Dec 27-30 · Resumes Today at 9:20 PM UTC

Powerade Wrestling Tournament

Dec 27-28 · Resumes Today at 10:00 PM UTC

Marshfield Holiday Tournament

Tomorrow · 2:00 PM UTC

Brecksville Invitational Holiday Tourn

Dec 29-30, TBD

57th Akron Holiday Tournament

Dec 29-30, TBD

Southmoreland Holiday Classic

Dec 29-30, TBD

2025 Defiance Tri-State Border War

Tomorrow · 3:00 PM UTC

Wonder Woman Wrestling Tournament

Tomorrow · 4:00 PM UTC

FloWrestling Radio Live - December 29th

Tomorrow · 5:00 PM UTC

2025 Winter Cup

Dec 29-30, TBD

2025 Cimarron Spartan Invitational

Tomorrow · 5:00 PM UTC

Sierra Nevada

Dec 29-30, TBD

12th Annual Queen of the Hill

Dec 29, TBD

Aztec Duals

Dec 30-Jan 3, 5:00 PM UTC

TOC

Dec 30, 10:00 PM UTC

Northern Colorado vs Cal Baptist

NCAA D1 Weekly Roundup: 2025-26

NCAA D1 Wrestling Week 9 Roundup: Best Of 2025

NCAA D1 Wrestling Week 9 Roundup: Best Of 2025

We called an audible! This week's Roundup consists of a look back at the biggest NCAA college wrestling stories FloWrestling covered in 2025!

Dec 28, 2025 by Andrew Spey
NCAA D1 Wrestling Week 9 Roundup: Best Of 2025

Greetings and saultations wise and learned wrestling fans! Because of the extreme dearth of D1 college wrestling events during week 9 of the 2025-26 season, we're going to call an audible, and instead of discussing the noteworthy happenings of the last seven days, we're going to look back at the entire 2025 calendar year and highlight the biggest and best stories, events, and social posts that FloWrestling covered. How very!

Week 8 Rankings | Week 8 Box Scores

Roundups: Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3 | Week 4 | Week 5 | Week 6 | Week 7 | Week 8

So what will that entail, exactly, you ask? I will tell you. I have reviewed all our metrics, tallies, and key performance indicators and will list those entries that produced the highest numbers. 

Some of the data is from social media, which I will include. Other data will be from internal sources with which I will be more coy.

Now, without further ado, the envelopes, please.

FloWrestling's Best of 2025

Let's start with the good stuff (because it's been statistically proven that a mere fraction of the people reading this sentence will reach the end of the blog). 

The Top Twitter Posts of 2025

We're starting with Twitter (ok, fine, X), posts because I can embed Tweets in this blog but not Instagram posts, even though our IG posts get far more engagement. Just one of the fun quirks of blogging in the wrestling media capital of the world!

A behind-the-scenes look at Wyatt Hendrickson after 'the biggest upset in college wrestling history'. Or at least, perhaps the biggest. The question marks mean it's open for debate. 

Hendrickson over Steveson was undoubtedly the biggest story of 2025, as four of the top six 'reposted' Tweets were all Hendrickson-related. This simple graphic, after he won a title,e was number 2. This highlight vid of the match was number 5. And this graphic, after he won the Hodge, was number 6. 

Total tallies for 'Likes', 'Reposts', and 'Replies', which are all publicly available, for those four posts are 18,100, 1,750, and 333, respectively. 

World class prospects announcing their plans to compete for the most popular NCAA programs also drew eyeballs and induced the most smashing of the like button. 

A graphic of Bo Bassett's original verbal commitment to Iowa was in the top 5 of all liked posts in 2025. A  graphic announcing world champ Masa Ono would compete for the Nittany Lions was the sixth most liked post on our account. 

An interview with the great Ben Askren at home after a successful double lung transplant was the fourth most liked tweet, understandably so, as Ben is a beloved figure in the wrestling community. 

