How PJ Duke Upset Ridge Lovett | WTT 2025

Here we have PJ Duke, incredibly talented high school wrestler, going up against Ridge Lovett, ncaa champion this year, the second one that Duke will have faced today.

Some hand-fighting going on in the first, like usual. At about the 1:40 Duke gets put on the shot clock, isn’t able to get anything going and so gives up a point at 1:10, 1-0 Lovett. We see this happen so often, I wonder if they can do anything about it, like rewarding the first point scored higher or something. It just seems like in close matches like this, more often than not, the wrestlers will trade a shot clock point or two before actually putting themselves in danger.

30 seconds into the second, Duke is posting on the head, goes for a near single, not much of a setup but he doesn’t really commit to the shot so he doesn’t put himself in any real danger. Lovett winds up in an over under, a tricky tie-up to do anything out of, you’re so tight into it. There was a move where you step over the near leg and bend your opponent backwards, but it’s not super effective, so this could just turn into a normal front headlock. Lovett drops his underhook and gets a piece of the leg, and fully commits to it, which turns out to be a bad idea as Duke is able to drop his hips and get his legs back and get to a decent sprawl. Notice the events that happened, very similar shots in terms of viability, Duke was smart enough to not commit, whereas Lovett did commit. You don’t need to commit to a shot just because you got a grip of the leg. If you don’t have a good position, you can always let go of it and look for the next attack. It’s a smart thing to do and it keeps you moving. A lot of times you’ll get super tired if you hold onto a leg like that anyways.

Duke turns the sprawl into an arm drag and gets around easily enough, bringing the score to 2-1 Duke.

1:55 left in the second, Duke is not satisfied, something I love to see. Snaps the head and attacks the corner super quickly, something you’d see Ono do. He tries to drive across the body, but Lovett does a good job circling which makes this finish a little tricky. Duke does drive him out of bounds for the push-out point, but it was super close. 3-1 Duke.

The rest of the match is pretty tame. Duke stays in good position, Lovett is biding his time a little, chases hard from the 15 second mark, Duke runs and dodges. Lovett dives at the legs, then comes up to a body lock, but Duke is no stranger to this position, digs an over under almost to an inside trip, but is forced to two overs, Lovett gets a body lock and whips Duke down, Duke holds onto the whizzer and Lovett swings around and tries to throw that far leg in, which is incredibly effective out of a shin whizzer. I wouldn’t normally recommend doing it out of a normal whizzer, it’s a lot sketchier, but short time, gotta do something. I also wouldn’t normally recommend going from a shot to the upperbody, let go of the shot and look for the next one. Usually when you go upperbody you find yourself in a 50/50 position, it’s just not high percentage. But again, short time, do what you gotta do.

They put 2 on the board, but it’s taken down in favor of a push out point, I think because he was the first to step out here? Doesn’t matter too much, not much Lovett can do in 4 seconds, making Duke the winner by a score of three to one.