Yeah - 100% get that. But, why is anyone going to watch it 6.5 months later. All the fans will know. Why not just live stream it now and then Channel 5 it (traditional channel) at Christmas.
Such a let down!
This sport has too small a fan base to be worth catering too; they are appealing to the average TV watcher.
And live stream would be awful. It needs hard-core editing to be watchable.
This is the answer. In the UK they show the heats each night between Christmas and new year and the final is in New Year’s Day. This is when a lot of people are off work and kids are off school and it is winter so most people are home indoors. It’s a tradition for families to watch this together. If they showed it in July when it is summer time then it wouldn’t get any viewers.
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Then hold it in December.
FYI poor Luke Stoltman. Every year he gets a tough group with bad events for him.
I think he is through this year, just. He’ll come 3rd and win the stones. There arent that man guys better at stones than Luke.
Predictions any one?
Top 3 in no particular order:
Novikov, T stoltman, JF Carron.
Group predictions
A - Hicks & Shaw
B - Stoltman & ?
C - Shiv & Caron
D - Bishop & Pritchett as much as Id love to see VDL through
E - Novikov & Stoltman
No Hollands?
I’d love to see Terry make the final bit you would have to pick bishop on age and current form.
Basically what @simo74 said.
Terry will surprise on the deadlift, but I don’t see him outpulling Pritchett
Bishop I think beats Holland’s on both Medleys and probably hangs with him on the deadlift.
Bish will struggle on the fingers being a shorty and axe hold is a free for all, so it could be close but I reckon Bish edges it.
If Terry has the train pull it might have been a different story
Agreed, fingers is a good event for him still, but he was one of the best at vehicle pulls and carrys
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Group 1 Shaw Hicks
Group 2 Stoltman Singleton
Group 3 Caron Richardson (good squatter and god at UKs last week)
Group 4 this is a hard one I am going to say Janashia Bishop
Group 5 Novikov and Bilton (picking big Gav off the back of his UK win last week)
Top three in finals, no idea what order
Stoltman
Novikov
Shaw
Definitely Shaw’s best chance for a podium in quite a few years, but I still see him 4th.
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Editing will have them release it in Feb, haha.
It’s always been a TV show first and a sporting event like 3rd. Same reason Kaz stopped getting the invite
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I don’t have a problem with the line up they have, but I do feel like there are some guys that were excluded that could’ve been there. Strongman is much more popular now than even 10 years ago and there are a lot of really good competitors. I almost wonder if they need to expand the qualifier rounds to either have more flights or more per flight
How would that fit into the existing TV show format?
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I assume that was in response to my comment?
I don’t know, as that is not my line of work. But as a fan and (amateur) competitor I see that there are more people that are competitive enough to come to the big stage and I would love to see more action from more people.
However, I know that there is a ton of footage that never gets on TV either. So it may not impact anything, TV wise.
Nailed it.
The Arnold is a strongman competition. World’s Strongest Man is a TV show. Once this paradigm is understood, things make SO much more sense.
WSM is always going to make the decisions that result in a good TV show, irrespective if it pleases fans or is fair to athletes. It’s why they banned the most dominant athlete from competing: it was boring to watch. Could you imagine if the NBA banned Jordan in the 90s? It’s why 2017 was the most static show of all time: they needed a winner in Eddie Hall. It’s why “the Mariusz Era” was the Mariusz Era: he was a fantastic showman for WSM.
Just gotta sit back and enjoy the show.
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This is it. Given the vast majority of the claimed 220 million people that watch it across the world are probably not competitors or even people who do any type of strength training, it needs to be entertaining. Heck if they wanted it to be boring it would be powerlifting.
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Well - thats just rude. Not wrong. But rude.
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Mate I love powerlifting but it can be hard to watch on TV. Better when you are there in person.