And making waves in women's wrestling was the monumental news that the NCAA would begin sponsoring the sport for the 2025-26 season (that's this season!). Announced in January of 2025, a graphic of that news was the 7th most liked post of the year. 

The Top Instagram Reels of 2025

This ridiculous move from Fargo garnered over 50 million views on Instagram. I can't embed the IG post, but we made an identical post on Twitter, which you can view below. 

We definitely owe both these wrestlers at least a t-shirt or something. 

This move from Dean Peterson at the 2025 NCAAs got over 10 million views (not an identical move to what Marcus Blaze hit recently, for the record). 

International wrestlers were pulling in the eyeballs thanks to Magomed Ozdamirov hitting this bizarre turn at the 2025 U20 Worlds to the tune of 10+ million views. 

The Wyatt Hendrickson highlight from the finals that we already embedded in the section above was the number 4 Reel of 2025 with 9.9 million views and counting. 

Rounding out the top 5 reels was this massive feet-to-back by Caleb Fish at the 2025 NCAAs. 

Top 5 Most Watched Videos on YouTube

This one is pretty straight forward. All the numbers are on YouTube. Look 'em up you don't believe me!

#1 Spencer Lee vs Masanosuke Ono: 402,200 views in 9 months


#2 Marcus Blaze vs Bo Bassett: 357,498 views in 7 months


#3 Bo Bassett's Legendary 5AM Workout: 344,599 views in 1 year


This one actually came out in 2024 but it was still #3 for total views in 2025. It has 765,004 views in total. 

#4 Spencer Lee And Austin Desanto: Wrestletown, USA: 307,972 in 1 year


This also came out in 2024 and has amassed 541K views in total. 

#5 Bo Bassett U20 World Championship Full Run: 304,806 views in 1 year 


Another video from 2024 (as this was Bo's 2024 U20 bronze medal run) that has 566K views in total. 

Still with us? I know your attention span is likely waning so I'll go full-listicle style from here on out. 

The Top 5 Most Watched Premium Videos

We just covered the free stuff on YouTube, but what about the premium FloFilms you need a subscription for? Here's the premium videos that got the most views on our website, in no particular order

Classics, every single one of them. If you haven't seen all of these yet, it's worth a subscription in my humble (and obviously biased) opinion!

The Top 5 Most Watched Episodes of FRL

Just on our website. YouTube or Facebook may tell a different story, but I don't have time to research everything! In no particular order.

Coming in at #6 was our 1,000th Episode Extravaganza, which I think is also worthy of highlighting.  

The Top 5 News Stories, as Measured By Pageviews

You'd think these would mostly mirror what social media and other lists have already identified, but I was surprised by some of these numbers. This was also just on our website. They are, in no particular order:

The Top 5 Most Viewed Results Articles

These may seem obvious, but I still find it useful to observe numbers that confirm assumptions. Again, all on our website, in no particular order.

The Top 5 Most Viewed High School Rankings

On our website, in no particular order

Many of these states had their rankings, and thus numbers, broken up by class, so I tried to add them together. Got a little wonky, so maybe there are some arguments for some other states sneaking in there.

Big ups to our High School rankers for their tireless work in an often thankless field. 

Top Highlight from 2025 NCAAs

Jesse Mendez, Ohio State vs Brock Hardy, Nebraska

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I was surprised this wasn't a Wyatt Hendrickson clip, but this was just on our site, so maybe that made a difference? 

Most Viewed DIII Content

As we all know, D3 wrestling is the purest expression of the sport. 

2025 NCAA D3 Championships: JWU, Wartburg Share Title In Dramatic Team Race 

This was written by Andy Hamilton, by far the most professional person on our entire team. When not writing award-winning articles, Hamilton can be found keeping our expansive so-called militia of freelancers in well-regulated shape. 

The Top Content by FloWrestling Employee

I got self indulgent with this one. Once I had all that data in front of me, I couldn't help but sort by individuals. 

