What We Learned from WNO 20 Night of Champions

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I have to say this was one of the best events of the year. I'm not sure if there was a bad match on this card. Often times with these big name matches you get boring matches that don't live up to the hype, but these for the most part did. We got consistent action, no stalling and athletes that went after each other like they wanted to win. 



 Results


Thaynara Victoria def Tiffany Butler via ankle lock


Steffan Banta def Thomas Bracher via rear triangle


Rafael Lovato Jr def Ricardo Evangelista via triangle


Diogo Reis def Keith Krikorian via decision


Gabriel Sousa def Ash Williams via kneebar


Andrew Tackett def PJ Barch via decision


Mica Galvao def Jacob Rodriguez via decision


Elizabeth Clay def Brianna Ste-Marie via decision (145lbs Championship)


Nathiely De Jesus def Rafaela Guedes via decision (HW Championship)


Diogo Reis def Gabriel Sousa via decision (145lbs Championship)


Mica Galvao def PJ Barch via flying armbar (170lbs Championship)


Gordon Ryan def Patrick Gaudio via Armbar (HW Championship)


 




How People Won



As you can see there was a 50/50 split between decisions and finishes. There was a completely even split between leg, arm and neck submissions. This is actually pretty rare, but the submissions we see at events like this are largely determined by the athletes competing. Arm submissions are usually behind neck and leg, subs, but with Mica Galvao, a known armlock specialist, and Gordon on the card trying to call his finish, armlocks became just as prominent as the other holds. 


Stats



The armbar came out on top on this day. As I said above this was due to Mica. He hit one of the most beautiful armbars I've ever seen, on PJ Barch. The timing and technique were perfect. He ended up winning submission of the night and deservedly so. Gordon wanted to hit an armbar to promote his new instructional and he did so in style. It was a beautiful armbar from the back with perfect control. 

Lovato Jr. hit a beautiful triangle in his match and Stephan Banta won with a rear triangle(a reverse rear triangle to be exact). Gabriel Sousa hit a an amazing kneebar in his Match and Thaynara Victoria hit a nice ankle lock. Most of the ankle lock and heelhook attempts came from her match as her and her opponent were deep in leg spaghetti trying to submit each other. 




The double leg was the most common takedown at this event. This is most due to Diogo "Baby" Shark" Reis. He was a takedown machine in his match with Keith Krikorian. There were also quite a few in the match between Andrew Tackett and PJ Barch. After the double leg, the single leg was the most prominent takedown. Takedowns from the bodylock were also fairly common.

The was a surprising amount of Judo  style takedowns as well such as kosoto gari, ogoshi, and sasae tsurikomi ashi. The tawara gaeshi by Mica Galvao was also fun. 

 




The single leg and the sub sweep where the most common things in this category. I should explain that the sub sweep is any sweep that comes from the opponent defending a submission defense. This is usually due to leg locks, but it can come from other submissions such as guillotines, armbars, etc. as well.

Nathiely De Jesus also had some nice variations on the John Wayne sweep and the kiss of the dragon worked a couple of times as well. The good old double leg from the sitting position was also something we saw a few times. 

 


Halfguard passes won the day here. People were working hard to get chest to chest. Not only was it a great position to pass from, but it also fatigued opponents. After that we saw lots of torreando passes. This is mostly due to Baby Shark who does them as one of his main passes. The bodylock and highstep passes followed with Gordon hitting 2 of the former in his match. 



Side control was the position that was achieved the most as you'd expect. However the back had the most finishes. It seems people are having problems submitting from side control and mount recently. One reason for the lack of side control might be people preferring to move to mount instead of hanging out in side, but I'm not sure if that is the only reason. 




Matches

Thaynara Victoria vs Tiffany Butler - A leglock battle with constant action back and forth. Both of them were going for leglocks the whole time and they didn't stop until someone tapped. Unfortunately for Tiffany she was the one caught in an ankle lock. 

