News & Articles

The UWW Year-End (for the season) rankings came out today and good news for some of America's Top Wrestlers... it's pay-day! UWW previously announced bonuses for finishing in the top 3 ranked wrestlers in each weight class.  $5,000 goes to the #1 ranked guy, $3,000 to the #2 ranked guy, and $2,000 to the #3 ranked guy.  A total of $10,000 in cash prizes for each weight class. That's $300,000 being paid out to the top 90 wrestlers across all 3 styles, not bad! Five of Ame...

A back-to-back special today as I'm first joined by Cenzo and Real Woods for a half hour of Coffee Talk, getting to know and catching up with the 141lb NCAA Championship contender Real who just captured his 2nd Southern Scuffle title a few weeks ago.  At the 28:30 mark, Drew Hildebrandt joins me for the second half of the show to talk about his move & transfer to Penn State and his recent debut as a Nittany Lion. Drew and I also talk about what's next, the relationship and dynamic wi...

One month before Covid wreaked havoc on the world, on February 18th, 2x NCAA All-American Jacob Kasper joined me on Episode 36 of BASCHAMANIA.   We  had planned on recording for an hour, as is typical, but ended up going  an hour and 45 minutes.  Why'd we go so long? A shared passion for the WWE. We talked at length about some of our favorite childhood memories,  why he wanted to be a WWE superstar, and other random pro-wrestling  related topics.

Right on cue, the Name, Image and Likeness activity is picking up, as we're exactly one week since NIL went into effect and it's getting better by the day. As I had said both in a previous article, and on the BASCHAMANIA Podcast, deals take time to execute.  When you have negotiating taking places, attorneys reviewing contracts, compliance departments reviewing deals and content being created, among other sponsorship activities, things just take time!

It’s happening. On July 1, many college wrestlers are going to be able to leverage their name, image, and likeness. But, until it rolls out (and probably even after), there are a lot of questions and speculations around the rollout. I’ve seen some of the guidelines for a few schools and there are components here that seem pretty universal, so I wanted to dive in and discuss at least those elements.

The NCAA’s are happening and all the action starts today at 11am EST (info on how to stream every match here!) While there are so many storylines to focus on this weekend, one storyline I’ll be keeping an eye on this weekend is the Olympic Trials!  The NCAA Champion at each weight will automatically qualify for the Olympic Trials on April 2nd and 3rd in Dallas, Texas.

Buffalo Bills Head Coach Sean McDermott is no stranger to a wrestling mat, or to the best wrestlers in the world. In fact, it wasn’t too long ago that he invited Olympic Gold Medalist Jordan Burroughs to come speak to his team during training camp. McDermott has also spent time with Cael Sanderson and the Penn State wrestling coaching staff.

I know there are more than 5 implications and storylines from the postponment of the Olympics, but as I’ve said on the podcast before, I tend to focus on the storylines that affect those around me. I’m sure over the coming weeks and months, more will come to light and I’m happy to discuss those, too, but for now, here are some thoughts on storylines.

 But, on this seemingly somber Friday morning, I continue to think about the storylines that I was thinking about after the news broke yesterday and into the night last night.

J’Den Cox has won wrestling matches at the highest levels, including a bronze medal at the 2016 Olympic Games — but he believes the battles he wrestles with himself often usher in the greatest victories. 

Justin Basch, CEO and Founder of Basch Solutions, has launched BASCHAMANIA, a new wrestling podcast focused on sharing the stories of the top wrestlers in the USA.

Seth Gross was always destined for greatness. Even during his youth wrestling days, he aspired to be a pro-athlete and champion — a goal he accomplished when he became the 2018 NCAA Champion.