with an awful gimmick to start his career.
 
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El-Jefe said:
Not sure all of that is true. Ferrari was supposedly a very hard worker and coachable at OKST.

There were issues with teammates at Blair and OKST. He was easily provoked, just ask Mastro. (Though maybe less without Fredo around?) He might have to be ordered to respect the guys in the locker room. And the women will have an issue with him.

His other issue is his recklessness. The guys need to be able to trust that he won't injure them. Otherwise he's in for a short stay, with some rough justice along the way.

Personally I hope he does go there -- and he gets saddled with an awful gimmick to start his career.
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Yeah but the dynamic is going to be totally different in WWE. He won't be the star athlete there, he will be just another recruit who may or may not have some value to the company at some point in the future. Maybe they would be the ones who straighten him out, but I doubt they would have the patience.
 
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Cowbell Man said:
No question.

I just don’t know if that is a process that is allowed. If it is, great. But it does seem a bit weird to get a OLYRS for something not done.
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The most obvious answer to this is to make it a requirement to at least qualify for the OTTs in order for the ORS to count and save a year of eligibility. If you can't even qualify for the trials, you were never a serious Olympic contender. Another obvious fix to the issue would be to move the OTTs to December or January (and have last year's NCAA champ qualify, not the current year). Then, if someone starts an ORS year and fails to qualify, it's still only January and he can come back to his school to wrestle for the heart of the collegiate season and the NCAA would only have to grant ORS's to the actual Olympic qualifiers. It would also ensure that the US Olympic representative is the one trying to qualify the weight at the Continental qualifier and (if necessary) the last chance qualifier. Not having Spencer/Zain wrestling the Pan-Am qualifier put the US in a big bind.
 
Random4598375 said:
The most obvious answer to this is to make it a requirement to at least qualify for the OTTs in order for the ORS to count and save a year of eligibility. If you can't even qualify for the trials, you were never a serious Olympic contender. Another obvious fix to the issue would be to move the OTTs to December or January (and have last year's NCAA champ qualify, not the current year). Then, if someone starts an ORS year and fails to qualify, it's still only January and he can come back to his school to wrestle for the heart of the collegiate season and the NCAA would only have to grant ORS's to the actual Olympic qualifiers. It would also ensure that the US Olympic representative is the one trying to qualify the weight at the Continental qualifier and (if necessary) the last chance qualifier. Not having Spencer/Zain wrestling the Pan-Am qualifier put the US in a big bind.
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What problem are you trying to fix with the first part? People taking a year off school?
 
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NLWC is gonna have some extra scratch now. Gable is tight with RBY, Brooks, & Carter. If he wants to transition MMA, he’ll need a good gym 🤔
 
Random4598375 said:
Skirting eligibility rules to "train for the Olympics" when they have no intention at all of even going to the trials. We need fewer 24 year old 6th/7th year guys in college wrestling, not more.
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why do we need that? seems like there are only a handful of guys every 4 years that take the olympic year and don't try to make the team. doesn't seem pervasive enough to warrant a rule change for me.
 
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Random4598375 said:
Skirting eligibility rules to "train for the Olympics" when they have no intention at all of even going to the trials. We need fewer 24 year old 6th/7th year guys in college wrestling, not more.
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Gonna have a lot fewer ancient college wrestlers anyway. The Covid career extension will be long over by the 2028 Olympic shirts.

From a USA Wrestling perspective: if we want to continue winning world medals at every weight in sight, and have our 2nd and 3rd guys also be medalists in waiting, then broaden and deepen the pool, and don't worry about an occasional overshoot.
 
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El-Jefe said:
Gonna have a lot fewer ancient college wrestlers anyway. The Covid career extension will be long over by the 2028 Olympic shirts.

From a USA Wrestling perspective: if we want to continue winning world medals at every weight in sight, and have our 2nd and 3rd guys also be medalists in waiting, then broaden and deepen the pool, and don't worry about an occasional overshoot.
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Occasional overshoot or not my question remains: can you retroactively get an ORS for an Olympics you didn’t train for? I assume that is the situation.
 
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Olympic Redshirts are such a joke and I say that as a team that uses them obviously. But the idea you can use it to save eligibility off a medal you won when you were 16 (years ago) while making no attempts to even make the trials is laughable.

Gable's case is interesting even though he clearly just wants to just get another chance at a bag. He deserves it more than AJ. But he is a previous Olympic Gold medalist, was qualified for OTT and reportedly asked for permission from WWE to wrestle it.
 
McScoreley said:
Olympic Redshirts are such a joke and I say that as a team that uses them obviously. But the idea you can use it to save eligibility off a medal you won when you were 16 (years ago) while making no attempts to even make the trials is laughable.

