BJJ is a relatively small community and it’s polarized by the climate Danaher’s team has created. While Gordon Ryan seems to have a lot of fans across different gyms in the world, his reputation is very different on reddit’s BJJ community which often targets him.
One person in particular has thrown a lot of shade at Ryan, even going so far as to imply he’s been on PEDs since before puberty – RealProfessor8328.
B Team’s Craig Jones previously refuted claims he’s behind the account even as the account kept on sharing eerily similar narratives about New Wave.
A little while ago, redditor announced that New Wave would not be competing at Quintet, because Danaher was pulling the entire team. There was no info at the time to corroborate the leak, so the redditors were fairly evenly split – however a video Sakuraba released today all but confirms the rumors.
Apparently team New Wave is out, they had someone had to back out of the competition and rather than get a replacement they’re all out. This is allegedly due to Danaher’s desire to manage their reputation as a team carefully.
The reddit leaker blames the move on Danaher saying:
“Just so everyone is on the same page: New Wave pulled out because John Danaher is notoriously a bully and an extremely toxic person. The reason I knew about this before anyone else was because I heard about how a “junior” was heartbroken because Danaher had a meltdown and pulled the team.”
Danaher infamously uses the Junior vs Senior titles in order to distance himself from team members that have suffered a loss. This has been something Craig Jones has called out repeatedly, questioning even the team affiliation of certain competitors. Apparently losing New Wave members present themselves as if they belong to Renzo Gracie Austin, instead of new wave in addition to being downgraded as junior members.
On episode 9 of the El Segundo podcast Jones questions:
“But I will say this about the Luke Griffith new wave call out. If your coach calls you junior, don’t call me out. Those are the rules, right? I’m not taking on a junior. That’s crazy. Yeah. And again, all the juniors on the new wave team, a 250lbs and above.”
“That’s just absolutely, like, go up, like, junior, and then they can’t call me on it. We can’t do it. We don’t have the number 1 pound for pound grappler in the world. And if your coach calls you Junior, that’s not a foul. That’s that’s an imbalance. But, yeah, I do. I’ve spoken to, like, a few times physical guy. But again, I can’t take on a junior out of just the self-respect that I have for myself.”
“For me to take on a junior of a team would be absolutely outrageous.”
The replacement hasn’t been announced yet, but B team is a strong possibility considering the high profile of the competition.
The announcement of the replacement is imminent because the tournament happens soon.
