Drama like this sport is a soap opera

No, there is no shortage of stories and heated discussions this wrestling season. More episodes were added on Sunday on the Brünig. The only 20-year-old Adrian Walther secured the victory, and many people remembered his curious third fight.

That walk took too long because the judges made a glitch in timing. The duel went into overtime, which doesn’t exist in wrestling, and Walther still managed to win more than one put. If the officials hadn’t awarded him victory, he might not have even made it into the final round. Stefan Strebel, the highest sports officer in the association, spoke afterwards of a “clear misjudgment”.

The Bernese two-meter man Walther still earned the greatest success of his career, with a refreshingly offensive swing. In the final step, he freed himself with a kind of backflip from a seemingly hopeless situation when he had barely been able to breathe in Werner Schlegel’s “Münger-Murks”.

Samuel Giger and the “hobby brother-in-law” – more drama is almost impossible

The viewers had already been presented with drama before. The classification paired Samuel Giger, who had started as the top favorite, with his girlfriend’s brother, the local hero Kilian von Weissenfluh, in sixth gear. Inevitably, the question arose: would they treat each other with kid gloves? Giger was still able to calculate his chances of winning the festival. But von Weissenfluh gave the “hobby brother-in-law” nothing, for him it was about winning the wreath.

Of course, the TV camera also swung to Giger’s girlfriend, who acted as maid of honor at the party and sat in the audience in traditional costume. She didn’t even want to look because she was so tense – Giger laid her brother on his back. The “Sonntags-Blick”, which was distributed free of charge on the Brünig, had fueled this affiche properly. And the division gave the impression that the wrestlers wanted to provide more fodder for the boulevard – as so often in recent weeks.

Yes, what was reported there: a wrestler who didn’t stand still when the national anthem sounded in the arena and instead prepared for his final walk. The same wrestler who lost his wedding ring in the sawdust during a fight. And then the debates after several controversial judgments by the referees and one-piece teams: Does wrestling, like football, need the video assistant referee? Are the rules for classification still up to date?

At times one felt as if one were in a soap opera, and discussions at the sawdust rings could get out of hand. Or to stay in swing language: A bullet was made out of every woodworm. Dust was kicked up wherever possible.

Not every wrestler friend likes to see the media excitement, and criticism is voiced behind closed doors. There are traditionalists who stay away from wrestling festivals because they think the circus around them is too big. But wrestling also tends to be close to the boulevard because it gives the sport a disproportionately high public profile.

Some wrestlers hide, others dare bold advances

There are wrestlers who distance themselves from media consumption, like Samuel Giger. On the other hand, another contender for the king’s title, Pirmin Reichmuth, dared to start a much-noticed debate. He raised the question of whether wrestlers in the army should actually be granted elite athlete status, which allows them to use RS or WK primarily for training. Some considered Reichmuth’s advance courageous. The others wondered if someone who was repeatedly injured wasn’t charging himself a lot.

Arnold Forrer, the still active king from 2001, even engages in a weekly debate with the “Blick” reporter. And when a wrestler puts himself in the limelight on social networks by canceling his participation in a festival, speculation begins as to how badly he is really injured or whether he is simply taking it easy for the Confederate. That’s why complaining that discussions are primarily initiated from outside does not go far enough.

It is also those questions that are sometimes so difficult to fathom in wrestling that exert this fascination on the audience. And the festival on the Brünig showed just how quickly everything can be turned upside down: a moment ago Giger and Reichmuth were considered invincible, in the first course they were already lying on their backs as fallen heroes. The starting point for the federal conference, which will take place in Pratteln at the end of August this year, is as open as it is rare.

The pressure remains high for Samuel Giger, especially for the upcoming Schwägalp-Schwinget – also because of close private relationships. Which are they? Maybe more of that in the next episode of this soap opera.