Top Upsets At Who's #1
Top Upsets At Who's #1
Top Upsets At Who's #1 Wrestling FloWrestling
Sports fans are drawn to upsets. That's why they compete, and that's why we watch. We want to see a team or athlete maintain a level of superiority or, conversely, someone else rise to the occasion.
Upsets at Who's #1 deserves the quotes treatment: 'upsets'. Inherently, these guys are pretty equal - most ranked 1 or 2 and all within the Top 4.
Heck, sometimes the lower ranked guy, perceptually, is the favorite.
Here we look back at the first five years of Who's #1 and put in to context the matches that were surprising.
Top Upsets in WNO History
2013 - 132lbs - #3-Stroker Wins First 4-Man
Context: In the first WNO, Stroker beat #1-Seth Gross first and then #2-Michael Kemerer. While Stroker was a hammer, very few had him emerging from this group. Gross had won Fargo that year beating Stroker along the way.
2014 - 182lbs - #2-Zahid Valencia over #1-Myles Martin
Context: Myles destroyed everyone in Fargo at 182. Zahid won a Cali State title in March at 132. A month later he won Folk Nats at 152 before going down to 66kg a week later and DNP'ing at FILA JR FS. There's no way he can wrestle 182 and go with Myles, right?!
2014 - 170lbs - #2-Mark Hall over #1-Anthony Valencia
Context: While it might not seem like an upset now, it was then. And the way in which it went down was even more surprising. Mark Hall blitzed AVal. A year prior, Anthony beat Mark in the finals of the Freak Show in Las Vegas. Then he'd absolutely destroy the field at FILA Juniors, including consecutive 10-0 techs over Isaiah Martinez to make the JR World Team. The match was the finale of the 2014 WNO card, and as Mark piled on the points people looked at each other like, "Wow. What the heck is going on here?"
2014 - 152lbs - #2-David McFadden over #1-Isaiah White
Context: Of course McFadden was a very good wrestler. He was a 1x state champ and placed 3rd and 2nd in Fargo. The year he was 3rd (2013), his only loss was 11-0 to White. In 2014, McFadden lost in the finals to Mason Manville while White was one weight class down (145) in a bracket that we were all raving about. It included Pat Duggan, Fredy Stroker, Grant Leeth, Hayden Hidley, Josh Maruca, and Jordan Kutler. White beat Michael Kemerer in the quarters and Vincenzo Joseph in the finals! So despite it being a #1 vs #2 matchup, the result was very surprising at the time.
2015 - 132lbs - #2-Luke Pletcher over #3-Yianni Diakomihalis
Context: This is one of those where I think the masses had the lower ranked guy winning. Pletcher was entrenched as a Top 3 guy. Both him (at 126) and Yianni (at 120) were runners-up that year at FloNationals with Pletcher losing to Chad Red and Yianni losing to Daton Fix. But Yianni would go on to win a Cadet World title that summer and was the people's pick in this match-up and the four-man bracket that also featured Red and Taylor Lamont. Pletcher would end up winning over Yianni in an awesome, scrambly bout.
2016 - 120lbs - #2-Jordan Decatur over #1-Gavin Teasdale
Context: While this was expected to be a competitive bout, Gavin was considered about 'untouchable' at the time. He had beaten Nick Piccininni in the summer and lost only to Daton (6-5) in JR Trials. When Decatur put up big points early, everyone moved to the edge of their seats as it was 'game on'.
2017 - 195lbs - #2-Gavin Hoffman over #1-Michael Beard
Context: Other than losing to Jacob Warner in Cadet trials, Beard was basically unbeatable. He came in to WNO as the undisputed, clear #1. Both PA state champions, the match was important both nationally and for PA supremacy because the two would not hit during their regular season. Hoffman struck first and his win was truly a 'wow' moment.
Top Upset Candidates For 2018
Jaden Abas to Win 138 4-Man
Why: This is sort of a 'weak' upset pick by me, I admit. 138 is a beautiful mess in that there isn't a clear-cut, established #1. Whoever comes out of it will have certainly earned it as O'Toole, Tagg, and Abas finished in that order in Fargo and Aragona is the highest ranked returning at the weight. Any one of the four could win this, which is why it's compelling. But I'm going with Abas who I think gets a slight bump being that it's folk.
Eric Barnett over Kurt McHenry
Why: Barnett has had some incredible performances (Fargo Champ, S32 Runner-Up). But he's also had some stinkers that caused him to drop in the rankings at times. As such, he's not the 'superstar' in the minds of the fans the way others (like McHenry) are.
That being said, Barnett can absolutely win this match. When he's on, he's on. While the match isn't garnering the hype (understandably) as a Hall-Valencia or Valencia-Martin, but I think this bout matches their unpredictable nature pre-match and excitement during it.
Devin Winston over Abe Assad
Why: No one in the nation has mad greater strides than Abe Assad. He's a certified bull. I was the lead drummer touting the incredible 80KG field in Akron in June. No one saw it coming, but Abe Assad not only won one of the best brackets I've ever seen, but also turned it into a World Bronze.
So why can Winston beat him?
Look, Assad isn't the same guy he was pre-Akron. I get that. But while Assad spent all of his career in unranked obscurity, Winston was always a Top 10 guy. In 2017 Duals, he won comfortably over Assad 10-2. He's also a much tougher out in folk.
If Winston wins on Sunday, it will be considered a massive upset, changing the perception of both.