Connor Petros’ Best Video

All Access: Masanosuke Ono Trains With Penn State's Bo Nickal and Zain Retherford


The ConMan got all sorts of behind-the-scenes goodness with this one. 

Tyler Meisinger’s Best Video

KNOX: The Quest For New Jersey Wrestling History  


Nobody does it like our TyMei! He's the coolest guy at FloSports. Tell him that next time you see him, he loves it!

Most Viewed CPreachin

Why Are Jax And Vito Wrestling NOW?


I defy you to find someone who produces as much quality wrestling content as CP. 

The Top Women's Wrestling Content from Kyle Klingman

Few people work as hard promoting and advancing women's wrestling as the indefatigable Kyle Klingman, and his women's college transfer portal tracker has been a big hit among fans. 

Bader’s Most Viewed Video of 2025

Mark Bader has been doing this a long time (so long that he'd probably rather I not say exactly how long), yet somehow he ups his game every year. Recently, he helped produce one of our best series yet: following the Iowa Hawkeyes women's wrestling team during their inaugural season. I implore everyone to check it out. 

HAWKEYES: The First Season With Iowa Women's Wrestling

Bader also splits his time with a show of his own, the most viewed this year was episode 466 featuring Jaxon Joy. 


Jon Kozak the Warrior

I'm just going to list stuff everyone else at Flo does now so I don't leave anyone else out. When he's not producing Flo's men's college rankings, you might often find the Father in the online trenches, battling it out with naysayers, like the ultimate keyboard warrior he is. Kozak also does our Men's Freestyle International Rankings, which, dare I submit, are also of the highest quality? 

JD Rader the Powerhouse

Between handling so much of the behind-the-scenes work on FRL to updating the D1 Commitment List to being co-NCAA ranker and the sole Domestic Men's Freestyle ranker, there's an argument to be made that James Dean is the hardest working man in the wrestling content biz. Despite the prodigious list of work assignments, JD still found time to shoot and edit this excellent Masa Ono video. 

David Bray the Unstoppable

The Bray Man's most visible contribution to the FloWrestling Industrial Content Complex are his Boys' National High School Rankings, but that is just the tip of the iceberg for all that David does. Bray is like the meme of the military soldier spreading his arms and absorbing all the dangerous projectiles while the innocents sleep soundly below him. In this case, the sleeping innocents are everyone else on the content team, and the projectiles are the endless meetings and video calls that threaten to overwhelm his strained schedule. And if Bray ever stops manning the front line of defense in the face of this corporate onslaught? Then we all die (metaphorically). 

The Top 5 Most Read D1 Weekly Roundups

Had to get one for myself in here as well. I don't say it enough (or maybe I do, I don't want to sound patronizing, but whatever,) but I am eternally grateful to be able to blog about wrestling for a living. I have plenty of other responsibilities at Flo (we all do, no one has 'just one job' here), but I take great pride and joy in being able to promote the world's oldest and most badass sport with the most passionate and perspicacious sports fans in the world. 

Those most read Roundups from 2025 are, in no particular order:

That the Weekly Roundup is growing in readership year-over-year is a testament to you, the wisest and most learned wrestlingfans in the world. Take a bow in my opinion!

Why Try? Ask AI

Couldn't end the Roundup with at least one potshot at our soon-to-be robotic overlords. I asked Chat GPT "What are the biggest NCAA wrestling stories of the 2025 calendar year?" 

I got a very long response, so I asked the fake computer person to reduce their answer to 5 bullet points, and here's what I got. 

  • Penn State’s dominant run culminating in another NCAA team championship
  • Carter Starocci becoming the first five-time NCAA Division I champion
  • Wyatt Hendrickson upsetting Gable Steveson at heavyweight
  • Oklahoma State’s resurgence highlighted by Dean Hamiti’s NCAA title
  • The growing impact of transfers, redshirts, and COVID-year eligibility on team lineups

No bad. Perhaps we will experience the singularity sooner rather than later. 

Did you make it this far? Congrats, you are the rare ones! Have a safe New Year's and see you in 2026!