How Jesse Mendez Beat Beau Bartlett | NWCA All-Star Classic 2024

Jesse Mendez beat Beau Bartlett again this past weekend at the All-Star event. This time it was a bit more dominant than when they met in NCAA finals where I believe Beau could have easily won if he would have just locked his hands when he got behind, rolled with Jesse as he went to granby, got the takedown, held on for dear life, given up a locked hands call, but I digress. Nerves will affect your decision making and possibly winning NCAA’s in the last few seconds of a match can do crazy things to your mind. You can lock hands in neutral and giving up a locked hands call means you got the takedown, anyways.

Lots of decent hand-fighting going on at the start of the match, Jesse likes that russian on the right and Beau’s been using a front headlock chin grip it stall him out there. This is a bit sketchy for both parties, if Jesse tries to shoot from here it’s an easy front headlock for Beau, and Beau doesn’t really have much control to do anything with this front headlock. He might be able to circle left, make Jesse step with his left foot, and go dresser dump. That’s when he would reach to that far leg with his left arm, hook under the knee, and drive to a possible low leg cradle and/or takedown. That is possible, but it requires Jesse to not be controlling the russian well, which makes it unlikely because as Jesse you would have a damn good grip on that. This will be a stalemate.

They’re getting into tie ups and stuff but the heart of hand-fighting is found within the transition between tie-ups, which there aren’t many in this match. They grab a tie, hold and try to use maybe, otherwise they’re back in their stance at arms length.

Jesse does get to this underhook with a grip on the head and starts pushing Beau around, which is interesting. I imagine he’s looking for what we would call a baseball throw, where you go hip to hip, throw the underhook forward, and catch the near leg, but he’s not making any real strides to get this, probably because Beau is posting on his rib cage with his left arm extended. Beau could pop that right elbow up and go to a far double, that would be super nice, but doesn’t look like he’s interested.

15 seconds left in the first, Jesse snaps the wrists down which totally takes Beau out of his stance, then goes lefty collar tie to a righty high crotch. This shot is interesting and definitely has gained popularity in the last couple years. It’s a weird feel for the defensive guy, you don’t sense that kind of a shot coming from that side tie up because you’re so used to your opponent shooting with the same arm as the collar tie. That’s the common thing you grow up with, right collar tie, righty shot. Lefty collar tie to a righty high crotch also allows you to control that stage left arm, you lift your elbow as you shoot, which makes it harder for them to stay with your level.

Jesse is low on the shot and Beau catches a body lock which forces Jesse to a head inside single position, which isn’t great. Jesse pulls the leg under, a head wheel of sorts, to crack Beau down to his hip, but Beau’s able to pull himself out of it and get to a sprawl. This is what typically will happen when you try to force a crackdown from the offensive side of things, it just doesn’t work well against someone with good hips, or anyone in college in general. Beau holds strong, not able to stretch Jesse out with a sprawl, while Jesse sits to a crack down.

Notice in this position Jesse keeping his shoulder into Beau’s hips, which is a good idea and makes it so Beau can’t scoot around, get an angle, lock the leg, and a takedown, it keeps Beau in front of him. Also notice Jesse’s right hip down, which stops Beau from stepping over top of the near leg and locking it up. This is textbook position from Jesse who obviously knows how this crackdown position plays out. This is how I was taught in college to maintain a good position in the offensive side of a crack down.

Jesse goes to lock over top of that near arm of Beau’s locked hands. He would hook that elbow and then be able to either throw his left hip down and roll to the left and continue for a double or he could circle to the left a little, jump over, and then convert to a double. Beau knows that this gives at least one of those options so he lets go of body lock to keep his arm away. Jesse then grabs the ankle, lifts it up so his right arm can thread across to the double, and gets the takedown before the time runs out. The refs review the call to make sure it was two, and Jesse had the double at about 1.5 seconds, so the takedown here is a pretty easy call to make. So, decent setup off of a nice snap down, really good understanding of the crack down scramble, this series is just really well done, and given how well Jesse handled the crack down transitioning, not sure Beau could have done anything else aside from maybe trying harder to get to a good sprawl when he was given the opportunity or trying to force Jesse to go to a single, or force him out the back door instead, but we don’t know how well that would have played out anyways. Jesse is up 3-0.

Second period, Beau chooses down, Jesse does a good job riding but Beau stays in good position, doesn’t let himself get lifted, and eventually finds his way out of there. Score is 3-1 Jesse, and Beau has a minute 30 to get something here, but not much happens after that. Some heavy hand-fighting, but not enough action for Beau to come back into the match. Beau just taking shots from space, not doing enough of a setup, and therefore Jesse is able to dodge out pretty easy. I think the problem for Beau is the lack of transitioning from the tie ups to fakes, shots, or other tie-ups. The hand fighting here is just too one-dimensional from Beau, and Jesse is good enough at reacting to the far away shots that he’s never in any real danger.

Third period, Jesse takes bottom, Beau really needs to cut him immediately to give him more time to get something in neutral. Riding time is at 30 seconds, not a factor, and a wrestler like Jesse isn’t going to turned in the third when all he would have to do is hold position to win the match. Having said that, Beau rides him out for 20 seconds for I don’t know what reason.

Beau cuts Jesse at the 1:39, 4-1, and nothing concrete happens for the rest of the match. Jesse keeps his distance and stays safe, which is fine I guess. I would love for him to stay aggressive and still go for another takedown to really close out the match, but that’s a general coaching preference, he’s up by 3 points and so therefore would need 4 stall calls to give Beau the win. This 3 point takedown really incentives stalling, especially when it’s not called consistently or often by referees. Beau would need to close the gap better which threatens stall calls. Stall call at 30 seconds to go, but it’s way too little too late. 30 seconds to go, Jesse does a little pump fake and then goes for a random double from space. The fake was enough to provoke a reaction out of Beau and gives Jesse enough time to fall off to a single. Beau tries to stay in a sprawl position, but Jesse is able to circle towards the single, hooks the leg, gets it super straight, but Beau stays in a split and so Jesse isn’t going to get much here. Jesse goes up to a body lock from there, which I don’t recommend. A single has a way higher percentage of finishing than an upper body lock, it’s like throwing away a sandwich for a pile of dirt. The dirt could have gold in it, but most likely it’s just a pile of dirt. Beau didn’t have many options, but now he could go inside trip, headlock, hip toss, he immediately gains things he could do. He doesn’t though, Jesse is able to get around behind. Beau does a forward roll which does catch Jesse off guard, but Jesse is able to hold onto an ankle, run the clock out, and win the match 4-1.

It’s ironic they find themselves in a similar position at the end of this match as they did the last one. The big difference is Beau did a forward roll while Jesse was able to do a concrete granby, which is a lot more difficult to stay with because the angle is so severe. Either way, they both could have kept their locked hands and rolled with the other guy, got the takedown, and given up a locked hands call, which doesn’t matter because a takedown is 3 points, much more than the 1 point of the locked hands. Both of them not doing it leads me to believe that it’s not a very well thought of or taught strategy. There are many ways where quote-unquote locking hands in neutral can net you a takedown within a scramble. Oh well.