Last week Gable Steveson announced that he is entering the 2023 US Open, coming back from a one year sabbatical in search of WWE stardom. This can only mean good things, as the WWE fanbase is huge, so to bring any bit of that audience back to the real sport of wrestling would be amazing. And so the question is now, can he win the US Open, make the world team, and then win worlds? No doubt a world title and maybe an olympic title next year would be great for his future success in the WWE. They could create a story around that, and cross pollinate the two audiences if they set it up well. The US Open however, is a different animal because it’s not scripted so he has to physically do it. The most anticipated matchup for him would be either him and Gwazdowski, who he dismantled fairly easily 2 years ago and so we don’t need to talk about that, or this year’s Hodge winner, Mason Parris, who he beat in NCAA finals back in 2021, but it’s been a few years. No doubt Mason has gotten better, and Gable, who hasn’t wrestled in a while, well there’s no way of knowing. Let’s look back at the 2021 matchup between Gable and Mason and see if we can deduce a predictable outcome should they meet up again in two weekends. By the end of this video we’ll give you undeniable proof as to who will win this match-up should they meet again.
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30 seconds into the first, gable has a lefty collar tie and mason has a right over-tie and the right wrist. You’ll see this same tie-up situation throughout the rest of the match. Mason could be looking a slide-by on the right, where he goes collar with his left, looks away, goes hip-to-hip and pulls gable through. He can also go to an arm drag on the left, pull himself to a righty double. Gable on the other hand can’t shoot with his right arm, but he can lift that arm and go lefty high crotch to a double, or maybe just arm drag the right arm to a lefty double. They could both snap and clear the situation and look to capitalize on any opponent’s missteps, which is what Gable elects to do here. He does a quick snap down, clearing the ties, and then looks for a righty head inside single. This is an okay setup, only really 2 things, the snap and then the shot, and so mason is able to sprawl and get himself back up to his feet. Gable comes back to the collar, it looks like Mason goes for a lefty single with no setup, which ends up being a really bad idea as Gable snaps the head down and gets an easy go behind for the takedown. Not sure what mason was thinking of doing, going for a shot like that without a setup. There needs to be a better setup before you shoot, some kind of fake, a tie-up using Gable’s arm against him, something. Gable is now up 2-0.
Gable cuts Mason for the escape, score is now 2-1. He’s not interested in trying to ride him out, I assume he’d rather just wrestle in neutral and work on getting takedowns. Gable almost gets another takedown from another snap down, and Mason takes a few shots from space without setups, and so they fall completely flat. If Mason wants to get in on a good shot, he’s going to need to use Gable’s lefty collar tie against him. He could do a lefty pass-by, a lefty two on one, called a russian tie up, anything other than just trying to shoot randomly, which Gable is blocking easily. Gable almost gets another takedown before the period is out, fakes for a single on the left, fakes a collar tie, then goes lefty double. This just shows a superior depth of knowledge with attacks coming from Gable. Where Mason tries one thing, just the shot, Gable set up that shot with a fake to a tie up to a shot, which is much more complex, reliable, and more difficult to react to. They do go out of bounds so no points are awarded, but it was a good attack for sure.
Gable chooses down in the second, Mason tries to ride him out for a little bit, but gable is able to maintain position and eventually get his escape. Mason didn’t do a good job breaking him down, no chop or anything, hung on a tight waist and a shallow half, Gable is able to get wrist control, post it down, do a change-over when he hits the mat, circle, get back to a quad pod, Mason grabs a left claw ride, but gable peels it, posts it down, and gets the escape. Mason is just trying to use his weight to pull gable down, which isn’t going to be that effective if your opponent is strong enough to hold position. He really would need to lift, which could be difficult because it’s heavyweight, or transition to something else when Gable got to his feet, like drop to a leg, force a scramble, look for backs as he works his way back on top. This again makes mason look one dimensional while gable is multi-dimensional, being able to transition through many moves. The score is now 3-1 Gable.
