Jake Varner at hwt

[BigTenFanboy 1,735]

He's a ball grabbing Olympic champion!

 

One of the best ball grabbers of all time!

 

Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk

 

Ball grabber?

 

Oh thats right.. Those wacky Freestyle rules!

[spladle 179]

Remember, it's called a ball pull

[rpm002 168]

I think that's kind of a myth.  Varner won 8 periods 1-0 to win gold (never scored more than 1 point in a period the entire Olympics!), but most of those were actual takedowns or pushouts, not ball pulls.

[PRyan2012 344]

4 time ncaa finalist. 4 time world team member. World medallists and Olympic champ. And has win over the Goat. I know he sucks because his style is more defensive.

[wrestlingphish 701]

One thing that always rubbed me the wrong way about Varner was that when his team needed him to come up with bonus points in big duals he just seemed to not care. I understand you need to take care of your own business and all that but he would be content to win 3-2 against way overmatched opponents.

 

Having met the guy a few times though he is incredibly nice and I have always rooted for him to do well (even as a Hawkeye fan).

[sgallan 592]

Varner is the only American to beat Snyder at the senior level in his 4 years. And the other 4 matches were close.

Uh, the last two matches they wrestled, if you have watched them, which I have bunches of times, were not remotely close. Varner after the first match of the series, where he wrestled well, was done. He held position enough not to get tech'd but in no way were those matches "close". You might have had some good points in general after this but the "close" coment suggests maybe not and I quit reading at that point.

[BigTenFanboy 1,735]

4 time ncaa finalist. 4 time world team member. World medallists and Olympic champ. And has win over the Goat. I know he sucks because his style is more defensive.

No according to cjc he sucks due to his affiliation with PSU. That's all, nothing else. Everything else is hogwash.

[PRyan2012 344]

Uh, the last two matches they wrestled, if you have watched them, which I have bunches of times, were not remotely close. Varner after the first match of the series, where he wrestled well, was done. He held position enough not to get tech'd but in no way were those matches "close". You might have had some good points in general after this but the "close" coment suggests maybe not and I quit reading at that point.

Varner was gassed after mini and that great first match. Both fresh Snyder wins by takedown or two 4 out of 5 I agree. I am not sure of Varner's choice to avoid Snyder and go with the heavies. I guess he feels he has a better chance of winning the spot against Gwiz and the other big guys after training with Gwiz  at NLWC. Varner was Gwiz's main partner leading up to 2017 worlds. I would have rather he went 213 but he knows better than I do. 213 has really cleared out internationally if you take Snyder out of it:-) Many all time greats like Yazdani, Gadisov, Gatsalov, Gazymazov and Sad is down a weight. No chance in he..Varner beats Akgul!

Edited April 25, 2018 by PRyan2012

[PRyan2012 344]

C'mon Varner has more offense than Rey-not a fair comparison. He outscored his three opponents at the 2016 trials in the mini 22-0.  

Edited April 25, 2018 by PRyan2012

[maligned 467]

I'm not a big Varner fan, but he was fantastic at the 2012 Olympics. He benefitted some from his draw and injuries on the other side of the bracket, but he was at the height of his powers and deserved to win every match he won at that event. 

[BobDole 989]

Let's not hold back guys, tell us how you really feel about Varner.

[GockeS 412]

cigarette ashes cigarette butts, we got the ball pull by the 

pull pull pull 

Edited April 25, 2018 by GockeS

[PRyan2012 344]

I think it is more PSU than Varner's style as well. Varner just signed an extension in January for his shoes. So he basically has three more years he could possible wrestle. And those shoe sales will be triple the sales if he is competing. Money talks. Not many of us wrestlers can make big money. Varner is one of maybe 5 guys who could get a shoe deal and endorsements. He is almost to old to capitalize. Glad to see him thinking about his family.

[WillieBoy 713]

Hope he does well. Should be a bit quicker than some of the competition if he goes after it and doesn't regress to the "varnish" style he used in the past.

Push with his quickness. Up a bit should not cost him much of it. He will need it against some of the bigger opponents.

[PRyan2012 344]

Brackets come out today right? Wanting to see who Varner gets 1st round or if he has a bye.

[wrestlingphish 701]

Brackets come out today right? Wanting to see who Varner gets 1st round or if he has a bye.

Do they not wait until weigh-ins are over?

[PRyan2012 344]

Do they not wait until weigh-ins are over?

Thought weigh ins were this morning. Just excited! The open is stacked this year!

[sgallan 592]

Thought weigh ins were this morning. Just excited! The open is stacked this year!

 

Just teasing you a bit.... but opens are always stacked. The fun time when past future NCCA legends, meet current NCCA legends, and the occasional legend HS kid jumps into the fray (and often gets worked). It is also the time you can tell when the HEW guys don't enter, are just done and will move on. You also get a picture of the guys who enter and just wrestle because they love to wrestler even if they don't take first. An aside, I get the feeling the PSU club is taking a step back. I am not sure why. I know Carl has never been a fan of the International styles, yet he seemed to get comfortable with it. And now not so much.  

[Alwayswrestling 207]

We just talked to him in lobby we asked if he was wrestling at HWT? He said we will see?

[Seena 5]

I like to have Varner as the Heavyweight. What I was hopeful for is close.

[PRyan2012 344]

Just teasing you a bit.... but opens are always stacked. The fun time when past future NCCA legends, meet current NCCA legends, and the occasional legend HS kid jumps into the fray (and often gets worked). It is also the time you can tell when the HEW guys don't enter, are just done and will move on. You also get a picture of the guys who enter and just wrestle because they love to wrestler even if they don't take first. An aside, I get the feeling the PSU club is taking a step back. I am not sure why. I know Carl has never been a fan of the International styles, yet he seemed to get comfortable with it. And now not so much.  

As a PSU fan I also have never understood the dislike for freestyle. If Cael would have enjoyed it or had the passion I think he would have been our greatest. I still don't see how he won Gold not liking what he was doing. He got a bit of liking for it after he retired when he became Varner's training partner but that was short lived. He doesn't give much insight as to why he didn't like it. I am really surprised Varner is making a comeback. I don't think Cael pushed that:-) 

[PRyan2012 344]

Varner passed his first test against a 280 pounder top guy winning 5-1 over Nelson. Varner is actually getting a bunch of turns in his three matches against the big guys. I thought would be his weakness.

Edited April 27, 2018 by PRyan2012

[wrestlingphish 701]

LOL at Tony Nelson weighing 280 pounds.

[PRyan2012 344]

LOL at Tony Nelson weighing 280 pounds.

He looked pretty big just watching that match. At least 270.Just surprised to see Varner turning the big boys.

[simple 271]

He's bigger than Varner, but he's not 280 or even 270. Hoping to see Varner vs Coon in the finals.