You decide
Thursday night's Canon-McMillan-Connellsville match was one of the most unusual I have ever seen, mainly because of the rule change on disqualifications that allow a coach to forfeit the bout rather than take the six team points. What makes this so unusual is that the wrestler from C-M who was penalized did not intentionally try to hurt his opponent. At least, that's the way it apeared to me.
So read the story
(http://www.observer-reporter.com/OR/Story/02_01_Canon_McMillan_Connellsville_story)
and tell me whose side you are on.
So read the story
(http://www.observer-reporter.com/OR/Story/02_01_Canon_McMillan_Connellsville_story)
and tell me whose side you are on.
posted by Joe Tuscano at
8:28 AM
25 Comments:
Coach Dolde said the fans would not allow him to give six points to Canon Mac. It sounds like he knew it was not the sportsman-like thing to do but was playing by the rules.He even stated that he didn't like the rule and it was a weak way to win. They need to change the rules and put the decision in the hands of the referee. The coach did not want to make the right decision based on everybody being upset with him. It is sad for all the wrestlers who competed. The outcome was not determined by the wrestlers but only by a rule that did not pertain to last nights situation. The wrong team will be competing in the finals. I hope Coach Mary will try to get this rule revised.
It was absolutely the wrong decision on the part of Coach Dolde. I highly doubt that C'ville would have run him out of town if he did what he believed was the right thing to do. Would he have been called a fool for allowing that opportunity to slip away? Of Course, but what he did last night was take the match away from a KID, who was fighting to get his team into the finals of the WPIAL Tournament. Coach Dolde did what he did, because he knew that it was to his advantage, any coach wanting to win that bad would have done such a thing.
I can't wait to see if the kid from C'ville will wrestle on Saturday, I surely hope not being that he couldn't continue on Thursday.
What a shame on behalf of the PIAA and the refs. who called the penalty. They are truly responsible for this disgusting, disappointing, breaking, decision.
Chris Mary and Canon-McMillan should be proud of themselves, they were last night's winner by far.
Chris Mary should be Coach of the Year in the WPIAL and Section.
Josh Totterdale should be AOW in the Observer-Reporter. Why? Because he does what every coach and ref. tell a wrestler to do, "WRESTLE UNTIL YOU HEAR THE WHISTLE."
Too bad the ref. was late on his whistle last night.
Hmm...Nobody seemed to notice that!
I'm not sure who the ref was but it sounds like a very weak call in the first place. Dolde just had no guts to do the right thing. Maybe Chris Mary, had the roles been reversed, would have done exactly as Dolde did. As an aside, I would comment that the current crop of officials is probably the worst OVERALL in two decades.
SORE LOOSERS I SAY. A RULE IS A RULE AND YOU CANT TELL ME YOU WOULDN'T HAVE DONE THE SAME THING IF THE SITUATION WAS REVERSED. YOUR BLAMING A COACH, A REFEREE, AND THE PIAA FOR THIS LOSS. PATHETIC. IN SPORTS I THOUGHT THE POLITICALLY CORRECT THING TO SAY WAS "THIS DECISCION HAD NO BEARING ON THE OUTCOME OF OUR MATCH, WE JUST DIDN'T WRESTLE OUR BEST MATCH TODAY. WILL GET'EM NEXT YEAR YADA, YADA, YADA." WHAT KIND OF EXAMPLE ARE YOU MAKING FOR THESE KIDS BY BLAMING COACH DOLDE, THE REF, AND THE PIAA. I'M SURE THE RULE WAS MADE TO HELP PROTECT THE KIDS. THE RULE ITSELF I AGREE WITH, HOWEVER IT SHOULD NOT AFFECT THE OUTCOME OF A MATCH. 3 POINTS SHOULD BE GIVEN TO FORFIETS NOT 6.
