He was called the “best wrestler in the world” by Ben Askren, and now he is looking to take over Carter Starocci‘s spotlight at Penn State. Who is he? None other than Japanese World Champion Ono Masanosuke, who is looking forward to soaking up the wrestling culture at his new school of choice, as well as working with the coaches towards an NCAA title.

“I will work to become an NCAA champion and I am eager to work with Coach Cael, Coach Cody, Coach Nick Lee, and Coach Cunningham. I love State College and the culture in the wrestling room at Penn State.” Masanosuke wrote in an Instagram post where he made the announcement about his move to Penn State.

The announcement, also spotted on the Flo Wrestling X handle, has sent shockwaves through the college wrestling world. For starters, Penn State is already an unstoppable force, though there seemed to be a brief window of hope for other teams after Carter Starocci’s fifth title win and consequent graduation.

Now, however, Penn State has managed to secure Ono Masanosuke, another dominating powerhouse on their roster. Few competitors are happy about this, but Starocci himself made it a point to comment on Masanosuke’s Instagram statement, writing, “Welcome to the killers.” A pointed reference to Starocci’s comments about wanting to, “kill” all his competitors as he went into the fight for his fifth title.

Though the news has only officially broken now, with a confirmation from Ono Masanosuke himself, rumors had been swirling for a while about his placement at Penn State, and the wrestling world was up in arms and excitement about the same.

The rumors have finally come true

Just four days ago, news broke that Masanosuke’s name was on the Penn State student directory, and the wrestling world went berserk. Masanosuke, who only just won the Under 20 world championships last September with whopping numbers, is touted as one of the best fighters to have hit the scene in a long time, and that is saying a lot in the wake of five time NCAA title holder Starocci.

National wrestling insider Patt Mineo broke the news on Thursday that Masanosuke’s name was on the Penn State directory, though nothing had been confirmed. Mineo added that while Ono Masanosuke had been previously listed as just a “member” on the directory, to enable him access to NLWC facilities, his status was recently changed to “student.”

While reactions to the acquisition seemed mixed with some fans exclaiming on how this was further tilting the playing field, giving Penn State an unfair advantage over all other schools, other fans agreed on the fact that Cael Sanderson really seems to know what he’s doing. It’ll be interesting to see how Penn State and Oklahoma fare against one another as David Taylor also grows in coaching skill and confidence.

Anyway, for Ono Masanosuke, it’s going to be an interesting journey, moving to a whole new country and learning a whole new style of wrestling. Folkstyle, as opposed to Masanosuke’s regular freestyle, requires a lot of control and diligence in its movements. It will be fascinating to see how a world champion will now revise his own game to fit this new style.