This event had lots of replacements and the final card was very different from the original. However that doesn't mean this was a bad event. In fact it was actually pretty good. Even if some of the bigger names dropped out, the athletes that did compete went out and gave us a good show. Due to all the changes this became the first WNO show headlined by a women's match. Brianna and Mayssa did a great job putting on a good match and representing women's grappling. Let's check out what happened down below.
Results
Brianna Ste-Marie def Mayssa Bastos via dec
Jacob Couch def Bruno Matias via guillotine
Cole Abate def Damien Anderson via dec
Luke Griffith def Hasim Rida via heelhook
Ethan Crelinsten def Fabricio Andrey via RNC
Jozef Chen def Derek Rayfield via Z-lock
Emily Fernandez def Rosa Walsh via dec
Mourece Ramirez def Kevin Carrasco via dec
How People Won
I was happy that this event had a number of submissions. 50% of the matches were finished by submission and even those that weren't still had a lot of movement and back and forth action. Half of the submissions were attacking the legs and the other half were neck submissions. There were no arm subs, which seems to happen sometimes, although people were trying(which you can see below).
Stats
There were 4 subs at this event. The RNC, the guillotine, the inside heelhook and the Z-lock. The kimura was attempted quite a bit, but was mostly used to change positions instead of as a submission. Overall there were 18 submissions from the bottom, 2 from the top and 12 from neutral positions(the back, double guard pull, standing, etc). 2(11% finish rate) subs were finished from the bottom and 2(16% finish rate) were finished from neutral positions. There was a lot of good action, but I was surprised there weren't more finishes. There were a few submissions that were very close that people slipped out of.
Wrestling up seemed to be the most effective strategy at WNO 15. However the most successful sweep was going for submissions and then getting on top if they failed. This might be due to the no-points nature of the competition though. There were a number of people going for lumberjack sweeps from closed guard, but none were effective.
Overall one of the best strategies seems to be going for an attack and then chaining it into wrestling up. Many people had success with this and in a no-points ruleset is makes you look busy and aggressive.
There were only 2 guard passes during this event, a north-south pass and a float pass. There were many passes that were close, but they couldn't secure the positions. It seemed that people were having more success by pressuring their opponents to expose their backs instead of passing to side control or mount.
There were very few takedowns in these matches as people could just sit to their butts. I believe both takedowns came right at the stat of the matches. I really wanted to see Mourece Ramirez hit the
Russian tie snap, but unfortunately it didn't work out.
There was quite a lot of mount in these matches. I think people are still having problems finishing from there, but it seems like the position is getting more popular. The saddle and 50/50 were also popular and it was interesting to see people attack not only leg locks, but also back attacks from there. Having a wider palette to of positions allowed more attacks to be launched.
Trends
Wrestling up seemed to be very popular at this event. We've seen it a lot this year even though there wasn't much of it at ADCC. Ethan Crelinsten showed some amazing technique in this area, which was surprising because he hasn't shown particularly impressive wrestling before. In fact half of the sweeps that were completed were some sort of "wrestle up". Although I certainly don't think this will replace traditional sweeps, they have shown to be a great alternative against people that want to dance around the outside and not engage the guard.
As I said about a year ago, the Z-lock is a great submission that is underused. It seems that now people have started to catch on to what a great submission it is. It was used at ADCC and then at Medusa a few weeks ago. Now Jozef Chen hit one at this event against Derek Rayfield. Instead of the normal finish Chen used the lateral kneebar finish, which unfortunately seemed to have injured Derek's leg.
More and more people have been playing with this so I predict that this will become a stand submission sometime in the future.
Overall
This event was better than what it looked like on paper. Ethan vs Fabricio was exciting as we expected, Jacob Couch pulled out a great sub, Jozef Chen looked amazing, Luke Griffith pulled off a sub fast sub and Cole Abate had a great back and forth match with Damien Anderson. Sometimes you can have a good exciting event without big names and this proved it.
I'd like to see Jozef Chen and Emily Fernandez back again soon. They need more people on the roster, so I'm happy they are getting some new blood in there. I wouldn't mind them re-booking some of the matches that fell through either.
Flograppling has been a bit weird since ADCC, but this WNO seems to have gotten things back on track. They look to have some good matches set up for next year, but I was hoping they would have something next month as well. Anyway I was happy just to get a grappling event that was full of action. If you haven't watched this already, check it out.
Year to Date Stats
Here are the stats so far this year. Not much change since the last event, but I'll add all the ADCC stats after I finish with that series of articles.
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