This was a situation that once again was determined by the ref. I have seen many head butts this year that were not called, just like the eye poke rule. If its a rule MAKE THE CALL in every situation not just when u feel like it. I've also seen the stall called on one wrestler but not the other The refs need to be more consisitant.
I also believe that if the situation was reversed Coach Mary would have done the same thing that coach Dolde did, as would any coach!
The Canon-Mac Wrestlers were cheated after all of the hard work that they did this season. The were not Cheated by C'ville, but rather by the Refs. I was at the match and saw how late the Ref was with blowing the Whistle. Josh did what he has been trained to do. Wrestle to the Whistle. Those two Refs should be ashamed of themselves for ending a hard fought match that way.
As far as rules being rules. The rules for a Technical Violation and a DQ have always been flawed. We should be looking at the rule in an individual match level, not a team level. The proper thing to do would be for the Ref to signal Potentially Dangerous and let the trainer tend to the Wrestler. After the Wrestler was attended to and the Ref found out if he could continue or not, then signal the point and technical violation. This would get ride of wrestlers taking a dive.
I feel for the Canon Mac Wrestlers they put in one heck of a season. And they had a WPIAL Championship stole from them by stupid Refs.
If there is any C-ville fans out there that think Chris would have made the same call had things been reversed, you are wrong. Chris is a great Coach and has integrity. His brother Phil had actually done what this new rule says back in 94. Since the wrestle couldn't continue and the violation was not intentional, Phil had the Ref start and then stop the match in the middle of the mat. He did this to preserve a win streak of the opponent teams wrestler.
One last thing, Why two Refs? The only reason I saw the need for two Refs was so they can back the other one up, and not make a good call.
Throughout the history of sports, you always see some rules changes that come about due to injustices in the field of play. The desire to "get it right" usually results in the powers to be getting together and improving or correcting a rule that has caused injustices before. Instant replay is one of the biggest examples I can state. It was instituted to help the officials on the field make the right call.
Well, I would like to comment on the rule that has caused the controversy in the Canon-Mac/Connellsville semi-final team tournament match. Originally, there was no recourse. If one of your wrestlers injured his opponent through an illegal hold or move and the injured wrestler couldn't continue wrestling after the 2 minute recovery time, the wrestler who caused the injury is disqualified and the injured wrestler received 6 points for his team. Then, it seems like the powers to be felt like in some cases, it would be an injustice to penalize the wrestler who caused an injury to his opponent if it was unintentional. The rule now allowed the coach of the injured wrestler to either forfeit the match to the other wrestler and give the other team 6 points or to disqualify the other wrestler and gain the 6 points for his team. Sure, the spirit of the rule is good but, if a rule is uninforceable, then why have a rule. If they had wanted to correct an injustice through a rules change, then change the rule. The rule should be that if a wrestler is injured through the result of an illegal hold or move and the wrestler can't continue wrestling after the 2 minute recovery time, the referee needs to make a determination if the illegal move was flagrant or unintentional. If it is a flagrant violation, then the wrestler is disqualified and the injured wrestler gets 6 points for his team. If it is illegal but unintentional, then the bout score is frozen at that point. If the injured wrestler was winning the match, he gets the win...if he was losing the match, then he gets the loss. Making this change does one major thing, it doesn't allow the coach the opportunity to have the injured wrestler "take a dive" for the team. It would require the ref to make the call as to whether it was flagrant or unintentional but, they are use to making tough calls anyways. I am not saying that the Conn wrestler took a dive for his team but, the rule change would eliminate any of this controversy. Wendell definitely looked wobbly when he was brought to his feet. If he was faced with having to continue to wrestle so as to help his team, maybe he guts it out and finishes the match. The Hempfield 125 pounder, Reilly, had his knee tore up pretty bad in the quarterfinals and he gutted it out to go back in and finish the bout to help his team. The goal in sports is to have fair & equitable competition and the proposed rule change would be a step in the right direction.
