Willie is on the war path re: top stalling. He is looking for faster stall calls & stale mates if the top guy is not working for a pin. Even to the point of 15-30 second windows to call the action.
I agree with Willie on most things but not in this case. I absolutely think guys stall on top and should be reprimanded when it's obvious - so maybe the context is gratuitous stalling vs control & working for turns is the real point here. The thought of forcing Folk to look more like Free is not a good thing for us die hard Folk fans. What might 15 seconds stall warnings have done to the Zain years. How many pins, techs and majors might have been taken away by 'impatience' from an official.
There are always unintended consequences of rule changes, and I believe Willie's approach will have many, that may fundamentally change folk in profound ways.
My thoughts and what I see as a better solution:
1) Riding offensively is a 'skill' that only a minority of wrestlers can master well. How many kids fail to keep their opponent down even for 10 seconds, especially when the match is on the line late in the 3rd?
2) Gaining a riding time point is very well deserved reward for the demonstration of this skill.
3) Preventing an escape is difficult and justification for both riding time, and 1 point for achieving an escape.
4) Preventing a reversal is difficult and justification for both riding time, and 2 points for achieving a reversal.
5) Severely limiting or eliminating riding time would lead to an explosion of stale mates, many times in critical situations during a match. There would be much more catch and release and fewer long sequences that work towards a turn and back points. Not every elite wrestler can tilt most guys within 15 seconds like Spencer.
This would fundamentally alter folk in ways where it will much more resemble free. This combined with a change to the push out rule (which I tend to lean towards agreeing) while eliminating most top riding would nearly defacto make folk a kissing cousin to free. Not good from my POV.
Common ground:
1) Obvious top stalling needs to be called much more. Most fans agree here.
2) Moves used to control where no obvious effort to turn the opponent need to be warned or stale mate-ed more often and faster. Especially with defensive only applications where the bottom guy is rendered mute (this could mean things like the double thigh pry, and the bane of my existence double boots, applied just to ride out the 2nd period)....
However, I open the door to some latitude and yes I'll say it subjectivity for the refs.
1) Until a wrestler has 1:15 of RT earned a wrestler can stall from top all he wants. Riding is a skill and until the reward with a little time cushion has been earned you can work towards gaining that point with a 'lot' of latitude and protection from stalling.
2) once a wrestler has earned 1:15 of Riding time, his opponent losses the reward for an escape. Thus a free release is now possible. If a wrestler is demonstrating superiority from both neutral and on top, a catch and release should not earn only one net differential point in the transaction. This would make majors and techs more achievable for sure but those rediculous 29-14 type techs racing against the clock can be avoided, and rightly so in preference for more 17-2 alternatives. An vastly inferior wrestler should not avoid giving up a tech by 1 point simply because he is given a half dozen free points for free releases. I don't like 13-14 point majors where one guy does practically nothing the entire match but play out the clock
3) once an opponent gets the RT back below 1:15, escapes are once again rewarded.
4) so what does this preserve and where does the grey area and official's subjectivity come in? Let's use RBY-Fix as an example. The ability to ride out your opponent with the match on the line for that single point is extremely difficulty and once again a skill few can master. I will go so far too say RBY was the only wrestler in the country skilled enough to have accomplished that feat, against a world class opponent. To take away ones ability to control an oppponent to earn the victory is simply wrong. Thus where a match is either tied or within 1 point, the ref should not penalize the top wrestler for a rideout. This would apply only in the 3rd period.
With these few changes I think both the catch and release problem, the debate over 1 point escape vs 2-3 point takedown, and the ability to properly police stalling from on top can all be addressed to the benefit of maintaining the heritage of Folk.
Appropriaely rewarding skill in all three positions is what makes folk, folk.
Willie - I would like to hear your critique and thoughts. Really! I think we want the same thing but don't take a big piece of what makes folk, folk away in the process.
