Everything You Need to Know About the Virtual Best All-Time Tourney

by Wreaper Wrestling & AWW

Answers to FAQs about the Virtual Best All-Time Tourney.

1. We are using the Olympic timeline and taking only athletes who competed from 2004 and beyond. (Hence why Tricia Saunders is not in the brackets.)

2. We are taking the “peak year” of each athlete based off their accomplishments in THAT year and comparing it against other athletes peak year.

3. Each athlete can only be featured in one weight and with one peak year. (Why you don’t see Adeline or Helen with multiple years or at multiple weights.

4. Each podcast host gets ONE landmine for the entire tournament. A landmine overturns the fan vote and the other hosts’ vote.

5. The winner of the Twitter poll receives the fan vote. All podcast hosts and guests will also receive a vote. Majority wins.

6. Some athletes “peak year” is in 2003, however, those athletes competed beyond 2004 and thus were deemed eligible.

7. Head to head wins can overturn accolades.

How did this get started?

American Women’s Wrestling is teaming with Wreaper Wrestling on a joint project over the next four weeks to promote and co-host a virtual “Best of All-time Tournament” for senior level women. The campaign will feature 16-woman brackets using this year’s 6 Olympic weights, and include Twitter poll voting for matches along with weekly podcasts starting Friday, May 22nd to discuss each round. Podcasts will continue on Thursdays after the first week as the prep pushed the first podcast back.

The collaboration was inspired by Wreaper Wrestling staff, who reached out to A.W.W. with a vision to join together for the venture. “Wreaper Wrestling wanted to partner with A.W.W. on this idea to help showcase some talent we have in women’s wrestling domestically,” said Wreaper COO & 2020 McKendree national champion Emma Bruntil. “Similar ideas have been done on the men’s side, but we wanted to take the idea and use it as a chance to educate and draw awareness to our amazing female wrestlers.”

The podcast will feature hosts from both organizations, including Bruntil, Wreaper CEO Lara-Lay Hinojosa, Bleacher Brothers Derek and Ben Levendusky, and weekly guests.

“We’re super excited Wreaper reached out to us,” said AWW Radio co-host Ben Levendusky. “As a fan of women’s wrestling, this gives all of us an exciting chance to imagine together the best against the best, and not only celebrate women’s wrestling, but learn a bunch as well.”

What’s the schedule?

Week 1 (May 18-22): Twitter polls & podcast for Round of 16
Week 2 (May 25-29): Twitter polls & podcast for quarterfinals
Week 3 (June 1-5): Twitter polls & podcast for semi-finals
Week 4 (June 8-12): Twitter polls & podcast for finals

BRACKETS