I agree with the rule change but, would this have made a difference in the match? I wasn't there to see the match and I have no bias to either squad. From what I read in the paper it sounds like it was illegal. And, the fact that the boy was out of bounds makes it seem quite flagrent. I mean what wrestling move was the CM wrestler trying to do that allowed him to headbut his opponent out of bounds. If your going to blame rules, refs, and head coaches you also need to make the wrestler responsible for his own actions. Was it at the end of a period, was time running out and he tried to get some quick points? If not, then why not wait for the wrestler to come back on the mat? Obviously, since this paper is based in Washington we got a lot of homers on the comment board. Even with this potential rule change I feel that the outcome would have been the same and all of you are just trying to deal with this loss in your own way to get some closure. If the CM wrestler was the one headbutted everyone on this board would be singing a different tune. What I really dislike about this unfortunate event is that the CM coach allowed his emotions to get the better of him just as his wrestler did "might be a pattern" and publicly criticized the C'ville coach for doing what was best for his team. This was a team tournament which means there were other reasons why CM lost this match. You win as a team and loose as a team. This message is getting lost in the shuffle. Hopefully the CM coach and wrestler will learn from there mistakes. There is no reason to blame C'ville for some kind of conspiracy or dive as you put it. They took advantage of a rule just as any coach or team should do to win. Even with instant replay in the NFL the coach has the choice to throw the red flag but,is it his fault if he overturns the call. Is it the refs fault for missing the call or is it the players fault for not following the rules. It's a tough loss to a good team accept it, learn from it and move on to the individual tournament. You should be proud of the fact that you have a great school district that develops great wrestlers on a yearly basis. Maybe it's time to eat some humble pie instead of acting liked spoiled children.
WOW! You are far off base. How well do you know wrestling? If you read everything in the paper and on this posting, I would not think you would be calling these bloggers "spoiled children".
Josh is a great kid. He did not and would not intentionally head butt a kid during a match, or ever. He was winning the match by 7 points and had the kid on his back for the better half of the first period. Why would he do that intentionally? For your information. It was at the end of the second period, and Josh was trying to prevent an escape. As the opponent was escaping, at the edge of the mat, Josh pursued him. This cause an inadvertent head butt. Not only because Josh pursued him, but also because the other kid stopped wrestling before he heard a whistle. I think a lot of kids would stop wrestling because they are off the mat. Had the Ref. blown the whistle like he is supposed to, this could have been prevented.
The difference that a rule change like "unfinished business" stated, is that Coach Dolde and his wrestler would not know whether or not they would get any points if he couldn't continue. They may be forfeiting the match if he is truly injured and can not continue. This is pretty obvious to anyone who knows wrestling.
I have been on both sides of the DQ issue. I have been ripped off in the state tournament by a coward taking a dive, and I have been sent back onto the mat after being punched in the back of the head. And yes it was while wrestling a team where those points that we could have got if I would not have continued would have won the match for us.
That is why I even bother writing about this. The DQ rule is truly an issue, and kids will continue to be cheated until it is changed.
Chris Mary is a great coach, and he does wear his emotions on his sleeve. But, I see nothing wrong in him wanting the people who read the paper to know the truth. And the bottom line truth for anyone who follows wrestling and knows the team lineup of this match is that there is know way C'ville would have won if this didn't happen. I also see nothing wrong with Chris letting Coach Dolde know that that is not the way to win.
Oh yeah, we are proud of the fact that we have a great school district that develops great wrestlers on a yearly basis. But, that doesn't mean we should sit back and keep letting the Refs. screw us on a yearly basis.
The rule gave coach dolde the chance to take the high road and teach his team a life lesson. He missed that chance. This will tarnish coach dolde throughout washington/greene wrestling.
