Wrestling Blogs - Joe Williamson

“By far the best book I have ever read on the sport!”
-Ben Askren, 2xNCAA Champion & 2008 U.S. Olympian

“Title IX crybabies, USA Wrestling squares, mainstream marketing failures, amateur wrestling promotion has been just that for years...AMATEUR...Hopping's book is either a case for change or a tale of athletes who have been damned...”
-Vince McMahon, World Wrestling Federation Chairman
“A Masterpiece...” -RevWrestling.com
“Olympic wrestlers, rival factions, cold war residue and ambitions curse...this book will make you feel something about THE SILENT GLADIATORS way of life and whose main character, Cael Sanderson, is American sports unknown prince...”
-Dallas Morning News
“Banned at Fargo, outlawed by USA Wrestling, with no publisher to trust and no ally in the field...THE SILENT GLADIATORS is the lone wolf of wrestling books!”
-Mickey Rourke, The Wrestler
“Hail Saytiev! Hail Russian wrestling! Vodka shots all around for great wrestling book written by a daring, reckless American...”
-Moscow Times (Russia)
“An unknown sport is stripped down to reveal its raw, powerful truth!”
-Los Angeles Times
“Like a fine 12 year old Scotch, you need to save some of the taste for tommorow...”
-Mike Gill, Clearfield Area High School, Pennsylvania
“Like three straight unlaced lines of cocaine chased by a shot of whiskey compared to other watered down wrestling books...”
-Mickey Straight, amateur pool shark
“Amateur wrestling's version of FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS!”
-Rocky Mountain News; Denver, Colorado
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“Amateur wrestling just got punched in the mouth...”
-Don King, Boxing Promoter
“THE SILENT GLADIATORS is my favorite book and I don't even know how to read...”
-Mike Tyson, Hitman
“The Silent Gladiators makes WWF Wrestlers look like a bunch of sychronized swimmers who enjoy wearing spandex...”
-Rowdy Rowdy Piper, Former WWF Wrestler

i love his comment about brandon slay... can we say butt hurt? USA USA USA. i could be mistaken but i though cael beat him awhile back.

dang expert on saitiev. he's awesome as heck!!!!!

Martin,

Since you replied to my post--Re TJ X--I'll reply to yours. In three years of high school wrestling, Mo Lawal was a two-time Texas runner-up and then a state champion his senior year. He didn't go to Okie State right away, instead transferring in from D-II Central Oklahoma where he was a national runner-up, and has yet to peak in this sport as we can all see. No offense to you, but you cannot compare yourself to him in wrestling terms.
As for you being "laughed off the mat," I heard quite the contrary when I coached at dear ol' Iggy. (you may now have a slightly better idea of who I am) Any time your name was brought up, and I didn't know who you were beyond your last name and rep until last year because of this site, Evensen and Lewis mentioned how you would/could/should have been one of the best kids to come from that school along side the Lukaniches had you been out all four years. You're being very humble about your abilities the way I understand it, but that's a good trait.
Anyway, I don't doubt the skills of the Americans at all. However, your boy Askren got ripped by Denis Tsargush this past February at the World Cup. Tsargush is a stud and in any other nation he'd be their number one, but as a Russian he is only fourth or fifth best at 74 kilos. He's been lit up by both Murtazaliev and Saitiev in the past year. Their beating him doesn't automatically mean Askren loses big, but it is a real good indicator. Tsargush gave him major, major fits and threw him off of his game completely.
By the way, why did you wait so long to wrestle at Cal Poly and what kind of training did you do from '98 until you wrestled in college? That was quite a bit of time.
TM

Now I would like to read the book. Somehow, his comments and feelings seem to some degree universal. When he "feels low, he goes fishing." Maybe that is how he can get his head on straight, feel a little closer to God, and then persevere with an intensity that few people will ever experience.

am i the only one who can't view the excerpt?

Nick,
I just finished your book. I bought your book at the Olypmic trials. I got to be honest with you, I could not put it down. I even took it with me on my family vacation. I read the book while my kids swam in the pool. I have read other wrestling books and they where boring reads. Your style keep me interested the whole time. USA wrestling should sell your book or sponsor it. I finally found out a book that I could relate to. I wrestled at Drake University, a program that got axed by title nine, and all of those things that your talked about the college lifestyle rang home to me. When you explain it to someone they really don't understand it until they experience themselves. That is why wrestlers are the ultimate true sports competitors. "Competition is really their drug!"
Great job!
Also there where some mistakes if you want me to show them to you. They were just spelling errors and One time you used Yoel Menteno instead Yoel Romero.
When is the next book coming out. Are you going to do one for this Olympics?

Anyways Nick, Keep up the great work! Wrestling needs more books like this! Their stories need to be told!

Grammer mistakes and all I really enjoyed reading about the Russian legend Saitiev. Its so refreshing to hear from a worldclass athlete who is a deep and complex person and not a trash talking, one dimensional, self absorbed simpleton. His philosophy on life and sport is incredibly inspiring and in particular his comments about fame should be listened to by young american athletes. The Russians are smart, educated and resourceful people who have endured tremendous adversity and we might be able to learn a thing or two from them if we open ourselves up to that. I particularly enjoyed his humility which we don't find much among elite American athletes. I wasn't initially interested in purchasing this book but will now after reading that chapter.

