NO HOLDS BARRED

On this edition of No Holds Barred, host Eddie Goldman offers a number of key proposals to unstrangle the stagnant sport of college wrestling and make it culturally relevant in America.

Among the topics discussed are: the drop in TV ratings for the NCAA Div. I Wrestling Championships from 2015 to 2016; how there are few fans of college wrestling as a sport apart from the fans of each individual school; why college wrestling must be positioned as the anti-football sport, which is much less likely than football to lead to dementia, brain injuries, concussions, and CTE; why college wrestling should be the anti-MMA sport, which emphasizes honor, respect, and inclusion, as opposed to MMA's ubiquitous trash talk, vulgarity, disrespect, brain injuries, and doping; how college wrestling must reposition itself to be seen as part of the martial arts, and especially a form of grappling, and link up with these martial arts communities both on and off the campuses; the need for a major push for diversity in college wrestling, including establishing ties with predominantly Black and Latino public schools, communities, and organizations, as well as the LGBT communities both on and off their campuses; how college wrestling must develop a major presence in the urban centers and especially on both coasts of the U.S.; the need to popularize the incredible history of wrestling, the world's oldest sport, and which originated in Africa; why all this will not be carried out by the various bureaucracies overseeing college wrestling but can only be realized by the teams, coaches, wrestlers, and their communities themselves; and much more.

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Also, No Holds Barred is available through iTunes.

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The No Holds Barred theme song is called "The Heist", which is also available on iTunes by composer Ian Snow.

No Holds Barred is free to listen to and is sponsored by:

The Frank Gotch World Catch Wrestling Tournament. On Sunday, July 3, 2016, catch wrestlers from all around the world will compete in Humboldt, Iowa, the hometown of the legendary world champion wrestler Frank Gotch. Organized by the Catch Wrestling Alliance and co-sponsored by IAWrestle, the Frank Gotch Statue Committee, and the Frank Gotch Kids Wrestling Club, the event will take place at Humboldt High School. For more information, go to CatchWrestlingAlliance.com.

The North American Catch Wrestling Association, a grassroots organization designed to help rebuild the sport of catch-as-catch-can-wrestling. For more information, go to their Facebook page at facebook.com/NorthAmericanCatchWrestlingAssociation.

BJJ Eastern Europe, for the latest Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu news, articles, interviews, competition calendar, European belt rankings, academy directory, and more. For more information, go to BJJEE.com.

The National Registry for Wrestling, whose mission is to increase wrestling's fanbase, to build a registry of all wrestling fans, to serve as a connecting point for all wrestling fans, and to provide TV and Internet listings for wrestling. For more information, go to NR4W.com.

Labels: college, culturally relevant, Eddie Goldman, NCAA, No Holds Barred, unstrangle, wrestling