Re: Grajales wants Taylor at the Dapper Dan

**Ken Shirtaugh** · 01-28-2009, 09:11 PM

David Taylor seeking out the best competition and wanting to prove that he is the best. Not exactly mind-boggling. It's nothing personal with Grajales, Grajales just happens to be ahead of him in some rankings. Taylor is a true champion.

**Gold** · 01-28-2009, 09:56 PM

I was actually just thinking about this the other day. Why doesn't Dapper Dan have a yearly marquee showdown with the best wrestlers they can find? I would love to see this.

**arm-spin** · 01-28-2009, 11:01 PM

Agree Gold. I have no idea who these guys are or what the Dapper Dan is, but I support "best vs best" wrestling in any form.

**LkwdSteve** · 01-29-2009, 12:19 PM

I imagine they still have a website. Check it out. I attended my first Dapper Dan when Schlatter and Irwin were selected as all-stars. In addition, a group of all-stars were coming in from New York to battle the WPIAL group in the undercard (NY got thumped by the Pittsburgh area boys).

It was so impressive. I haven't missed since. They do wrestling right in Pennsylvania.

The wrestling is college level in style. The PA boys take it seriously, lots of tradition, and boy are they tough. I watched Metcalf come within a eyelash of losing. Ditto Colt Sponseller in his undercard bout two years ago.

If you are within a 2-3 hour drive, it's worth the trip.

**Stardust** · 01-29-2009, 02:44 PM

Originally Posted by arm-spin

Agree Gold. I have no idea who these guys are or what the Dapper Dan is, but I support "best vs best" wrestling in any form.

Website is http://wrestlingclassic.com/

Basically it's a Pennsylvania vs the USA all-star match. The committee selects a senior at each weight from Pennsylvania, and one from another state.

The "undercard" that LkwdSteve mentions is that the WPIAL (western PA wrestling league) also has an all-star team that competes against an all-star team from another state, which changes each year.

**ODH** · 01-29-2009, 05:46 PM

Dapper Dan is a great tradition of PA taking on the whole country.
As far as best v. best there are other oppurtunities like the Senior Nationals or Fargo

**arm-spin** · 01-29-2009, 06:28 PM

Thanks for the explanations, guys... I have another question. I am really confused by the whole national championship system in the United States. I get the NCAA championships and the US open, but how about the others? Fargo, Sr. Nationals, Jr. Nationals and all that... what styles are these different tournaments in? Is there one tournament that can be considered a "true" national championship where the winner is considered the best high school wrestler in the country at that weight?

**ODH** · 01-29-2009, 09:43 PM

Originally Posted by arm-spin

Thanks for the explanations, guys... I have another question. I am really confused by the whole national championship system in the United States. I get the NCAA championships and the US open, but how about the others? Fargo, Sr. Nationals, Jr. Nationals and all that... what styles are these different tournaments in? Is there one tournament that can be considered a "true" national championship where the winner is considered the best high school wrestler in the country at that weight?

Fargo is where the Freestyle & Greco national Junior and Cadet national championships occur. These occur in the summer and have traditionally been the Gold standard as who is the best wrestler in the US high school (somewhat ironic becasue it is Freestyle & Greco while Folkstyle wresteld in HS and college)

High School nationals occurs after the regualr high school season is over and they are grouped by year (i.e. Seniors wrestle only Seniors, hence Senior Nationals) and you have to be a state place winner to enter. This is wrestle din Folkstyle. Sometimes this definitely determines the best in the nation if the best guys decide to enter and they are Seniors, but often the top wrestlers will bypass this tournament and also if some of the best are underclassmen the champ cannot be necessarily considred the best.

I do not follow HS wrestling that closely so someone can feel free to correct me.

**LkwdSteve** · 02-09-2009, 08:43 AM

Originally Posted by LkwdSteve

I wonder if the Dapper Dan folks would approve that. I'm guessing they wouldn't like it, fearing a precedent being set, but who knows.

I guess I was right about the DD folks not liking the idea. I just read about a nasty E-Mail exchange over on Themat about this issue.

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