Freestyle, collegiate, and scholastic wrestling are having a bit of a moment. In pop culture, Amazon MGM Studios wrestling film Unstoppable (on the remarkable story of Anthony Robles, featuring Jennifer Lopez, Don Cheadle, Bobby Cannavale and more) premiered on Prime Video last month following a December theatrical run.
And in actual competition, FloSports is putting on the biggest edition yet of their FloWrestling Night In America franchise Wednesday. Shane Sparks is involved in both.
Sparks is one of the most prominent wrestling play-by-play broadcasters out there. He’s worked for Big Ten Network since 2011, and has also worked for ESPN, USA Wrestling, Flo, and more. And he was tabbed for the play-by-play role in Unstoppable, a film based on Robles’ 2012 autobiography with Austin Murphy, and covering his remarkable wrestling run despite being born with only one leg, which included an undefeated season and NCAA Division I championship in 2010-11.
Sparks will also be calling the FloWrestling Night In America event Wednesday beginning at 7:30 p.m. ET, headlined by world champion Spencer Lee of the U.S. against 2024 Senior and U-20 world champion Masanosuke Ono of Japan. He spoke to Awful Announcing on both his movie work and this event last week, and said he’s amazed at where wrestling is currently at.
“The sport just continues to grow. When you look at wrestling, in particular the last 20 years, technology has been a game changer, and FloWrestling is a big part of that. There’s no denying the huge impact they’ve had in growing and marketing the sport.”
He said he thinks FloWrestling Night In America, in particular, has a high ceiling.
“I think with wrestling, like anything else, you always want to try to get better, you want to try to be innovative. And I use the word innovative because that’s how I look at FloWrestling Night in America specifically.
“It’s such a privilege and an honor to be a part of it, and I’m glad I’m in now because I think it’s going to explode. We did a nice job this year, we’re getting off the runway, but before long we’ll be at 35,000 feet; we’re going to get there, and it’s going to be a cool thing.”
On Unstoppable, Sparks said being involved in a movie like that was an incredible experience for him.
“That was one of the coolest experiences of my life,” he said. “We filmed that in 3 days in Los Angeles and, I mean there was a Shane Sparks double, that threw me off. We were joking heading there, people were like, ‘Oh, I wonder if you’ll have your own trailer, haha.’ And I had my own trailer. It was a lot of fun.”
For Sparks, one of the most memorable things on that shoot was talking with Cheadle.
“Seeing him and just talking to him a little bit was kind of a pinch-me moment, like ‘I can’t believe that I’m here.'”
He said spending time with actor Giovanni Ribisi was also a highlight for him.
“The one guy that I got to interact with quite a bit was Giovanni Ribisi, and he’s in one of my all-time favorite movies, Boiler Room, as well as Ted, and he was basically, like, my camera guy. I spent a considerable amount of time with him, we sat down once and ate. I met his wife, met his twins.
“And the story I remember with him that I’ll always remember, you remember how people make you feel, and what I remember with him is it’s like our third day there, and he asked me, he’s like, ‘So Shane, when do you go back to Wisconsin?’ lt kind of blew me away a little bit, like ‘Holy crap, he remembers I’m from Wisconsin.’ And that just made me feel good.”
Interestingly enough, while Unstoppable tabbed an actual wrestling play-by-play voice in Sparks for their commentary, they paired him with veteran actor Andrew Borba as his color analyst. Sparks said that worked out great, though.
“Andrew Borba was my analyst, he’s been in all kinds of stuff, and he was awesome. I was with him all the time, still stay in touch with him to this day, and it was great.”
He said he thinks Robles’ story is a good one to bring to a wider audience.
“Obviously Anthony’s got a great story. And the fact that somebody recognized that at that kind of level and that kind of stage, it was really cool to be a part of it.”
The one thing with Unstoppable that didn’t work out quite as well as Sparks had hoped was the premiere, which was canceled just before it was set to take place due to the Los Angeles wildfires. But Sparks said that was only a small and momentary disappointment, especially when he realized the severity of what was going on there.
“I was in Los Angeles for the premiere on a Tuesday, and they were picking me up in two hours,” he said. “It was like 3 in the afternoon, they were picking me up at 5. The premiere was at night and it got canceled because of the fires. It was disappointing for a minute, and when you saw what was going on, it’s like, ‘Wow, not that big of a deal to miss out on that,’ based on what people were dealing with.”
Overall, Sparks said being involved with that movie was an incredible experience for him.
“It was really cool. That was something when I’m older and maybe have a little, have a second to sit back and reflect, I’ll look back and go, ‘That was cool. I didn’t have that on the bingo card.'”
