Stall calls on RBY

[RB-Old]

I know winning makes everything okay but that was some horrific officiating. I honestly don't know what would make a ref just decide to do something so blatantly obvious to help a wrestler, even the ESPN guys were amazed at how bad it was. Did he do it because Smith was pressuring him? It was very similar to the ref awarding Warner a stall point against Reenan as he was taking him down. They showed Brands just screaming then the ref awarding it.

Also, I'm not even sure stalling should be called on a top wrestler. They say you're supposed to try and score from top but securing RT is trying to score and not letting your opponent out is trying to stop him from scoring. I agree that just holding onto a leg is stalling but if you're off the legs the onus is on the bottom man to get out. It way too random anyway, they let Eiermann stick in the boots against Lee and just sit there but they called RBY for actually working to keep Fix down.

Either way, refs need to be able to stand up to that kind of BS, they can't keep buckling because of the constant pressure. I understand coaches getting heated about missed calls but they shouldn't be allowed to scream for stalling points all match every match. Is it time for the NCAA to put in a rule that penalized coaches for arguing for stall calls? It's just embarrassing.

 

[royboy]

Yeah, the stalling vs RBY was one of the worst calls (series of calls) that I remember. And in a national championship final.

I hope there is some consequence for the referee involved (#9 if I recall).

 

[STAND with PRIDE]

I cant remember RBY ever giving up 2 stall calls, let alone 3!! Just ludicrous.

 

[jbkeller72]

I don’t think the warning in the 2nd was particularly egregious - I’m not wild about the ankle ride though - but the back-to-back calls in the second were criminal. Maybe the edge stalling but Fix did nothing in neutral to warrant a stall call against RBY

 

[Folkstylefan]

Seems the NCAA brass was trying to make up to Iowa for ruining their tittle hopes last yr. They received alot of favorable calls and PSU got some really bad calls. Gable probably on phone all week harping on them.

 

[nitlion6]

The first stall call was OK. He had the leg hooked and was doing nothing to break Fix down and right b4 the call I was thinking he is going to call you.

The second call was more like a WTF. Sure RBY wasn't pushing the action, but he was presenting himself and Fix was not initiating any action either.

The third was really terrible because of what it did. However, from a technical point of view Fix bullrushed RBY. If Fix shot straight through RBY and RBY retreated straight backwards, OK hit him. Technically speaking, a stall warning could have been given to Fix but not RBY.

Fix scored 2 points without ever initiating any offensive attacks.

 

[CJFisJoePaII]

Yeah, the stalling vs RBY was one of the worst calls (series of calls) that I remember. And in a national championship final.

I hope there is some consequence for the referee involved (#9 if I recall).

It was Angel Rivera - a notoriously pro-Iowa / anti-PSU Ref imho.

Top stalling should be called when top-wrestler is not attempting to improve (defined as either trying to break opponent down, return them to the mat or setting up a turning combination on the bottom wrestler). RBY was clearly trying to breakdown bottom wrestler while knee-pinching both his legs. Honestly, I could see a Ref calling a stalemate there due to situation, but not stalling as both wrestlers were clearly trying to improve imho.

Rivera also called 2 Stalls on RBY in 3rd within 10 seconds of one another which is bullshit as he never gave RBY a chance to shoot after first call. Horrendous officiating that even the announcers said they'd never seen before (2 stalling calls within 10 seconds of each other).

 

[PSUbluTX]

I don’t think the warning in the 2nd was particularly egregious - I’m not wild about the ankle ride though - but the back-to-back calls in the second were criminal. Maybe the edge stalling but Fix did nothing in neutral to warrant a stall call against RBY

I agree with this and other observations above. But given how inconsistently refs having been calling stalling, I've been surprised to see RBY flirting with stalling-call danger in some recent matches. Seems he could benefit from a minor tweak in that area to stay off the radar of trigger-happy refs.

 

[m.knox]

The second point was totally wrong.

Wonder how much the fact that Fix was the #1 seed had to do with it.

 

[Ja1339]

Seems the HR folks aren’t fans of his either....

A Brands brother says what we're all thinking to Angel Rivera

SIAP. Did not notice it on my initial viewing, but one of the Brands brothers, presumably Terry, yelled "You're awful, Angel" at Angel Rivera. It happens at the restart of the Warner-Caffey match with 40 seconds left. If you're looking at the BTN replay, it's around 1:39:09. It is...

iowa.forums.rivals.com

...something both boards can agree on, he’s brutally bad.