Boo Hoo to tony. Canon-Mac did the same thing to Trinity in the Semi-Final of WPIAL Team tournament in 90-91. An unintentional hold was called illegal. The move should have been potentiall dangerous and action should have resumed. Canon-slack decided not to let the wrestler return. Keep in mind the wrestler had actually returned to the center and was ready to compete when Manuel Pihakis and Jim Newman decided it would be best to remove the contestant. The CM wrestler just happened to be losing at the time. The next time the Trinity boy wrestled the CM boy he pinned him in 30 seconds in the same move. You call for the referee to make decision on intent or non intent. They can't even get the call on illegal or potentially dangerous correct. Now you are putting the match in their hands again. intent or not. The true issue is lost. If the boy can return he should return. It is my opinion that the Connellsville boy should have continued if able. We all knew that the boy in 90-91 was able to continue and CM knew they couldn't win without the disqualification. Trinity lost by three back then. CM took the six and won by three. It is a shame that it happened to Chris Mary and his present team, but CM has pulled this same trick in the recent past and is now boo hooing it happening to them. All I can say is now they have to wait. What comes around goes around and Connellsville will have to pay for what they have done. In taking this cheap win back in 90-91 CM was able to go to the finals and won over none other than Connellsville 26-21. CM didn't have a problem riding that questionable disqualification to the championship.
Wow! Now you're going back before my time. We probably could go back in history decade after decade and list horrible calls and bad coach decisions. It seems pretty obvious to me that the last Mr. Anonymous is a Canon Mac hater and a Trinity lover. That is fine, but you are still missing the overall point. The ref is making the decision anyway. Why not have him wait to give the point and let the coach know that it was illegal until after he finds out if the wrestle can continue. This makes the true issue not lost like you say, but rather reveals the issue of whether or not the wrestler can continue.
If that is truly what happened back in 90-91, then you are right and it was a cheap way to win. Do you think Newman would have let his wrestler continue if he hadn't known that the move was called as illegal? Probably. Let me remind you that you are referring to a coach that lost his job for sexual indiscretions with high school girls. Enough said about that.
What about this is boo hooing? Really? Have you read everything wrote? The simple, Really simple, point is that Josh didn't deserve this. People saying that he did this intentionally are making personal attacks on this kid. The senior wrestlers along with the rest of the wrestlers at Canon Mac wrestling team were cheated. If that is what happened in 90-91, then the Trinity wrestlers were cheated. I will not say you are boo hooing, just because you wrote about it in this blog. You are simply making a reference. Just as I did. Oh, 90-91 is not the recent past.
It is all said and done. C'ville is WPIAL Champions. What can be done to better the sport and not damage it worse than it already has been?
An incident happened like this in 2004 in a dual meet between Canon McMillan and Chartiers Valley. 2 nights before the virginia duals. In one of the final(and deciding matches of the night) Dennis Cole was facing off, and winning against Char Valleys man at I believe 135. With about 12 seconds left in the match, Cole went to slam his opponent to the mat(legally) and while in mid-air Char Valleys man took and awkward twist and unintentionally landed on the crown of his head. The kid was clearly shaken up and it was a very scary slam. After several minutes CV's coach was given the choice to take the 6 points or let him finish the match. To the wrestler's chagrin, as well as the rest of the teams, the kid was sent back in to finish the final 12 seconds. The dual meet came down to the last match and CM won it in a close one. Had CV's coach taken the win they would've won the dual meet and tied for the section title. It showed great class. Coach Mary thanked him publicly and also said he would've done the same in a similar situation.
I hate when everyone uses anonymous because it is hard to direct my comments.
I think that the intent of the rule is good because it seems like it is trying to correct a problem but, anytime that a rule can have a partial party decide the result of the rule, it is a bad rule. The referees are suppose to be the impartial party in a wrestling match. If you were to do away with the referee and let the coaches decide all of the calls in a match, you would have the same controversy that this rule is causing. You have to set rules that have clear cut consequences and don't let anyone who has a direct connection to the competition make rulings on the outcome. As the saying goes: Don't let the patients run the asylum.