Gable's case is interesting even though he clearly just wants to just get another chance at a bag. He deserves it more than AJ. But he is a previous Olympic Gold medalist, was qualified for OTT and reportedly asked for permission from WWE to wrestle it.
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I generally fall on the side of less restrictions on NCAA athletes, but the issue I have with ORS are they only provide an eligibility benefit to certain wrestlers. I'd prefer a system that makes it easier to qualify for an ORS (or allows anyone to get one) but requires some level of participation in the qualification process for the olympic team.

It makes no sense to me that a guy like AJ Ferrari can qualify to have his eligibility paused for a year (despite not being enrolled in school or actually trying to qualify for the team) while Barraclough (who is in classes, competing for his school, and trying to make the olympic team) can't.
 
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Cowbell Man said:
Occasional overshoot or not my question remains: can you retroactively get an ORS for an Olympics you didn’t train for? I assume that is the situation.
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It's not retroactive. It was activated the moment he didn't step on the scales at B10s, same as any other redshirt.
 
ss7 said:
I generally fall on the side of less restrictions on NCAA athletes, but the issue I have with ORS are they only provide an eligibility benefit to certain wrestlers. I'd prefer a system that makes it easier to qualify for an ORS (or allows anyone to get one) but requires some level of participation in the qualification process for the olympic team.

It makes no sense to me that a guy like AJ Ferrari can qualify to have his eligibility paused for a year (despite not being enrolled in school or actually trying to qualify for the team) while Barraclough (who is in classes, competing for his school, and trying to make the olympic team) can't.
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Two things here that don't align with facts:

1. The Olympic Shirt allows a wrestler to not enroll for that year -- in fact, that's a feature. So the Ferrari vs Bearckaw comparison does not work in that aspect.

2. Ferrari was not taking the Olympic Shirt until he double-birded Soldier Salute and was told he wouldn't be allowed to join Iowa in 2024.

I'm OK with disallowing an Olympic Shirt in cases of flagrant misbehavior, with some definition for the athletes. It shouldn't be a Get Out of Jail Free card for miscreants, nor a hammer for tyrant coaches -- you do this or I'm kicking you off the team and you don't get to shirt.
 
El-Jefe said:
Two things here that don't align with facts:

1. The Olympic Shirt allows a wrestler to not enroll for that year -- in fact, that's a feature. So the Ferrari vs Bearckaw comparison does not work in that aspect.

2. Ferrari was not taking the Olympic Shirt until he double-birded Soldier Salute and was told he wouldn't be allowed to join Iowa in 2024.

I'm OK with disallowing an Olympic Shirt in cases of flagrant misbehavior, with some definition for the athletes. It shouldn't be a Get Out of Jail Free card for miscreants, nor a hammer for tyrant coaches -- you do this or I'm kicking you off the team and you don't get to shirt.
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Not surprised I missed some of the finer points, but my overall feelings are:

Olympic redshirts are good and should be available for anyone that is making a good faith attempt to be part of the qualification process for the Olympic team. I don't think it's necessarily something that should only be available for certain guys, and if taken, it should come with some kind of requirement to use it for its intended purpose.

I don't like that it has essentially become an extra redshirt year that some guys have available and some guys don't.
 
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So can someone take redshirts and an Olympic redshirt waivers when you aren’t enrolled in class? Or was he enrolled in 2023 and 2024?
 
Petch said:
And he wouldn't even have to act! What an easy payday for him!
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Except for two things that he might not like.

1. Right now, he’s only known to fans of REAL wrestling. In the WWE, he would have a far wider audience and it wouldn’t be easy to try to sweep any more shenanigans under the rug. The WWE just might boot him if he goes too far.

2. Some of the established WWE stars might not care for his narcissistic behavior and decide to correct the situation by themselves. Even though they are acting, there are a lot of guys in that crowd that I wouldn’t want to mess around with.
 
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jpsolo said:
So can someone take redshirts and an Olympic redshirt waivers when you aren’t enrolled in class? Or was he enrolled in 2023 and 2024?
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Redshirt years have nothing to do with enrollment. Once you enroll at an institution full time your clock starts and you have 5 years to wrestle 4 (ignoring Covid years, Olympic redshirt years and multiyear medical redshirts). Any single year you don't wrestle attached after your clock starts can be a "redshirt year" whether you are enrolled in school that year or not. Wrestlers can wrestle in up to 5 matches their Freshman season and not use a year of eligibility thus it would also still be a redshirt year.
 
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I’m kinda with Willie on this. Yes, it’s probably duplicitous of me, since I’m thrilled to have Carter and Big Greg for one more year. Oh well.

I just really would like to see Gable wrestle Zare.

 
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Ski said:
Redshirt years have nothing to do with enrollment. Once you enroll at an institution full time your clock starts and you have 5 years to wrestle 4 (ignoring Covid years, Olympic redshirt years and multiyear medical redshirts). Any single year you don't wrestle attached after your clock starts can be a "redshirt year" whether you are enrolled in school that year or not. Wrestlers can wrestle in up to 5 matches their Freshman season and not use a year of eligibility thus it would also still be a redshirt year.
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So you can retroactively claim a redshirt year even if you are not in college anymore ? If so then that answers my question.
 
jpsolo said:
So you can retroactively claim a redshirt year even if you are not in college anymore ? If so then that answers my question.
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I think I understand what you are asking but let me give a for instance and see if it answers your question.