 

[Tom McAndrew]

I know winning makes everything okay but that was some horrific officiating.

This was discussed a great deal in the Finals thread.

Also, I'm not even sure stalling should be called on a top wrestler. They say you're supposed to try and score from top but securing RT is trying to score and not letting your opponent out is trying to stop him from scoring. I agree that just holding onto a leg is stalling but if you're off the legs the onus is on the bottom man to get out. It way too random anyway, they let Eiermann stick in the boots against Lee and just sit there but they called RBY for actually working to keep Fix down.

Stall calls are a challenge for refs. The part of your post that I bolded is incorrect. Either wrestler on the mat can be called for stalling. The task for each wrestler is to improve. For the bottom guy, that means to work for an esc or a reversal. For the top guy, that means to work for tilts. That said, working for an esc or a reversal isn't always a smart move for the bottom guy, depending on what hold/move the top guy is employing. So it really becomes a bit of a cat and mouse game between the two wrestlers, with the ref trying to make sure that neither guy is just hanging out. If a ref feels that neither of the guys are doing anything to improve, then they can either verbally encourage them to improve, or they can call a stalemate. They also have the option of calling stalling on both of them or just one of them, but I disagree with that approach.

Legs are particularly challenging. Some refs are happy to let guys on the top throw in a boot and do a cross body ride, or to throw in double boots and simply stretch out the bottom guy for most/all of the period. I disagree with this approach, and it's not really what is emphasized to the refs. (I'm just throwing that in to the discussion. I don't believe RBY had a leg in when called for stalling on top.)

It was Angel Rivera - a notoriously pro-Iowa / anti-PSU Ref imho.

That's absolute nonsense. Rivera has a reputation for 1) being more proactive with calls than most refs, and 2) making a lot of calls that other refs do not routinely make. Pretty much every fan base is aware of him, and gets frustrated with him when his proactive approach goes against their guy.

Either way, refs need to be able to stand up to that kind of BS, they can't keep buckling because of the constant pressure. I understand coaches getting heated about missed calls but they shouldn't be allowed to scream for stalling points all match every match.

Fans make this claim all the time, but it really is off target. The refs used in Div. 1 wrestling came up through the ranks. They didn't start at Div. 1. And the screaming by coaches and fans about stalling is insane at the youth level and the high school level. To be a good high school ref (not even a college ref), you have to get to a point where you block all of that stuff out. To repeat something I've said many times, when I'm out on the mat, my focus is so riveted to what the wrestlers are doing that I'm not even aware of the fans or the coaches. Sometimes you'll hear a thing or two said during a stoppage, but you just smile to yourself about those things, and then tune it all out when you restart wrestling. College refs have gone through the ranks, and to get to Nationals they have to have worked at Rec Hall, Carver Hawkeye, and other large arenas, and then at conference championships with lots of fans and lots of loud coaches. I can pretty much guarantee you that the refs at Nationals are not calling things due the antics of coaches on the sidelines.

I re-watched RBY's match last night around 2 am, but wasn't focusing on the action that took place at the time of the stall calls. I'll try to watch the match again this week and comment on the calls, though I did make my opinion known about the calls in real time in the Finals thread.

 

[Lovethissport]

The second point was totally wrong.

Wonder how much the fact that Fix was the #1 seed had to do with it.

More like he wasn’t the one wearing Blue and White.

 

[jack66]

If there was any kind of consistency with calls for stalling on top, I'd be all for it. I would even go so far as to say RBY deserved that call if I hadn't seen more egregious cases not called at NCAAs.

As for the back-to-back calls from neutral, even Jim Gibbons had to comment - "amazing set of calls in the last 20 seconds, you just don't see that".

Then after the match- "in a match that looked like it was going to be taken away from him, stayed on the attack"

 

[RoarLions1]

This was discussed a great deal in the Finals thread.



Stall calls are a challenge for refs. The part of your post that I bolded is incorrect. Either wrestler on the mat can be called for stalling. The task for each wrestler is to improve. For the bottom guy, that means to work for an esc or a reversal. For the top guy, that means to work for tilts. That said, working for an esc or a reversal isn't always a smart move for the bottom guy, depending on what hold/move the top guy is employing. So it really becomes a bit of a cat and mouse game between the two wrestlers, with the ref trying to make sure that neither guy is just hanging out. If a ref feels that neither of the guys are doing anything to improve, then they can either verbally encourage them to improve, or they can call a stalemate. They also have the option of calling stalling on both of them or just one of them, but I disagree with that approach.

