In my opinion wrestling fans are either compelled to remain silent or at the very least tone down their criticism or dislike for or apathy for women's wrestling in general and for Greco-Roman wrestling in particular. The Junior Worlds started in Brazil on August 11th, first with Greco-Roman wrestling and then for the past two days with Greco. Flowrestling, USA wrestling, Intermat and other sites have given us the action and the results, pathetic as they are. The bright side to this coverage is that very few wrestling fans seem to care. Name one champion World or otherwise in either sport and most fans would be hard pressed to come up with an answer.
The reason is very simple, most wrestling fans do not give a rodent behind about either of these two disciplines. I hear and read all of the hype about the growth of women's wrestling and I will give you that the women who compete in this sport are very dedicated and skilled. However, when it comes to fan base you would think women would be all over this sport and not surprisingly, they are not. Equal opportunity raises its ugly head and becomes the rallying cry but in sports like wrestling,boxing,football there just is no real market.
Think about your wives, girlfriends, sisters, aunts, nieces etc and I expect if you are like me that you do not know any female relative, female friend or acquaintance who is a fan or even cares whether they have these sports or not. Of course if you have a female relative or acquaintance that does participate and or gets the benefit of a college scholarship then your mindset is different. I do not begrudge women getting scholarships for whatever they excel in but I posit that even if we had the best female wrestlers in the world that there would be no great groundswell of women attracted to this sport.
As far as Greco Roman wrestling goes it comes down to what you are used to watching. I would rather watch grass grow than watch a Greco match. To me it is the epitome of boredom. It is like eating crab legs to me as it is too much effort spent for very little reward. However, I know it is popular in a lot of the world and places like Iran and other middle eastern countries and many European countries like it. More power to those countries is what I say. We either need to spend more time and effort and money developing a representative Greco team or just let the other countries get on with it. I doubt I would ever be a fan of the sport. I think there is a reason why there are no duals or state tournaments featuring Greco but if the supporters can make a case for it let them try.
The opinions expressed above are from one fan of wrestling only. I guess you could say some of the above is from the frustration of being 5 days into the Junior Worlds and not seeing what I want to watch which is freestyle wrestling. If anyone takes offense at my words please feel free to complain and I would like to hear from other fans about their feelings in regard to these two disciplines.
The reason is very simple, most wrestling fans do not give a rodent behind about either of these two disciplines. I hear and read all of the hype about the growth of women's wrestling and I will give you that the women who compete in this sport are very dedicated and skilled. However, when it comes to fan base you would think women would be all over this sport and not surprisingly, they are not. Equal opportunity raises its ugly head and becomes the rallying cry but in sports like wrestling,boxing,football there just is no real market.
Think about your wives, girlfriends, sisters, aunts, nieces etc and I expect if you are like me that you do not know any female relative, female friend or acquaintance who is a fan or even cares whether they have these sports or not. Of course if you have a female relative or acquaintance that does participate and or gets the benefit of a college scholarship then your mindset is different. I do not begrudge women getting scholarships for whatever they excel in but I posit that even if we had the best female wrestlers in the world that there would be no great groundswell of women attracted to this sport.
As far as Greco Roman wrestling goes it comes down to what you are used to watching. I would rather watch grass grow than watch a Greco match. To me it is the epitome of boredom. It is like eating crab legs to me as it is too much effort spent for very little reward. However, I know it is popular in a lot of the world and places like Iran and other middle eastern countries and many European countries like it. More power to those countries is what I say. We either need to spend more time and effort and money developing a representative Greco team or just let the other countries get on with it. I doubt I would ever be a fan of the sport. I think there is a reason why there are no duals or state tournaments featuring Greco but if the supporters can make a case for it let them try.
The opinions expressed above are from one fan of wrestling only. I guess you could say some of the above is from the frustration of being 5 days into the Junior Worlds and not seeing what I want to watch which is freestyle wrestling. If anyone takes offense at my words please feel free to complain and I would like to hear from other fans about their feelings in regard to these two disciplines.