Anonymous brought up a match from 1990-1991 showing that Canon-Mac did the same thing to Trinity. But, his analogy is wrong. The rule in question didn't exist in this form back then. So, Coach Newman was not given the opportunity to choose between results of the rule, but he was able to use the rule to the benefit of his team. Just like Coach Newman, Coach Dolde used the rule to his advantage. The only difference and the reason I don't like the rule is that Coach Dolde was confronted with two options. After I was able to cool down and think logically about this incident, if I was faced with having my team eliminated from going to the state championships and I was able to stay within the rules, I would have to take the 6 points and have Totterdale DQed. I would think that most of you would do the same thing. There was a rule change in football that was enacted because as time was running out and your team didn't have anymore time outs, the coach would have a player fake an injury to stop the clock. If they didn't do something about this, they would in essence be giving teams an unlimited amount of time outs by having players continue to fake an injury. Well, the officials decided that yes the clock will still stop when there is an injury near the end of the game and your team doesn't have any timeouts left but, there will be a run off of 10 seconds as a penalty. So, I understand that the wrestling officials had the right intent when they enacted this rule because they know that coaches have had their wrestlers fake like they can't continue. I just think that the rule needs to be improved even more.
The bottom line is this rule stinks in its current form. They should either go back to the way they used to do it or change the rule to make the impartial referee decide the outcome of the infraction. Whatever you do, don't let the patients run the asylum!!
Shaun, I remember that match now that you bring it up. It was a good show of sportsmanship but, it was only a section match and not a match to determine whether the team would be going to the state team championships. I wonder if the CV coach would have made the same decision if he was in the same situation as Coach Dolde.
Tony eat your pie and swallow the CM loss. CM has made the same decision to take the six in the past and now they are crying. I saw the 90-91 match referenced earlier and it was between Cowden and Magdich. Magdich was just as outmatched. Magdich clearly was ready to continue and was pulled by Newman(yes quite a littered past) at the demand of Manuel Pihakis(What a slimy operator). Maybe not recent enough for you, but I don't think if the rules were what they are today that the decision by Newman would have been any different. Karma has no time constraints. CM got what they had coming. They have always played games. I could go on and on with similar circumstance where CM made the decision to their advantage. I just can't believe the CM boy was pursuing on the edge of the mat. I applaud him for wrestling the entire mat until he heard the whistle. The ref unfortunately wasn't controlling the match and takes partial fault. In my experience CM has always had a reputaion of using the edge of the mat in case they needed to get out of trouble or stall. As you stated this is just my opinion, but it is one formed watching 25 years of WPIAL wrestling. Trinity was actually (using your words) screwed twice that season by CM. Reference. Section Championship Brown (T) Vs. Kampert(CM). CM Bench and score board forced a buzzer prior to a fall giving a Tech instead of fall. Kampert never left his back and was near fall. CM won by one and would have lost on criteria had it been a tie. Yea your right guess I'd be considered a CM hater! Over the past I haven't seen the overall class in their programs that I have seen in some others. In the past maybe it was due to questionable individuals like Newman and Pihakis. Neither in my mind had any ethics worth talking about. Again just my opinion. Take care, see you at state
Yeah, you are right, I am crying about it. I have trouble accepting it. The CM Boys that are on the team had it coming because of what wrestlers and coaches did 17, 18 years ago. I guess I should probably state that this is sarcasm on my part; otherwise, you may think I am being serious. Idiot. Who is boo hooing now? Did you read what I wrote?
I wrote, "It is all said and done. C'ville is WPIAL Champions."
So how about you eat your pie and learn how to read!
A reputation for using the edge of the mat? Come on now. Most really good wrestlers know where they are at on the mat and will use that to there advantage. This is not stalling, unless you continually flee the mat. If it gets you out of trouble, then great. That is wrestling. Man you are a cry baby.
