Real Woods vs. Bo Bassett headlines last three Final X series matchups set for Sept. 25

Photo: Real Woods, pictured at the 2025 UWW Senior World Championships, where he earned a bronze medal at 65 kilograms. Photo by Tony Rotundo.

Editor’s Note: This article appeared in WIN’s Volume 32 Issue 12, which printed on Sept. 15, 2026.

By Tristan Warner

Three remaining spots on the United States’ Senior World Team will finally be settled Sept. 25, when a trio of delayed Final X series take center stage in Hilliard, Ohio.

The special Final X wrestle-off will be held at Hilliard Davidson High School, just outside Columbus, and features three best-of-three series that were postponed from the original Final X card that took place in June.

The winners at men’s freestyle 65 kilograms and women’s freestyle 68 and 76 kilograms will earn the right to represent Team USA at the 2026 Senior World Championships in Astana, Kazakhstan, in October.

Competition begins at 6 p.m. ET with the opening round of all three series. Round two is scheduled for 7:30 p.m., with any necessary third bouts to follow 30 minutes after the conclusion of the second round.

All three series were originally scheduled for June 19 at the Prudential Center in Newark, N.J., before returning World medalists Real Woods, Kennedy Blades and Kylie Welker requested and received medical delays.

Under USA Wrestling’s 2026 Senior World Team selection procedures, a medical delay from Final X is available only to a returning 2025 Senior World medalist who earned an automatic berth in the series. Woods, Blades and Welker each won bronze medals at the 2025 World Championships in Zagreb, Croatia, and fulfilled the medical requirements necessary to postpone their respective series.

Their challengers — Bo Bassett, Bella Mir and Dymond Guilford — each punched their Final X tickets by winning the U.S. Open.

The night will open at women’s freestyle 68 kilograms with Blades facing Mir.

Blades has already established herself among the world’s best, winning an Olympic silver medal in Paris in 2024 before adding a World bronze medal in 2025. Mir, meanwhile, is a two-time age-group World Team member who will attempt to unseat Blades and earn her first Senior World Team berth.

At 76 kilograms, Welker will meet Guilford in the second series of the evening.

Welker owns two Senior World bronze medals and has been a fixture on the international scene at both the age-group and Senior levels. Guilford brings significant experience of her own, having represented the United States at the 2022 Senior World Championships.

The final series features one of the country’s most accomplished young prospects against a returning Senior World medalist.

Woods, the 2025 World bronze medalist at 65 kilograms, will square off with 20-year-old Bo Bassett, who earned his Final X berth by winning the U.S. Open and has continued adding to his international résumé since then. Bassett captured the U20 World championship this summer, adding another age-group World title before turning his attention back to Woods and a potential first Senior World Team berth.

The match order will remain the same throughout the best-of-three competition: Blades-Mir at 68 kilograms, Welker-Guilford at 76 kilograms and Woods-Bassett at 65 kilograms.

By the end of the night, the unfinished business from June’s Final X should finally be complete.

The Sept. 25 wrestle-off will be streamed live and available on demand through FloWrestling.