So the new changes for next years wrestling season are out, and there seems to be some pretty good ones this year. The most significant one that caught my eye was the awarding of a 3 point near fall if the defensive wrestler indicates injury or bleeding. The injury (cry-baby) rule has been in efect for some time now. The rule revision is as follows. Before this rule change the following would happen. If in the opinion of the Referee a near-fall is about to occur on the defensive wrestler and injury (not cry-baby) or bleeding occurs prior to this, then the match is stopped and the offensive wrestler is awarded a two point near fall. However if a near fall is occuring and the referee has made his two count and injury or bleeding occurs then a three-point near fall is recored so basically a free point. The rule change this year excludes the two-point critera wording. So as it stands now if near fall critera is met (meaning the shoulders are held at a 45 degrees or less to the mat or both scapula held at 4 inches from the mat) if injury or bleeding occurs at any time after that critera is met then a three-point near-fall is awarded and 1 point for cry-baby if the situation warrants it. It shall be interesting to see how many times this gets brought up. I know for certain that many of the kids coaches/parents are not goin to understand how this new rule works. Some situations where I think this might be a problem include wrestlers who use the bar-arm to turn kids, Hard returns to the mat where the wrestler goes straight to his back, and a few more. So what does everyone else think about these rule changes?