International business is filled with corruption. insert any example you want. China, India, Brazil, Russia..... The fact of the matter is that in the US you can go to a university and work internships during the summer to get a job on wall street or... work wrestling camps all summer and hope you get on the olympic team? How many millions do you think the guy who took second at thetrials is making this year? WHAT MATCH DO YOU WANT TO WIN

wouldnt have guessed how religious this dude was...

this book has his name spelled with a "y" is that the arabic spelling or something?

the blog is not working

RE: ReTJ X, I only wrestled 2 years at Cal Poly -junior and senior year (built up to it with everything I had), i would have been laughed off the mat before hand. Guys like Mo Lawal wrestled for only 3 years in HS...obviously a freak...but still found a way to compete at the highest of levels. Experience isnt everything. American wrestlers are sweet and never underestimate their ability to find a way.

It would be legendary:) I think Askren would win!

great piece....that poem he says shows so much bout this guy.

The things you're missing here are that 1. American collegiate wrestling, on the world scope, really means jack $#!*. It's nothing special since no one outside of the U.S. wrestles this style and may not even place you among the top 1,000 wrestlers in the world in or around a particular weight class. 2. Folkstyle wrestling in the United States is and always will be a fringe sport that doesn't make money. Why would anyone bother trying to throw a kids, high school or collegiate level match when financially there is absolutely nothing to be had by anyone?

To your point about you being a "Div I wrestler for 4 [sic] years," so what? Toot-toot! Anyone with even a little bit of experience can wrestle at a D-I school these days. Hell, the guy who owns this site did just that; he wrestled for two years in high school, never even qualifying for his home state's tournament and wrestled for a D-I program for four years. Maybe not all programs allow walk-ons, but most are not Oklahoma State, Minnesota or Iowa, so they're happy to have guys in the room who realistically never expect to see the mat, won't cost their program much money, but will give it their all in the room regardless of skill level. Just because Eastern Michigan, Franklin Marshall, Davidson and countless others are D-I schools doesn't mean that their kids are elite and that's a pretty common theme for most programs in the nation. It might look great when you're going to become a high school coach, but that's about all any more.

Dear "Re: T JX": I should have clarified that my orginal post was referring to amateur wrestling in the United States of America as the author was making mention of school such as ASU, Iowa, as well as Title IX, etc. If there is "loads of corruption" on the international level as you mentioned, so be it, but all I know is that I wrestled Div I for 4 years and at no time did anybody ever approach me or my teammates and offer us money to lose nor were there any betting lines in Las Vegas on high school state tournaments, the Midlands, NCAA tournament, etc. that I am aware of. If amateur wrestling in this nation ever became as popular as the author obviously wishes that it did, betting lines would open up in Vegas, and corruption and fixed matches would surely follow. Period.

Wrestling on the world level is way more corrupt than any major sporting event. Cubans go down all the time to Russians for money. They have nothing so 10s of thousands of dollars means a lot to these cubans who live on nothing and whose sisters have had to become prostitutes. But it doesnt stop there....

viva russ chenya i love u

he's a multiple time world champion. i like askren but saitiev has the upper hand here. that said im rooting for askren but its gonna be an upset if he wins.

He better start looking up Askren on the internet.

I sure hope that this isn't a final copy we're reading here because it is BRUTAL with all of the grammar mistakes in just these pages. Who edited this thing?

TJ X, you clearly know little about international wrestling to make a statement like that. Wrestling on the international circuit has been loaded with corruption for decades. In fact, international wrestling has been boat loads more corrupt than the NBA, NFL and MLB put together. Do a little searching of your own and you'll quickly find out that wrestling is far from as pure as you seem to idealize it.

I dont want wrestling to become a "major" sport ever for one simple reason: CORRUPTION. Every single sport that has achieved the "major" label status has become overrun with corruption, the latest example of the NBA referee fixing games for betting purposes. The UFC (MMA) is a prime example of a great sport that, as it becomes more popular, betting lines start opening up on fights and before you know it, corruption has reared its UGLY head (fixing games, corrupt officials, phantom knockouts, etc...). Now we will never know when guys are taking falls in the UFC because of betting scandals, fixes, etc... Just as football, baseball, and basketball are LOADED with corruption, more than any of us would ever want to know or admit to ourselves, so too would wrestling follow the same path to Hell. Sorry, not for me, I love my sport to always stay under that radar of doom, stay poor, stay unknown, and most importantly, STAY REAL!

thats what i call a role model. except if it were up to me he'd be christian.

Good read so far. Can't wait for my copy to arrive.

i really like this guy. he is in touch with reality. most celebrities hide emotion from the press.

Hey Nick, nice work! I am loving every minute. I remember when you were showing me some of the rough drafts in Barnes and Nobles in SLO. Its come a long way, keep up the good work :)

"slay flew in and flew out"