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NCAA Wrestling Champ Gets Pumped Up to Pokémon Theme
posted on by Lynzee Loveridge
The wrestling and anime fandoms cross paths again, this time at the 2018 NCAA Wrestling Championships. University of Iowa wrestler Spencer Lee entered the ring to face off against Rutgers University's Nick Suriano for the 125-pound title, but first he played a familiar theme song to get himself pumped up.
A few minutes late to the Twitter party but how about that Hawkeye fans. SPENCER LEE - TRUE FRESHMAN NCAA CHAMP! #GoHawks pic.twitter.com/CZlkwRKd1x
— JoshSchamberger (@JoshSchamberger) March 18, 2018
The song choice wasn't random. Lee is both a college wrestler and a part-time competitive Pokémon player. He wrote on Twitter in December that he hasn't been to any major Pokémon Video Game Championships (VGC) because of his responsibilities as a student an athlete but has "had a pretty warm welcome so far."
As for the match, Lee won out over Suriano in an impressive match, overall winning all three periods.
Athletes like MMA fighter Ronda Rousey trained as Pikachu and Olympic teams felt the squeeze in 2016 when Pokémon GO wasn't playable at the venue in Brazil.
Source: Comicbook/wwg (Christian Hoffer) via Nintendo Life (Ryan Craddock)