You probably think Canon-Mac lacks class that other programs have because you are carrying around a chip on your shoulder. Get over it. I already have. You should be writing about suggestions as to how to better this sport and support progress, not tear it down any further. I would suggest that you don't write anymore unless it is something positive to say about the sport. Otherwise, you'll just sound like a crybaby and be giving Trinity a bad name.
Dear Tony,
This is the original anonymous who you said don't know anything about wrestling. First of all how old are you? If the 90-91 season was way before your time that makes you pretty young to be Josh's father. Is this Josh in disquise? Well Josh I mean Tony I read other papers besides this one and there are always two sides to every story. The Tribune Review printed that Josh "took a run at him" as per coach Dolde. Now I wrestled since the age of 6 up until college so I do know a little about wrestling and a little about human nature. I agree that he took a run at him. He was out of bounds plain and simple. You still want to blame the refs for a slow whistle. And a rule that needs to be tweaked a bit. I agree that the refs need to make the call and not the coaches. I will go even further to say that an impartial medical staff needs to be hired for these matches to get the right call if infact the C'ville boy was faking as you imply. Irregardless, Josh should not have taken a run at him out of bounds. He wasn't trying to prevent an escape as you say. It sounds to me that he was ticked off that the C'ville wrestler escaped in the first place. This match was for the WPIAL championship and emotions were high on both sides so i'm not blaming Josh for what he did but, there is a lesson to be learned here. And that is you need to control your emotions on and off the mat. These are the life lessons that these kids need to be learning from coach Mary. So, I don't agree with you that your beloved coach is the great leader of men that you say he is. In fact he kind of reminds me of coach Belichek of the Patriots. Coach Dolde admitted in the paper that he didn't like to win that way but, Josh didn't earn 6 points. And noone deserves 6 points for an illeagel infraction weather intentional or not. When you blame others for your mistakes you are destined to repeat them in life. When you are old enough to understand what i'm saying then maybe you will get past this and be able to move on with your life.
To the Original anonymous. I wish you guys would use some kind of nickname or something. Anyway, you make a lot of good points and suggestions with which I agree. Especially the Medical Staff. That is a good idea. I don't think I said that you don't know anything about wrestling, but rather asked, "How well do you know wrestling?"
You believe that he was out of bounds and that Josh should not have pursued him, I believe that he was right in pursueing him. We will never agree on this point. That is fine. We can agree to disagree. I highly doubt that Josh is blaming others for his "mistake", for all I know, he may already be over it.
I also agree that wrestling is a sport with a lot of emotions and those emotions need to be controlled on and off the mat. That is why wrestling is so great, it teaches these kids a lot about life.
I still think that Chris was right in saying what he said to the paper, and talking to Coach Dolde after the match. If Chris wasn't controlling his emotions, there probably would have been a fight. I do think that comparing Chris to Coach Belichek is a great injustice.
I also read the other papers, Trib and the PG, but as far as I know the OR was the only paper there who saw what happened. And beings that I was in the stands, I tend to believe what I see and hear more than what I read. I saw the Ref blow the whistle after Josh went after him.
I also wrestled for many years. Age 5 up until College. I was in middle school during the timeframe in which you are talking, that is why I say it is before my time. I have also spent 10 years in the military and 1 year in Iraq, so I have learned a little bit about human nature. The important life lesson that the Canon Mac wrestlers have learned is that life is not fair.
I wish C'ville the best in the State Tournament. Lets hope for a great individuals tournament.
Are we not taught to stand up for what we believe in? If Coach Dolde truly believed that not penalizing CM was the right thing to do, then why didnt he? To say something like people in c-ville would be outraged and use that as your excuse to go against your morals is ludacris. The man lacks a backbone. If he forfeits that match and the c-ville fans get upset, ya he looks like a fool to them, but to everyone else he looks like a man with pride and integrity. Wrestling is a sport that you work your tail off and earn each step of the way. Coach Dolde took a shortcut and has lost my respect.