While he thinks Robles’ story could possibly resonate beyond the established wrestling audience, he understands that not everyone may catch on to it.
“To have a wrestling movie in the spotlight like that can’t hurt. Because that movie is a great story of commitment, determination, and I think more than anything, perseverance. The perseverance that he showed, it’s hard to match that level of perseverance.
“And I think that’s what this sport is. Having said that, I mean, it’s just not easy, it’s not an easy sport. So I hope it would lead people to at least give it a try. Like everything else, it may not be for everybody, and that’s fine too.”
Sparks said recognizing that wrestling won’t appeal to absolutely everyone is a larger realization for him at this point in his career.
“The older I get, I maybe just come to grips with it. I don’t jam it down people’s throat. If you want to give it a try, great, it did wonderful things for me. It may be a good fit for you, maybe not. But hey, give it a try and see what happens.”
He said he thinks there is major growth possible for wrestling, though, and some of that’s been shown in the growth of the women’s side of the sport.
“Another thing in the last five years is the explosion of girls and women’s wrestling. It’s exploding across the country in high school. I was there in Rio in 2016 when Helen Maroulis won the gold medal, that was really cool, being able to witness that in person. That’s another thing that is just huge for the sport, girls’ wrestling, women’s wrestling.
“It’s very successful here in the United States, and the freestyle scene under USA Wrestling head coach Terry Steiner, what they’ve done there, it’s awesome. And it’s just continuing to get bigger and bigger. I would use the word monumental in talking about the growth of girls and women’s wrestling, game-changer.”
On that front, Sparks is very excited about this particular installment of FloWrestling Night In America (an overall series launched last November), which he thinks will be amazing for those who love the sport at any level.
“It’s the level of wrestling,” he said. “These are the superstars, these are the major leaguers. One thing that’s cool about this event is there are a ton of stars from the United States that we’re familiar with, but when you make it a global deal, I mean, Japan is coming off an absolutely remarkable run of what they did at the [2024 Paris] Olympic Games.
“They’ve become a wrestling superpower. It’s really cool to see those guys. It’s a little bit different, it’s freestyle wrestling, and these guys are just so skilled, they’re slick, they’re smooth.”
Sparks said the lineup top-to-bottom will be incredible.
“This could be one of the greatest nights,” he said. “It just kind of stands alone, just the way it’s formatted with the mix of athletes, up-and-coming stars, current stars. Some guys like Seth Gross who’s had a lot of success, world team member, a guy like Nathan Tomasello who was a four-time Big 10 champ, won a national title. …It’s just a really good mix.”
He said it’s great to see an event like this including matches across the senior, college, and high school levels.
“The star power in this event from Olympic medalists, you got a world champion there in Ono, All-Americans, national champs. It’s a really good combination, we’ve got some high school matches before the main card, I think that’s really cool. And then you just throw in the star power, I mean, on that main card, you’ve got 10 bouts. It is high-octane, these are superstars.”
This particular event will take place at Coralville, Iowa’s Xstream Arena, which Sparks said is an incredible venue for a wrestling event.
“Xstream Arena is awesome. It’s going to be a packed house. It’ll be loud. And it’s a cool week for Iowa wrestling, piggybacking off of Sunday night with Iowa-Oklahoma State,” he said. “Wrestling is important in Iowa. It’s basically woven into the fabric of that state. You can’t say the state of Iowa and not think about wrestling. There’s so much great history there.”
And he said taking FloWrestling Night In America there with this level of event will be special.
“As we build that platform, it’s very exciting with these athletes and that venue. It’s kind of like the perfect storm. This is set up to be really, really awesome and very unique.”
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“You get to see the best of the best, and at least in my opinion, when you get to see the best of the best at anything, you can sit back and appreciate it. Going to Rio in 2016, I was there for the wrestling, but I had a pass where I can go anywhere.
“I saw Katie Ledecky in person. I saw Michael Phelps in person. I remember watching men’s and women’s basketball, and I was just enamored with the level of excellence. So being able to witness this level of excellence on a Wednesday night in February, jackpot.”
He said overall, he’s just thrilled to be involved in wrestling at a high level at this point in his life, and grateful that his career has worked out the way it has.
“I wrestled my final match, I got beat in the state finals 31 years ago today. Literally, the venue is right down the road. And I’m 49 years old, but sitting back and reflecting on that today, years back, it’s kind of a day that would bring me down a little bit.
“And now I’m thinking to myself, ‘Wow, if you would have told me at 18 years old, ‘I know it’s kind of a rough day for you, but let me tell you what this sport is going to give you in the course of your life,’ I would have been blown away by it.’ …Wrestling’s a game-changer for me.”