Legs are particularly challenging. Some refs are happy to let guys on the top throw in a boot and do a cross body ride, or to throw in double boots and simply stretch out the bottom guy for most/all of the period. I disagree with this approach, and it's not really what is emphasized to the refs. (I'm just throwing that in to the discussion. I don't believe RBY had a leg in when called for stalling on top.)



That's absolute nonsense. Rivera has a reputation for 1) being more proactive with calls than most refs, and 2) making a lot of calls that other refs do not routinely make. Pretty much every fan base is aware of him, and gets frustrated with him when his proactive approach goes against their guy.



Fans make this claim all the time, but it really is off target. The refs used in Div. 1 wrestling came up through the ranks. They didn't start at Div. 1. And the screaming by coaches and fans about stalling is insane at the youth level and the high school level. To be a good high school ref (not even a college ref), you have to get to a point where you block all of that stuff out. To repeat something I've said many times, when I'm out on the mat, my focus is so riveted to what the wrestlers are doing that I'm not even aware of the fans or the coaches. Sometimes you'll hear a thing or two said during a stoppage, but you just smile to yourself about those things, and then tune it all out when you restart wrestling. College refs have gone through the ranks, and to get to Nationals they have to have worked at Rec Hall, Carver Hawkeye, and other large arenas, and then at conference championships with lots of fans and lots of loud coaches. I can pretty much guarantee you that the refs at Nationals are not calling things due the antics of coaches on the sidelines.

I re-watched RBY's match last night around 2 am, but wasn't focusing on the action that took place at the time of the stall calls. I'll try to watch the match again this week and comment on the calls, though I did make my opinion known about the calls in real time in the Finals thread.

To me, it's a matter of consistency. There are outliers on both ends of the stall-call-spectrum.

 

[Tom McAndrew]

To me, it's a matter of consistency. There are outliers on both ends of the stall-call-spectrum.

I totally agree. Alas, because the call itself is so subjective, attaining that consistency is tough. Refs are generally consistent with their own calls, and over time they usually achieve some degree of group consistency. Angel Rivera has been an outlier on stall calls, and on other calls, for years, and that's a problem for wrestlers.

 

[Hotshoe]

I went back and watched all 4 PSU matches from last night. The only call I had an issue with was the last one in RBY. As far as stalling as referenced on another board. Look at how much the PSU wrestlers stayed in the center. A second look gives a good perspective.

 

[Hotshoe]

And Carter wrestled a masterful match.

 

[lockhavenlion3]

It was Angel Rivera - a notoriously pro-Iowa / anti-PSU Ref imho.

Top stalling should be called when top-wrestler is not attempting to improve (defined as either trying to break opponent down, return them to the mat or setting up a turning combination on the bottom wrestler). RBY was clearly trying to breakdown bottom wrestler while knee-pinching both his legs. Honestly, I could see a Ref calling a stalemate there due to situation, but not stalling as both wrestlers were clearly trying to improve imho.

Rivera also called 2 Stalls on RBY in 3rd within 10 seconds of one another which is bullshit as he never gave RBY a chance to shoot after first call. Horrendous officiating that even the announcers said they'd never seen before (2 stalling calls within 10 seconds of each other).

if these guys are supposed to be the best officials in college wrestling, then collegiate wrestling is in deep s&$%, and rivera should never call a championship math again. he should be totally embarrassed by that performance.

 

[royboy]

I went back and watched all 4 PSU matches from last night. The only call I had an issue with was the last one in RBY. As far as stalling as referenced on another board. Look at how much the PSU wrestlers stayed in the center. A second look gives a good perspective.

Okay, I took a second look also at the calls in the 133 championship final.

The first stalling call came at 1:48 of the 2nd period (12 seconds remaining in period) with RBY riding.
The second stalling call came at 1:16 of the 3rd period with wrestlers in neutral standing positions
The third stalling call came at 1:33 of the 3rd period again with both in neutral standing positions

All the calls were made by referee #9, Angel Rivera.

I wouldn't say that any of the stalling calls were absolutely a sure thing, but reasonable minds could differ on calls #1 and #2. I saw no basis for call #3, which came just 17 seconds after call #2. That interval has got to be extremely rare (unprecedented as far as I can recall from watching wrestling for 50+ years).

A matter of judgment? Just one of those things?

NO -- there was a National Championship at stake, and these calls could have easily affected the outcome. The calls were egregious; the referee in question inserted himself far too much into a key match at key times.

That referee should be strongly disciplined, including barring him from the national tournament.