In a rather odd way, Tom Dolde was really vindicated by the Burrell Bucs in the PIAA AA Team Finals.
In the WPIAL semifinals, when his wrestler COULD NOT continue, Dolde was offered the opportunity to waive off accepting the default victory. When Dolde did not, could not accept that outcome, he was screamed at, insulted, impuned as to his character.
You'll recall the posts on this board and, moreso, on WrestlingReport.com's boards that called him everything from a thief to evil to classless and many other things.
One of the things I wrote on the WrestlingReport boards came true yesterday, TWICE.
People claimed that the match had been dominated by the CM wrestler, and there was certainly truth to that. But domination only matters if it is carried to its completion.
Just ask Matt & Travis McKillop....
After giving up an opening takedown, Matt scored the next four points and led 4-2 with a minute to go. Then, Stimer got free for an escape and things got a little interesting.
But, with just 13 seconds remaining and the wrestlers neutral, and McKillop needing to stay active to avoid a tying stall call, the unthinkable happened. A low single turned into trouble and a PIN!!! for Bermudian Springs!
As if happening once wasn't enough, Travis McKillop (119) takes the mat with his Burrell team down 17-15 halfway through the dual meet. McKillop nearly gets the pin in the first and leads 7-1 after one.
Starting neutral, McKillop scores another takedown and rides for nearly a minute before giving up a reversal. McKillop 9-3 after two.
McKillop again turns Bryant Peters and builds the lead to 12-3. And the unthinkable happens AGAIN. Peters gets control and sticks McKillop. And instead of the Bucs taking a 18-17 (or bigger) lead, Bermudian Springs jumps up 23-15.
Burrell had time, and the horses, to recover from the dual devastation!
But twice in this match, we saw clearly why NO coach, not Tom Dolde, not Chris Mary, not ANY COACH, can waive off accepting the 6-points for unnecessary roughness when that roughness, intentional or not, causes injury that prevents his opponent to continue. You can not do it. Period.
Yes Bob Greg anything is possible. Thanks, none of us realized that...
C-M Faithfull look on the bright side. Coach Dolde's boys got there arses handed to them on a platter. You saved gas money. And, you got an extra week to prepare for individuals. It's not like this was a huge upset. You win some, you loose some. There's always next year.
Coach Mary would have done the same thing that coach Dolde did. There is no doubt about that.
I wrestled from age 5 upto college as well. Moved away after college, and got away from the sport and its rule changes.
However, I read and realize that this was a tough decision to make for anyone. Our lives are constantly being changed, shorted and enhanced by rules, rules rules.
In regards to this rule, I think West Virginia has some basis to consider for PA evaluation. I think there, in the event that an illegal move is called, the official stops action as they would to award the point, and remove the competitor from further danger. Then, they immediately go to the scorers table and record on paper if he/she feels that the awarded wrestler could/ should continue and keeps it with them. If injury time expires, they reveal the decision and that is final. There may be scrutiny here as well, however, the decision is out of the hands of a coach and wrestler who most definately would employ a bit of Herm Edwardism... "you wrestle to win the match"
I have been on the losing side of the illegal move a few times, most notable a headlock of all imaginable illegal slams in the individual WPIAL's a few eon's ago. I have never seen a headlock injure a wrestler to the point of "cant continue". anyway, that is not the point here. It should be the officials ultimate judgement of the intent of the move and the degree to which injury may or may not have occured.
The wrestling community is somewaht excited about the UFC as the only real future payday for wrestling as we know it other than the olympics. Referees there make decisions all the time as to wether a competitor can or can not continue. Most of the time they are right, but there is always those fellas who jump up and argue the stoppage as if they were still ready to go. If the referee was wrong, he was wrong. Not many refs can go through a career without making a wrong call. leave it to them to take the burden.
Many in this blog have posted the "win some lose some" line and I think thats as acurate as you can get. Deep down, Wrestling is not much of a team sport. It boils down to 14 individual efforts...
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