What We Learned from WNO 21

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This was the last WNO of the year and overall it was good. We got a lot of submissions and good matches. Unfortunately they weren't all good and 2 of them were pretty bad. The card was headlined by Gordon, but he dropped out a week before, however we still had 3 championship matches and compelling match ups. Let's take a look at what happened at WNO 21.


Watch the prelim card here. Matches start at 1:02:00

 


 Results


Nick Mataya def Ian Butler via kimura


Mia Funegra def Janice Russell via armbar


Reese LaFever def Estevan Martinez via dec


Owen Jones def Dominic Mejia via dec


Tainan Dalpra def Troy Russell via armbar


Helena Crevar def Julia Maele via dec


Luke Griffith def Roosevelt Sousa via inside heelhook


Giancarlo Bodoni def Lucas Barbosa via dec


Deigo "Pato" Oliveria def Diogo Reis via injury


Mica Galvao def Kody Steele via RNC


Pedro Marinho def Raphael Lavato Jr. via dec





How People Won


We had more decisions than subs, but to be fair one of those was an unfortunate injury in a great match. Surprisingly the leading submissions were arm subs. They are usually the least common, but they came out on top at this event. 2 of them came from AOJ athletes, so perhaps that is something they work hard on.



Stats



The armbar came on top here with 2 finishes. The submissions were an inside heelhook, a RNC and a kimura. There were alot of guillotine attempts, but most of those come from the Mica match, where he relentlessly hunted the neck. Even though there were only 5 submissions as you can see there were a lot of attempts. People were going for finishes. Many of the matches were action packed, which is what everyone wants to see. 




Mat returns were number 1 here followed by single legs and the uchimata. The uchimata was used as a single leg counter here instead of a stand alone takedown, but as you can see it worked well. There were also some nice foot sweeps in the forms of deashi barai and sasae tsurikoni ashi. 




The sub sweep can out on top, which is a sweep that comes off a submission attempt. The matrix backtake/sweep was next and it usually came from when someone used K-guard to enter 50/50,but couldn't get to the heelhook. The lumberjack sweet also worked well as well as the 50/50 and the double leg wrestle up.


 



Half guard passes came out on top, followed by north-south passes and kneeslices. There was a variety of passes and I was a bit surprised there were so many different ones tried. 




Surprisingly mount came out on top with 2 submissions. This is a bit rare as the back is usually number 1. Sidecontrol, the back and 50/50 came in next with 1 submission each. Both mount submissions came from AOJ athletes and perhaps this is something of a specialty of theirs. In recent years the mount has become more and more popular, but many have been struggling to finish for there. That wasn't the case at this event.



Best Matches


Nick Mataya vs Ian Butler

This was a quick fun match. Mataya isn't a big name, but he has recently moves to B-team and is looking to make a name for himself. Butler is an MMA fighter and is looking to get into grappling. Nick came out fast and hard and was able to pass Bulter. From there the kimura came after a bit of a struggle. This one was quick and fun. Just good basic BJJ.

Mia Funegra vs Janice Russell

Mia Funegra is a child prodigy that is looking to move into the big leagues. Mia looked very good and might be ready to move to the next level. Russell showed some good skills as well and put up a good fight. Mia showed good top control and was able to end the fight with an armbar.

Reese LaFever vs Estevan Martinez

Even though there was no finish this was a fun match. Reese was going after chokes and leg locks and Estevan was running and jumping all over the place. Estevan did and amazing job at escaping everything thrown at him and pushing the pace.

Tainan Dalpra vs Troy Russell 

People were wondering if Tainan could make the switch to nogi and the answer to that question is yes. Tainan's leg lock defense, guard passing and guard in nogi might still be a mystery, but he showed amazing top control and finishing ability. He was also able to get a takedown, which surprised me as I haven't seen him attempt takedowns in the gi. He should have a lot of interesting match up in the future.


Luke Griffith def Roosevelt Sousa

This was a fun back and forth of 2 big men who like to play leg locks. Luke came out on top with the inside heelhook in this one. This was short and sweet.

 Deigo "Pato" Oliveria vs Diogo Reis

This was a really fun action packed match. Reis beat Pato previously at ADCC trials and due to him being the champion, most assumed Reis would win fairly easily. Pato came out aggressive and showed Reis it wasn't going to be that easy. Pato turned the heat up with sweeps and leglocks, a few of which looked very deep. Unfortunately the match ended with an injury, but hopefully these 2 run it back.

Mica Galvao vs Kody Steele 

Fun from start to finish. Both of them pushed forward and wanted to put on a show. Mica looked amazing and had several close guillotines. Eventually he got to the back and sunk in the RNC. There were several good BJJ and wrestling exchanges in the match. Also I was happy the Kody wasn't intimidated and decided to go forward the whole time. Without that we might have had a terrible match, so we should thank him for his effort.





Terrible Matches

This was a very good card that was marred by 2 bad matches. The other matches varied from good to great and most of the grapplers were really going for it at all times. Constant forward motion, submissions, shots, passes, sweeps, etc. However in the Lovato/Marinho match things slowed to a halt at around the 5 min mark. Lovato to his credit seemed to want to push the action, but after Marhino got those first 2 takedowns, he constantly moved backwards. Lovato was understandably frustrated and couldn't get anything going. Part of it was Lovato's unwillingness to change strategies, but also Pedro repeatedly walking out of bounds made this a frustrating match to watch. 

That brings us to Bodoni vs Hulk. This has to be the 2nd worst WNO match of all time. To be fair Josh Hinger vs Vagner Rocha was worse than this and had even fewer takedown attempts. That said, 95% of this match was them just clubbing each other, shoving and pulling each others head. This strategy is becoming more popular as a way to wear out your opponent. However, not only is it boring, but when one person starts doing it the other person starts doing it too. By the end of the match both people are sapped of their energy and they each go for 1 or 2 sloppy shots to get the win. Pro BJJ needs to penalize this strategy and punish those who use it for extended periods of time. This type of play is becoming like the lapel 50/50 in the gi a few years ago. Something needs to be done before it ruins the sport. 


Overall


The event was good, but IMO more needs to be done to prevent bad matches. Usually people expect an event to have a bad match and to be fair, other sports such as boxing and MMA have them all the time. However we need to do more to eliminate these, especially in main event matches. 

On the other side, I think this WNO setup a good 2024 grappling season. Tainan Dalpra has gotten off to a great start and I'm excited to see him again. Helena Crevar proved that she can hang with ADCC level competitors and IMO she should move up to the next level in competition. Owen Jones is someone with personality and the skills to back it up. Finally the Mica Galvao vs Nicky Ryan match is intriguing and is something fans have been waiting for. On top of that, I'm sure everyone wants to see Diogo Ries and Deigo "Pato" run it back. Hopefully we get more WNO events at the beginning of next year with these exciting competitors. 



Year to Date  





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