 

[Pitchfork Rebel]

Let's be blunt, the officiating for the entire tournament was horrible. Not only were there blown/questionable calls, but it seemed like the refs were hyperactive with regulating the wrestlers taking the down position, and a couple of times they seemed like they were commenting rather than officiating.

I realize reffing is a tough job and I normally accept the occasional error, especially when there's a long flurry and its tough to be in the best position for visibility, but there was just to much of it.

Of course, there best way to deal with the ref is the Bo/Jason/Zain method : F/TF.

 

[7brwnpsu]

I totally agree. Alas, because the call itself is so subjective, attaining that consistency is tough. Refs are generally consistent with their own calls, and over time they usually achieve some degree of group consistency. Angel Rivera has been an outlier on stall calls, and on other calls, for years, and that's a problem for wrestlers.

Tom I pretty much agree on everything you post and again agree with you on Angel's proclivity to call stalls. I also had to rewatch it today and again found his calls to be ridicules. He should not have been assigned a finals match. Too much at stake.

While discussing stalling, I also found it interesting how people in the arena were booing Aaron Brooks during the last 14 seconds of his match.

While in neutral the whole match, Aaron hand fought and shot moving forward until Hidlay had his ass outside the circle repeatedly. Aaron was not pushing him, he was wrestling to score. If he wasn't doing that, Aaron held center.

Yet Hidlay down by a point, with 14 seconds to go decides to attack Aaron, as Aaron wisely backed up and circled. Had Hidlay decided to engage Aaron the other 6 minutes 46 seconds like he did for the last 14 seconds he might have been more happy with his Wrestling. To his credit he did have that nice shot in the third where Aaron's hands came off the mat but Aaron's shots were 3 or 4 to 1 from Hidlay. Yet the crowd foolishly booed Aaron at the end.

I'm glad Aaron, Roman, Nick and Carter achieved their goals. What a great night to be a Penn State wrestling fan.

 

[CurtisLoew40]

Thought all three seemed kinda warranted. Now it’d be nice if that’s how they always called it tho. Pretty tough for RBY for the rules to change and him not know it lol. Watching the rest of the matches it obviously wasn’t called this way. Hidlay was about to immediately back up to being completely oob.

 

[pawrestlersintn]

To me, it's a matter of consistency. There are outliers on both ends of the stall-call-spectrum.

You can make it consistent for the finals by having the same two refs call all of the finals matches. However, those two guys can't call every match in the tournament, so the whole finals could be inconsistent with the rest of the tournament.

 

[seeyajohn]

I agree that consistency among officials is the real problem. I'd like to see more officials making stall calls as Rivera does. As to the third call, we need a clearer definition on the out of bounds calls. I'm a big fan of the freestyle rule except for the "grounded" portion.

 

[royboy]

Thought all three seemed kinda warranted. Now it’d be nice if that’s how they always called it tho. Pretty tough for RBY for the rules to change and him not know it lol. Watching the rest of the matches it obviously wasn’t called this way. Hidlay was about to immediately back up to being completely oob.

Please explain why you thought stalling call #3 on RBY was warranted.

As noted above, call #3 came just 17 seconds of wrestling time after call #2

 

[Diego Badman]

With respect to the RBY match, there may have been some irony in that Chris Perry was doing quite a bit of the complaining.

Is this the same guy who took, maybe, two shots against Matt Brown in 2013?

 

[NoVa Lion]

Please explain why you thought stalling call #3 on RBY was warranted.

As noted above, call #3 came just 17 seconds of wrestling time after call #2

And it was Fix PUSHING RBY off the mat, which should actually be called stalling on Fix, although it is not called nearly as often as it should be.

I will also add every year at NCAAs the refs get stall happy in the finals. Since it happens every year I can only assume/guess that the refs are told that this is on National TV so make sure their is action.

 

[Larryrise]

When the national commentation is outright critical of the official, then its obvious that official is performing poorly. Both Gibbons and Johnson outright questioned the official, and that is almost never heard of.

 

[WPB_lion]

Yeah, the stalling vs RBY was one of the worst calls (series of calls) that I remember. And in a national championship final.

I hope there is some consequence for the referee involved (#9 if I recall).

I agree that this match was a definite outlier in how stall calls are made in Division 1 wrestling and thus, the calls were horrible given the precedent that has been set. However, I do not believe stalling is called enough in Division 1 wrestling and therefore I hope there is no consequence to the referee. After all, IMO there are many more instances where stalling should have been called but wasn't and there is rarely any consequence for failure to make the call. The result is the boring wrestling that many of us on this board complain about. If there is consequence to the Ref in the RBY match, the message the NCAA will be sending to refs will be "when in doubt, do not call stalling" which I believe is the wrong message and the wrong direction for the sport.