Steffan Banta vs Thomas Bracher - Banta came out and wanted to prove a point. He came out quickly with a takedown and then went to work with pressure passing. He was patient and worked to cook Bracher. Once he got his chance he moved to the back and then when Bracher tried to escape he went to the rear triangle. 




Rafael Lovato Jr vs Ricardo Evangelista - Lovato gave up a lot of size, but it didn't deter him as he shot hard to a double leg takedown and got it. From there he worked his pressure passing until he got to a dominant position and finished with a triangle. 

Diogo Reis vs Keith Krikorian - A barnburner with constant action. Diogo stayed in control the whole time with relentless wrestling and sharp defense. Even though Diogo clearly won, I think this might be one of the Keith Krakorians we've ever seen. He was constantly attacking and I like how he constantly stood up to keep the pressure on Diogo. There were a lot of great moments in this one and I can't believe they kept up this high pace throughout the whole match. 

Gabriel Sousa vs Ash Williams - This was another high paced match with both of them going back and forth throughout the match. Sousa seems to be constantly evolving as his wrestling looks much better and he used it to great effect in this match. He was also relentlessly attacking until he finally got the kneebar. Sousa had been switching between submissions and as Sousa grabbed his leg he extended his leg and pointed his toes. Unfortunately Sousa was going for the kneebar and not a heelhook, so subsequently Ash tapped immediately. 

Andrew Tackett vs PJ Barch  - This was an amazing match where both men gave it their all. They fought everywhere and went back and forth the whole time. Surprisingly Andrew got the better of PJ on the feet. Andrew looked amazing, but PJ looked a bit flat. Even so this was a nice back and forth match with no breaks in the action. 




Mica Galvao vs Jacob Rodriguez - This was an amazing back and forth match as well. As you'd expect Jay Rod was agressive with his wrestling, but Mica didn't back down. They went back and forth until Mica caught Jay in an armbar. I thought it was over until jay, escaped, but Mica reapplied the submission. Then Jay escaped again. This happened about 3-4 times, but eventually Jay escaped. From there they kept, but Mica was firmly in the lead. Mica capped it off with a huge throw at the end. 

Elizabeth Clay vs Brianna Ste-Marie - As you'd expect Liz played guard as Brianna passes. The first half of the match was just like this until Liz swept Brianna and came on top. From there Liz applied constant pressure looking for the half guard pass until time ran out. This wasn't a bad match, but it was slow compared to the rest of the card. 

Nathiely De Jesus vs Rafaela Guedes - this was very similar to the match above with one person playing guard and the other looking to pass until a sweep happened. The sweeps in this match ended up winning De Jesus the fight. Just as above this wasn't a terrible match, but much less exciting than the other matches. 

Diogo Reis vs Gabriel Sousa - This was an amazing back and forth match with wrestling, sweeps and passes. At various points in the match I thought Sousa was going to win and then Diogo. Finally Diogo put a nail in the coffin with a few passes. Both competitors really gave it their all the whole time and left it all on the mat. 

Mica Galvao vs PJ Barch - This match started with a single leg from Mica, defense by PJ and then a counter attempt by PJ that led to disaster. As they were scrambling PJ either bumped head with Mica or hit his head on the ground. Whichever it was 

Gordon Ryan vs Patrick Gaudio - This match spend a few minutes on the feet and then once it was on the ground it was all Ryan. Gaudio attempted some half guard sweeps, but Ryan shut it all down. After some time Ryan passed, mounted, moved to the back and then finished with a beautiful armbar. He called his submission and then reveled his new armbar instructional would go live as he spoke. 


If you want a more detailed summary of each match, please check out my play-by-play.

Overall

This has to be in the running for the best event of the year. 2 years ago the WNO championship was one of the top 3 grappling events of all time and I think this matched it. This event has almost everything you could want in a grappling show. Takedowns, passes, sweeps and submissions were all there and there was very few breaks in the action. 




Year to Date Stats

Here are the stats for almost all big events this year. I've added the submissions from this event and Polaris 24. I'll do a write up for all the stats at the beginning of next year. 



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