Wrestling Dropped From Olympics

[AndromedaPatFan]

I like wrestling, Asian martial arts, fencing, all that stuff.

In small doses, at least -- the pacing from a spectator standpoint is problematic, either too slow (most of them) or too fast (fencing).

Anyhow, wrestling may literally be mankind's oldest sport. Just for historical reasons it belongs in.

[Breed]

Anyhow, wrestling may literally be mankind's oldest sport. Just for historical reasons it belongs in.

I'll second this emotion. I'm a little stunned that they even contemplated removing wrestling for the Olympics and to actually remove is very disappionting.

[Superbelt]

You shouldn't be stunned. The Networks won't bid as much for, and the sponsors won't pay as much to be the official ___ of the Olympic games if they maintain sports that aren't being watched.
That's all that matters.

[AndromedaPatFan]

You shouldn't be stunned. The Networks won't bid as much for, and the sponsors won't pay as much to be the official ___ of the Olympic games if they maintain sports that aren't being watched.
That's all that matters.

The decision for the last slot came down to wrestling vs. modern pentathlon.

[Superbelt]

The VP of the Pentathlon governing body is on the IOC board, and is the son of a 2 decade long former IOC president

Bet on Pentathlon.

[Jim in NYC]

You shouldn't be stunned. The Networks won't bid as much for, and the sponsors won't pay as much to be the official ___ of the Olympic games if they maintain sports that aren't being watched.
That's all that matters.

Pretty much.

Coming from an ex-wrestler: this is a marginal sport. I'm not saying politics weren't involved in its removal from the Olympics, but it's a little naive to think that it didn't belong there in the first place. It has a limited appeal outside of a comparative handful of countries, and needed two or three other sports to fill one of the smaller venues at the London Olympics (basketball and swimming, by comparison, routinely filled much larger venues on their own).

NBC is a for-profit business. If they could get more ratings from showing wrestling rather than another sport--whether swimming or rhythmic gymnastics or golf or rugby--why wouldn't they?

NBC also has plenty of opportunities to show NCAA wrestling in January and February, once football's done--and yet they don't do that, either. Neither does Fox, neither does CBS, and ABC only shows it on ESPN2 or ESPN3 until the finals.

Why isn't Real Pro Wrestling still going strong, instead of folding after two years? Why didn't Fox build a high-profile programming schedule around it instead of relegating it to a subsidiary network that didn't even carry the Fox name?

How many pay-per-view amateur wrestling events are there per year, as opposed to boxing or UFC?