Stepping away from the RBY match, I would much rather see wrestlers being penalized more for stalling and the second stall call made in quicker succession after the first call when the wrestler does not pick up his game. The last 30 seconds of close Division 1 wrestling matches commonly become a joke because the wrestler that is leading runs away from the wrestler that is losing in a blatant display of stalling. The wrestlers know that the refs rarely call stalling twice within the last 30 seconds of a match. I would much rather this change so we see aggression from both wrestlers until the buzzer.

 

[Carl Spackler]

I totally agree. Alas, because the call itself is so subjective, attaining that consistency is tough. Refs are generally consistent with their own calls, and over time they usually achieve some degree of group consistency. Angel Rivera has been an outlier on stall calls, and on other calls, for years, and that's a problem for wrestlers.

Making the presence of Angel Rivera at the NCAA Championships a problem imo. An obviously out of the norm official who may enjoy the attention, speculation, not proven fact. I'd like to see an analysis of his performance through the tournament, how often he called stalls or other subjective rulings. Is he consistent or possibly consistently out of the norm. It's tough to wrestle to a different set of rules from match to match.

 

[RoarLions1]

The referees are evaluated. They get graded throughout the season, and earn their way to the NCAA Championships, pretty sure. Then evaluated again at the championships, pre-finals. This evaluation is how final's referees are selected, as I understand it. Below are several forms...

http://ncaawrestling.arbitersports.com/Groups/107525/Library/files/FORM_College_Coaches_Evaluation_2015_2016.pdf

https://ncaawrestling.arbitersports.com/Groups/107525/Library/files/FORMS_Wrestling%20Officials%20Evaluation%20Form.pdf

 

[1032004]

Please explain why you thought stalling call #3 on RBY was warranted.

As noted above, call #3 came just 17 seconds of wrestling time after call #2

The timing between the two doesn't matter because the third was on an out of bounds situation. While RBY did back up a bit to the edge, Fix did ultimately push him out so I agree with those saying that one probably should've been on Fix.

First one when RBY was on top was definitely deserved. Second one wasn't horrible. But yes third one was bad.

 

[Media Fan]

Eireman (sp) on top does little to try to improve his position, and gets away with it.

 

[PSUAllTheWay]

I agree stalling needs to be called more frequently BEFORE the last 30 seconds. But you can't just completely change the 'norm' in the National finals. That's the problem I have with the RBY match. If you're going to enforce the rules properly, they need to be enforced from the first day of the season to get the wrestlers accustomed to how stalling will be called for the entire season. The fact that some referees are known to call stalling differently than others is a rules / referee training problem that needs to be fixed. Stalling need to be called consistently.

While there is no perfect solution to how to get a subjective thing like stalling to be called consistently and/or get officials to call stalling earlier, I have a few less than perfect ideas to consider.

1. If the score is 0-0 at the end of the first period at least one of the wrestlers needs to be called for stalling. I know, there will be situations where this might not be fair but it sure beats no stalling called before the last 30 second. Let's reward the aggressor at the end of period one so they have a shot at getting a point in the 3rd period when the non-aggressor is running away with a lead. My observation is that probably 80% of the time the person being aggressive in period one is going to be the aggressor the entire bout. Zebra's don't change their stripes. If they are both equally aggressive (or usually non-aggressive) then warn them both.

2. Pushing the guy straight off the mat is NOT a stall against the defensive wrestler. This is starting to become a habit as wrestlers figure out they can get their hands on someone and engage them off the mat and get a call (sometimes!).

3. Dropping to a knee and taking a swipe at a leg and missing it by a foot is NOT a shot. It should not be considered aggressive behavior and thwart a stall call. Too many wrestlers take half shots they know won't result in a TD as a way to ward off stalling calls and they should not.

Again, these are not perfect solutions because there aren't perfect solutions to a subjective rule but something has to be done.

 

[NitFan53]

So apply 1 and 3 to the first round of the 4 penn state matches. How would you score the first rounds?

 

[ss7]

I agree stalling needs to be called more frequently BEFORE the last 30 seconds. But you can't just completely change the 'norm' in the National finals. That's the problem I have with the RBY match. If you're going to enforce the rules properly, they need to be enforced from the first day of the season to get the wrestlers accustomed to how stalling will be called for the entire season. The fact that some referees are known to call stalling differently than others is a rules / referee training problem that needs to be fixed. Stalling need to be called consistently.

