The Greco-Roman portion of the World OG Qualifier came to an end from an American standpoint on Friday afternoon. Despite a great effort from Kamal Bey, the US Olympic Greco-Roman contingent finished the way it started the tournament - with three wrestlers headed to compete in Paris, France at the 2024 Olympic Games. 
On Thursday, Bey fell in the qualification round of the 77 kg weight class. He was pulled back into repechage as Russian Sergei Kutuzov won his semifinal bout Thursday afternoon. 
While Bey had a chance at qualifying for Paris, it was a longshot as he’d have to reel off four straight wins. 
Bey nearly pulled off that feat as he started his journey through repechage with a 9-1 tech over Tsimur Berdyieu (AIN - Belarus). That propelled him into a contest with Sweden’s Per Olofsson. Like his first repechage bout, Bey was not significantly pushed and cruised to a 7-1 victory. 
Next up was Georgia’s Iuri Lomadze in the bronze medal match. Lomadze was a two-time European medalist, who earned a bronze in the continental tournament earlier this year. 
Lomadze appeared to have an early advantage as Bey was hit with passivity giving the Georgian wrestler an opportunity to work from par terre. Though Lomadze was the top wrestler, it was Bey who countered for a four-point score of his own. Lomadze’s corner challenged to no avail, which gave Bey a 5-1 lead. Late in the second period, Lomadze hit a duck-under and put the American on his back, but it was deemed a two-point hold; not four points. Bey avoided giving up a fall and escaped with a 5-4 victory. 
With the Olympics looming in the balance, the two bronze medalists, Bey and Hungary’s Zoltan Levai squared off. An unremarkable first period ended 2-0 in favor of Levai with the scoring coming from a passivity call and Bey stepping out while avoiding a throw attempt on the ensuing par terre restart. 
The second period started with Levai pushing the pace and controlling the center and therefore getting a second passivity point. 
Bey wasn’t able to really get to any favorable offensive positions until the final :20 seconds of the bout when he was shooting low up into the body. Those attempts were fended off by Levai and the clock hit zero on the match and Bey’s hopes for Paris with a 3-0 loss. 
Although women’s freestyle took place on Friday, no American women were in action because all six weights had already been qualified for the Olympics. 

It’s official. The David Taylor era has begun in Stillwater, Oklahoma as he addressed a full press room that included his future wrestlers, the media, Cowboy fans, and alumni.
 
Taylor spoke about the importance of family as he spoke of his mom, dad and wife along with the things he wants to bring to the Oklahoma State wrestling program.
If you missed it, you can watch the full press conference here.
 
1. Will he continue to compete?
After wondering what Taylor would do since leaving the mat after losing to Aaron Brooks in the Olympic Trials finals a few weeks ago, we now have our answer. The Magic Man’s competitive career has come to an end. Taylor spoke to making the decision and how “it was tough to continue” competing after winning Olympic gold in 2021. He mentioned that he felt the desire dwindling and after a lot of thought, tears, and contemplation he believed it was the right time to move on to the next chapter, which is now becoming the head coach of the Cowboys. He also included his new assistant coach Thomas Gilman when speaking of how they both are now done competing.
 
2. What brought Taylor to Stillwater?
The right situation, with the right resources, and a program that can win. That was the formula for bringing Taylor to Stillwater, OK. He and Director of Athletics Chad Weiberg spoke about the opportunity of taking over and that he was incredibly honored just to be mentioned for the job. Ultimately, the support of the athletic department along with Paycom CEO Chad Richison and the formula Taylor feels he can succeed with is what got the job done.
 
3. What’s the David Taylor program?
When it came to the wrestling program, Taylor brought the same outlook that we’ve heard from him as a competitor as well as his former coach, Cael Sanderson, at Penn State – score points and have fun. It’s that approach that many believed Taylor would be bringing with him from the perennial championship program in State College, PA he was a part of as a collegiate champion. Taylor also spoke to the impact that Sanderson and his high school coach, Jeff Jordan, had on him when it came to creating his own philosophy and what he looks to bring to the Cowboys.
 
4. RTC Outlook
On the RTC side of things, he said that the “first order of business” was making sure that Daton Fix was staying to train at the Cowboy RTC. Taylor said that he and Fix sat down and talked and made sure that the now former Cowboy multiple-time NCAA finalist and All-American wasn't going anywhere. Furthermore, he said that there will be a "grass roots approach" to things that expands beyond the college and international level and down to the youth because while he wants to raise the bar for wrestling at Oklahoma State he also wants to raise the bar for wrestling in the state of Oklahoma.
5. Coaching Staff
There have already been 2 hires to the staff as Jimmy Kennedy will be Taylor's Associate Head Coach and Thomas Gilman will be an Assistant. When it came to who else would be joining the staff, Taylor mentioned that they are still figuring that out and that there could be more additional coaches coming. With Tyler Caldwell sticking around right now to train the team until things get settled, you wonder if he will remain on staff in some role moving forward.
 
6. Timeline
There is a lot of moving parts and things to figure out when it comes to moving his family from Pennsylvania to Oklahoma along with many other things, but he stressed the importance of getting into the room to help his guys prepare for the upcoming U20 and U23 trials. In the interim, Tyler Caldwell, who was an assistant on John Smith’s staff, will be filling in to keep things moving and help the guys prepare, along with Daton Fix, who is remaining with the RTC.

Wrestling has a new professional league and it's CLAW! CLAW stands for Champions League of American Wrestling and one of their founders, Tom Houck, sits down with Ryan Holmes to discuss how this league came about. He and his co-founders have studied other professional leagues to find out what works and what doesn't. Houck explains how this will be different from previous iterations of professional wrestling and what to expect from CLAW. 
For the full interview: