Big

http://www.nbcolympics.com/wrestling...restling+stage

I can't believe this garbage. FILA is corrupt. Hello Anybody remember Kessel at Oklahoma State in the finals? How about Muz/Hendricks fiasco?

How about constant inequality in stalling calls by various officials in NCAA wrestling?

In any case the artcle is a bunch of crap. The nature of wrestling creates many close calls and controversies.

Just out of curiosity: The article states Cormier was screwed by the ref in 03 against Heidari. How so? Cormier is also at 96kilos, not HWT, but who cares?

Dart Shark

You're seriously denying there is zero corruption within FILA Wrestling? After everything you claim to have known about international wrestling the past umpteen years, you think everything is fair and balanced with this?

The pool system created more bribes and payoffs than anything ever contrived by an NCAA official. The subjectivity in reviews favor wrestlers and countries over others frequently.

This isn't garbage, I think the fact no one internationally wants to expose FILA for what it is prevents anything from being written. Writers receiving alleged death threats if they pursue stories. A mob icon on the FILA board.

This reeks of corruption, and it's not just an American standpoint.

In Baku, rumors were heavy that the Cuban (Lopez) was going to take the payoff so Russia could win the World Championship in Greco.

A caveat to this is something we noticed in the media room. As of 1 p.m. the day of the finals, had Lopez lost, Russia would still have been down one point. As of 1:30 p.m., an additional point had been added to the Russian score, thus giving a Russian win, the tie and a title by virtue of more champs.

Lopez didn't lose, the coin tosses went in his favor.

Regardless, this isn't an American fabrication ... this isn't about the Russians, it's all about who you know and how much you're willing to pay.

Personally, I think Abrahamian was hosed again ... his actions I don't condone, but he was obviously screwed.

I typically won't engage in arguments with you because there's no point, but look beyond the red colored glasses and think objectively here. Either you refuse to accept it or just want to incite some discussion.

__________________

The Salad Monster would dominate the Cookie Monster.

Big

Not sure how much corruption there is but the article gives many wrong reasons for it. Again how was Cormier screwed in 03? Iranian vs Angle was a close match and anybody's match.

Its a classical case of playing on human psychology by giving maybe one or two examples that are true and then sticking another 5 or 6 that are not but the unsuspecting reader will eat it up!

People were saying Nozadze was paid off to lose to Khushtov at Euros but look at Olympics Khushtov destroyed the guy Nozadze lost to.

If Lopez were to be paid off, these Olympics would be it but no Lopez wins this time when a $$$million is on the line for each Russian gold medalist.

Why didn't Associated Press include all these examples?

Big

And you know, every time Americans do poorly, they bad mouth FILA. Lean to wrestle better not just run up the hills! We already know American wrestlers are hill running World champions.

ODH

I ted to agree with Big. Bad officiating happens everywhere.
One of the classic examples of a "fixed" game is the 1972 BBall Gold medal game between US and USSR. HBO did a good documentry on it, "Three Seconds from Gold", which explained the "bad" calls.

Dart Shark

Big, you're excluding countless examples yourself that don't get discussed in American media. Being such an international wrestling zealot, I'm sure you're specifically not mentioning things you know occurred but since we don't know about them, you're going to pretend they don't exist.

Bad officiating happens, but this situation didn't even involve an American, although the AP, to make American readers understand, used an American example. I don't want to get into the Jadidi-Angle issue, because Delfino's trolled that topic to death on every board he's ever been on.

The article just scrapes the surface ... but it at least identifies a problem -- yes, it's a problem. Why else are there rule changes nearly every time something atypical happens within the sport? Too many big time champs lose, expect changes. Too many upsets, expect changes. Americans do well, expect changes. Greco will change again after these Games -- you can bank on that.

These changes have made the official the center piece of the action, not the athletes. Fred Ambrose would love it.

In Baku, there were over 50 plush chairs for officials (as the AP pointed out), yet no area for the working media to work within the venue area. There was no press table, arrogant and abusive pass checkers, but if you had a FILA pass, you could do what you wanted.

You might be more knowledgable on international wrestling as a whole, but to deny there's corruption within FILA? This is one place where I will point to "The Silent Gladiators," a book I don't entirely care for, to talk about the Russian mafia influence within the sport. You should know this.

__________________

The Salad Monster would dominate the Cookie Monster.

Big

Dart,

Many rule changes are to keep housewives happy so to speak or at least such an attempt.

You know American media also doesn't write about the fact that IOC rips FILA a new one every time by telling them to make the sport more appealing to casual fans or be gone from Olympics. American media and fans are really a big part of the problem for many changes. We have also discussed this to death on this site.

Dart Shark

American fan apathy and complaints aside, I'm looking at things from a wrestling standpoint, not a media one. Something I've always tried to do is identify with the sport as a spectator and present it to those reading so they can understand things from the same viewpoint in terms of what's available.

When does the American media ever write about wrestling? So therefore, the idea that the media not writing about the IOC ripping FILA is a flawed one. Why doesn't FILA push wrestling on its web site? Why does an American web site (themat.com) have international journalist predictions? Why doesn't FILA have more information on its site regarding the competitors readily available? Some is there, but you have to know where to find it? FILA half-asses things and doesn't seem to care.

They want what is good for FILA, not what is good for wrestling. Can you tell me in confidence the rule changes in 2003 were for the good of the sport? They've done nothing but make it more political, more up to chance and less about wrestling, talent and conditioning. The disparity in consistency in Greco alone from 2006, 2007 and 2008 should show that without a doubt.

American fans are stubborn and don't like to get over the difference in folkstyle vs. the international styles, which I understand, but it's only the problem when discussing it on american message boards vs. the actual practice of competition.

__________________

The Salad Monster would dominate the Cookie Monster.

Big

You have to understand that wrestling is most popular in countries that are relatively poor and don't know much about modern technology. Only Russia has a decent working wrestling website in Europe and Asia. Not Georgia, not Ukraine, not Uzbekistan etc. If there were, especially in English versions, you could go to any of those websites and learn about their wrestlers.

Big

Also, outside of all the misinformation, the article was written in a very negative light with no solutions. That does nothing but turn off casual fans even more.