While there is no perfect solution to how to get a subjective thing like stalling to be called consistently and/or get officials to call stalling earlier, I have a few less than perfect ideas to consider.

1. If the score is 0-0 at the end of the first period at least one of the wrestlers needs to be called for stalling. I know, there will be situations where this might not be fair but it sure beats no stalling called before the last 30 second. Let's reward the aggressor at the end of period one so they have a shot at getting a point in the 3rd period when the non-aggressor is running away with a lead. My observation is that probably 80% of the time the person being aggressive in period one is going to be the aggressor the entire bout. Zebra's don't change their stripes. If they are both equally aggressive (or usually non-aggressive) then warn them both.

2. Pushing the guy straight off the mat is NOT a stall against the defensive wrestler. This is starting to become a habit as wrestlers figure out they can get their hands on someone and engage them off the mat and get a call (sometimes!).

3. Dropping to a knee and taking a swipe at a leg and missing it by a foot is NOT a shot. It should not be considered aggressive behavior and thwart a stall call. Too many wrestlers take half shots they know won't result in a TD as a way to ward off stalling calls and they should not.

Again, these are not perfect solutions because there aren't perfect solutions to a subjective rule but something has to be done.

I'm personally not a fan of any of the attempts to make stalling less subjective. They don't seem to have improved anything.

The automatic backing out stall call doesn't seem to have reduced people wrestling at the edge. The guys that do it just know they need to circle in at the last second. And now there seems to be more guys wrestling/pushing their opponents to the edge hoping for a chance to push them OOB (Fix's neutral "offense" vs RBY). Instead of encouraging wrestling in the center of the mat, it seems to have had the opposite effect.

I think an automatic stall call at the end of a 0-0 first period would be similar. It would become just another within-the-match game some guys would play to try to eek out a point without **actually wrestling**.

 

[7brwnpsu]

If I remember correctly, Cael did not have a big reaction to the third stall call. Most coaches would have been over the top.

Not Cael, he keep his Cool and I believe that his emotions helped keep RBY in a great mindset to continue how he wrestled for the previous 7 minutes.

Cael knew who had the better of the situation at that moment and let his athlete perform as he ultimately did.

 

[82bordeaux]

If I remember correctly, Cael did not have a big reaction to the third stall call. Most coaches would have been over the top.

Not Cael, he keep his Cool and I believe that his emotions helped keep RBY in a great mindset to continue how he wrestled for the previous 7 minutes.

Cael knew who had the better of the situation at that moment and let his athlete perform as he ultimately did.

 

[steelhead52]

In any sport its unfortunate when an official interjects his personality or judgement sometimes inappropriately to take away from the true competition of what's happening. It happens in football all the time with missed holding calls, then calls made that have no impact on the play. Or how about the judgement required when calling targeting? In basketball its traveling or charging or blocking in the lane. After watching the replays numerous times, I felt that the first two calls were somewhat questionable, but the third call 14 seconds after the 2nd call was blatantly overextending questionable officiating into a finals match that was totally taking away from the competition and inserting the official. It was absolutely pathetic and forced RBY to not only defeat Fix but Rivera. And he did. I'm not so critical of Rivera all the time because he is often aggressive at making the tough calls and I like that. However, being aggressive is a two edged sword and it doesn't make him right in this match and it should definitely be reviewed if for no other reason than training and consistency purposes. The way this match was called was definitely an outlier and could of cost RBY a championship. Fortunately the athlete overcame an official's lets just say adrenaline induced poor judgement in this particular match. I try not to be critical of officials because it is an incredibly difficult job that I was never the best at for sure. Every official has an off night but it sure can take away from the match especially on championship finals night.

 

[RoarLions1]

To me, it's a matter of consistency. There are outliers on both ends of the stall-call-spectrum.

I totally agree. Alas, because the call itself is so subjective, attaining that consistency is tough. Refs are generally consistent with their own calls, and over time they usually achieve some degree of group consistency. Angel Rivera has been an outlier on stall calls, and on other calls, for years, and that's a problem for wrestlers.

Thanks for responding Tom. Yours is a great example of what I was eluding to. I have no problem with the minor variations we see in most refs, just the outliers. As long as humans are involved, we have to allow some differences, and the process of evaluating referees should impact the outliers and bring some semblance of consistency. If not, that process is broken.