Every time a seasoned professional comments about a sport, it’s likely to catch ears. And 2008 Olympian wrestler turned MMA star, Ben Askren would sure be hoping that it does. Imagine sitting down to watch a long-anticipated match and finding yourself overwhelmed by the lack of continuity and haphazard streaming order. Well, this seems a problem Askren had been battling until he finally decided to call it out!

Taking to X, Ben ‘Funky’ Askren decided to call out USA wrestling by pinpointing a loose screw that requires an urgent fix. “USA Wrestling, I can’t freaking stand it when you do these bulls**t orders of your US Open and your Trials. You’re all over the place,” the star who had been around the wrestling block for quite a while did not mince his words.

Highlighting the streaming issue with wrestling matches that leave fans thinking as to which category is up next, he added, “You’re bouncing between men’s freestyle, women’s freestyle, Greco, the weight order is all out of whack, I don’t know what’s going on!” The frustration of a wrestling diehard came through in his voice, as he put USA wrestling on blast and called a spade a spade.

The issue is that the matches being telecasted are in no particular order and the jumbled-up format ends up forcing fans to sit down for hours to watch all sessions of a particular weight class or wrestler. And this leads Askren to plead, “Can’t you just make it easier for me to watch? I wanna watch it! Can’t you make it simpler?” He further adds, “Look guys, I’m sorry I dont have 8 hours to watch wrestling.”

While Ben Askren says that things will get difficult if this pattern persists and there are 10 weight categories to watch next year, remember when a few more suggestions for the sport came around recently?

Ben Askren highlights the issue, but problems have long persisted

Against the backdrop of the World Team Trials, Justin Basch, the wrestling connoisseur recently wrote on X, “USA Wrestling did it right yesterday wrestling through each style individually. Wrong today. Hopefully one day they realize this doesn’t increase style viewership, it just frustrates fans.” This comes not even a week before when Ben Askren has had to step up and reiterate the issue.

Well, the problems don’t just stop with the format, the existing coverage seems to be a bit lackadaisical too. Pat Downey had recently given his two cents on the state of American wrestling and a part of that included breaking free from the coverage limitations. Amidst a lot of other comments, he also suggested, “Break up that whole monopoly with USA Wrestling and Flo and now we got an outside source running wrestling. Now we have a televised on a wrestling Wednesday channel and we have the best faces in wrestling being built up like individual brands like they do at UFC.”

Pat Downey suggested something drastic: taking a page from events like the Craig Jones Invitational and offering massive prize money, citing that wrestling could draw more talent and viewers with similar million-dollar tournaments. And further tossed ahead the idea of dedicated wrestling streams for NCAA or senior wrestling, say a Wrestling Wednesday, as it is on the weekends for sports like UFC. Do you agree and think these issues raised by fans and athletes need to be addressed by USA Wrestling? Share your thoughts in the comments below!