Once you enroll in school full time, your 5-year clock starts. Let's say you go to school and wrestle for a season. Then you decide to take 3 years off of school to go to work. Not liking work, you decide to go back to school and wrestle again. One of three years you weren't in school could be considered a redshirt. The other two years would count against your eligibility; thus, you do still have one year left to wrestle. For regular redshirts you don't have to declare a specific year as a redshirt but rather you either have time left on your 5-year clock to wrestle up to 4 years or not.

Again, this example ignores Covid years, Olympic redshirt years and multiyear medical redshirts and there are specific rules and criteria surrounding how you declare/request those. I don't know enough about the ORS to give you a definitive answer on them. Perhaps someone else can answer your question about those.
 
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that would answer my question. I thought you would have to be enrolled in school to officially use a redshirt.
 
Some wild speculation. Maybe just maybe WWE had been pumping Gable up with PEDs for the past year, and that is what kept him out of this Olympic cycle. After all that's what they do. If so he made a smart decision.

Bummer that he couldn't go, he is the best heavy freestyler I have ever seen and of course would have been the favorite for Gold.

It's really too bad going that route did absolutely nothing for his free/folk real wrestling career. I hope he now moves on from NCAA to whatever is next....
 
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GogglesPaizano said:
Some wild speculation. Maybe just maybe WWE had been pumping Gable up with PEDs for the past year, and that is what kept him out of this Olympic cycle. After all that's what they do. If so he made a smart decision.

Bummer that he couldn't go, he is the best heavy freestyler I have ever seen and of course would have been the favorite for Gold.

It's really too bad going that route did absolutely nothing for his free/folk real wrestling career. I hope he now moves on from NCAA to whatever is next....
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I can't help but think that Gable could have used stronger mentoring in his life. He consistently makes dubious short terms decisions that negatively effect his long term future. If he had gone the route of NCAA champion to Olympic champion, he could be eating oysters in the coaching realm someday soon. He's wasting an incredible future on short term NIL and fame. Get rid of the glitz and focus on the tried and true Gable. It's not too late
 
Agreed. Get a half million to go to an RTC and possibly win another Olympic gold in 4 years. Start coaching making 100,000 plus per year and you have a good comfortable life
 
Pennstate1985 said:
What does the next three years look like? Zero. That's a short term outlook IMO. PSU James is right. There is a reason some things are said to be tried and true. Because they are.
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You do realize that if he makes exactly zero in the next 3 years, he's at the same point after 6? And he won't make zero in the next 3 years.

Plus we are all imposing our values on him. He has long said he wanted to go WWE. So what if it didn't work, that's his dream. Not ours. And I don't think he has ever said anything about wanting to coach.
 
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I hope something comes of it. He's so athletically gifted that I think he could excel at almost anything. (Except a race horse jockey!)
 
He is athletic but not very big. NFL lineman are built like houses and athletic. Gable does not seem that big.
 
PSU James said:
He is athletic but not very big. NFL lineman are built like houses and athletic. Gable does not seem that big.
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He's the same height and 20 lb lighter than Aaron Donald.

We don't know his athletic measurables (arm length, speed, quickness, etc.). And obviously he hasn't trained or played since at least high school.

They'll try him out on the defensive line. (He's 40+ lb too light for OL.) Maybe he'll make it to training camp. If so, then he has a shot at making the practice squad as a developmental prospect. He won't make Buffalo's 53-man roster this year.

It'a a long shot. Coon didn't make a practice squad and is considerably taller and heavier, wrestled Greco (which is a better NFL projection than freestyle), and didn't take years away for WWE.
 
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El-Jefe said:
He's the same height and 20 lb lighter than Aaron Donald.

We don't know his athletic measurables (arm length, speed, quickness, etc.). And obviously he hasn't trained or played since at least high school.

They'll try him out on the defensive line. (He's 40+ lb too light for OL.) Maybe he'll make it to training camp. If so, then he has a shot at making the practice squad as a developmental prospect. He won't make Buffalo's 53-man roster this year.

It'a a long shot. Coon didn't make a practice squad and is considerably taller and heavier, wrestled Greco (which is a better NFL projection than freestyle), and didn't take years away for WWE.
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Could you imagine gable being a linebacker. That would be freaking awesome. He's quick enough maybe too big but I've seen some big linebackers before. He would wreck somebody lol this has to work I want to see it
 
District four said:
Could you imagine gable being a linebacker. That would be freaking awesome. He's quick enough maybe too big but I've seen some big linebackers before. He would wreck somebody lol this has to work I want to see it
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He'd be easily the worst LB in the NFL. Too many years away from the sport, play recognition and decision-making would be major liabilities.
 
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