WNO came back with a bang. This card was packed with names and I was excited to see it go down. Sometimes when you have a bunch of names the matches don't live up to the hype. Luckily in this case that didn't happen. If you haven't watched the event, you owe it to yourself to check it out or check out my Play-by-Play. Most of the matches were good and worth watching. There was a lot of aggression, but also technique on display. For the most part people really went after it and were looking to finish their opponents. Now let's see how people finished.
Results
Achilles Rocha def JB Bechtloff via toehold
Helena Crevar def Healy Dayan via inside heelhook
Carlos Henrique def Ben Eddy via decision
Oliver Taza def Sebastian Rodriguez via decision
Andrew Tackett def Troy Russell via RNC
Nicky Ryan def Rene Sousa via decision
Felipe Pena def Haisam Rida via RNC
Ffion Davies def Jasmine Rocha via decision
Nicholas Meregali def Kaynan Duarte via arm triangle
As you can see most of the matches ended in submission. There were 4 decisions, but even 2 of those were pretty good. Strangely there were no arm submissions, but that seems to be the trend in nogi these days. Arm submissions seem to be less common than chokes and leg submissions in recent years. As WNO doesn't have points, obviously nobody won that way. Haisam Rida did get a penalty though, and I'm not sure what the penalties in WNO actually do.
The RNC came in #1 as always followed by 1 each of the other various submissions. The large number of arm triangle attempts mostly came from Ffion Davies who tried them repeatedly from mount. The Ezekiel is a nogi "arm in" ezekiel from the back that was hit by Dante Leon. This is a choke I remember from years ago when I saw Jacare do it in a Brazilian MMA match. Recently it seems to be getting more and more popular. Usually it is thought of as a move used by people with long arms, but Dante doesn't really fit that mold and used it with success.
Wrestling up on a single leg was one of the most successful sweeps. Tied with it is what I call sub sweeps. This is when you go for a submission and the person defending the sub falls back letting you come on top. These types of sweeps aren't actually mentioned much, but according to my stats they are some of the most successful sweeps in nogi. many of them come from leglock attempts. This might be an area people should look into more.
Smash passes reigned supreme here, but it should be mentioned that these came off of leglock attempts. Although the outside ashi position and outside heelhook have become popular again people should be aware of the danger of being smashed. There were also 2 high step passes which is a little unusual since it isn't a very common style of passing.
The single leg was the most successful and most attempted takedown here. Most of the attempts were Meregali, who went for it over and over in his Match with Duarte. That said the double leg was also somewhat popular. Since WNO doesn't have points often times people will just choose to sit at the start of the match, which brings down the number of takedowns possible.
The back was the best place to finish, as you'd guess. The mount however seems to be getting more and more popular. Meregali finished Duarte for there and Ffion brutalized Jasmine from mount for about 10min. Last year we saw more people getting to mount, but they weren't able to use it effectively. Now we are seeing more people effectively fighting from there.
Highlights
Due to the comments from Jasmine Rocha, Ffion's match became a must see event. You could feel the tension and you could tell Ffion was out for blood. The crowd even cheered when she got the knee cut pass.
Dante vs Ethan was good all the way through. The whole thing was a highlight with aggression, technical exchanges and a finish.
Helena Craver and Achilles Rocha showed how to reverse your opponent's leglocks into your own. They were confident in their skills and finished fast. The new generation is catching up quick.
Andrew Tackett and Nicky Ryan put on masterclasses in back control. They didn't waste time getting there either.
Felipe Pena and Nicholas Meregali both showed veteran composure and patience. They struck when the time was right and got beautiful finishes.
Overall
I was happy with this event overall. There were more subs than decisions and even the matches that were decisions ranged from so-so to great. It was nice to see Nicky Ryan back and Meregali proved he has legit nogi skills. I was also happy that this event started on time and generally ran smoothly. The audio wasn't good, but the pace and timing of the matches was great. There was some weird match making, but I think it worked out to make a good card. In Oct we should get another one called "Night of Champions" where there will be multiple belts on the line. I'm interested to see who is on it and I hope it is as action packed as this one.
Year to Date
Here are the year to date stats. I added the stats from the latest ADCC open in as well. Now we have a lot of submission and we have a good ideas of what is working in nogi in 2023.
Great article Chandler and thanks for the stats and videos also
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