Your Mandarin locks himself away in the lab for a couple of months and he emerges to find out that the International Olympic Committee has removed wrestling from the core list of sports for the 2020 Olympic games.

According to the IOC this was done to make room for another sport to be added. Wrestling may still make an appearance, but it will need to compete for a spot with baseball, softball, karate, squash, roller sports, sport climbing, wakeboarding, and wushu.

Your Mandarin is incensed at this outrage! Wakeboarding and roller sports, you have got to be kidding. Your Mandarin would unleash the full fury of the orbital annoyance ray on the members of the IOC but it is currently off-line due to routine maintenance and a dispute with the local zoning board.

Your Mandarin realizes that the Olympics are more than just a sporting event; they are a big business with billions of dollars at stake. With that comes the need to make sure that there are events that are going to draw viewers and sponsorship dollars. Having said that though, wrestling is one of those core events that goes all the way back to the ancient games in Greece.

Well your Mandarin guesses that it could be worse; they could eliminate the gold, silver, and bronze medals and just give everyone a ribbon for participating since everyone in the mind of the Progressives is a winner.

*Now your Mandarin in an effort of full disclosure will admit that he wrestled all four years in high school and was a starter all of those years.

The Mandarin

The Mandarin, whose real name is 吏恆, joined the order in 1309, and introduced the Gormogons into England during the 18th Century.

The Mandarin enjoys spending time with his pet manticore, Βάρἰκος, or Barry (who can be found in the Bestiary). When not in the Castle…well, frankly, nobody is quite sure where he goes.

The Mandarin popularized the fine art of “gut booting,” by which he delivers a powerful kick to the stomach of anyone that annoys him. Although nearly universal today, the act of gut booting or threatening someone or something with a gut boot is solely due to him.