Mason takes bottom in the third, Gable cuts him again, making the score 3-2, Gable. 10 seconds in, Gable has that lefty collar once again, with mason holding his right wrist. Gable snaps, then goes for a low double. He catches the left ankle, puts his head into the leg above the knee, and wraps the right leg as he circles to the right. This ends up being like a low-leg single to a double, and the technique is textbook, something you would see out of Cael Sanderson or Kyle Snyder’s playbook. It’s not a straight double, the low leg has been very effective for these heavier wrestlers. Notice how gable doesn’t go straight down to the ankle at an angle, instead lowers his elevation first, keeps his head up, and drives forward as he looks for the shot. If he didn’t get the leg, he’d be able to get right back to his stance and continue hand fighting, no harm no foul. Mason on the other hand, needs to do something out of this tie-up, or this same thing will keep happening. Score is 5-2, Gable.
Gable cuts Mason again, making the score 5-3. Mason takes another random shot with no setup, Gable sprawls, looks for a re-shot as he runs Mason out of bounds yet again, giving Mason his second stall call, making the score 6-3.
You’d think Gable is done, and will just run the clock down like a lot of other wrestlers do, but nope, like the true elite wrestler he is, he’s not finished. Mason goes for another random shot attempt, Gable snaps, cuts the corner, lands on a righty head inside single, lifts it up, goes to run the pike, circles in front a tiny bit and puts pressure down with his shoulder, and then changes direction and cuts double. He ends up just wrapping the waist for the takedown. Again, a great series of techniques out of Gable Steveson. I count 4 different moves in a row from Gable, and zero from Mason, making the takedown look easy. The snap helps the shot, the running of the pike is a common way to finish a single like this when it’s between your legs, but opponents often circle and react to that, so when you go to run the pike and quickly change to a double, the opponent is even more thrown off on how to react, making the double easy to get. This also makes scrambles very difficult to initiate. If Mason reacted well to the double, Gable could try to lift or try to run the pike again and the process starts over. This is really good technique coming from Gable, something you would see elite lower weights do, which is probably why it’s working so well against Mason. Score is now 8-3, Gable, with 15 seconds to go. Gable cuts him and relaxes for 10 seconds to the victory. The shortest dance to victory we’ve seen since we started making these videos, putting Gable in an elite class of wrestlers in my opinion, higher than any other national champ we’ve looked at.
So then the question is, can Gable repeat this again at the US Open in 2 weekends. The only answer that makes sense is yes, 100%, absolutely, and probably easily. He’s going to make the 2023 hodge winner look like an elementary wrestler if he follows the same strategy that he had here. Mason is a national champ from this year, there’s no doubt about that, and yes he did win the Hodge. This is only because Austin Gomez beat Yianni at the beginning of the year. Otherwise Yianni was the clear choice. Sure Mason was dominant, he didn’t lose, but from all of the highlight reels I’ve seen of him, he’s only really good at a fireman’s carry. How did he win in NCAA finals this year? Oh, that’s right, another fireman’s carry. So as long as Gable stays out of that underhook, he’ll do fine. Mason has no other attack. This is the problem with only being good at one thing, if your opponent can stop that, you’re dead in the water. Wrestling is not a sport where if you’re really good at one thing then you’ll always win. You have to be really good at a lot of things. You could counter argue by saying Jordan Burroughs is only good because of his double, but I think it’s everything else that he’s good at that makes his double so effective. In this match Gable stayed on the lefty collar tie, and Mason had no idea what to do about that. Gable was able to do multiple techniques in a row, and Mason just couldn’t keep up. This in my opinion does not make Mason eligible to be the Hodge winner this year. Even though he was undefeated, eh, he doesn’t seem to have an incredible knowledge of wrestling tactics. So he’s winning on size and strength, but someone like Gable can out maneuver and out-technique him fairly easily.