How does video review work in wrestling?
By the Smart Wrestler team · Written from hosting and scoring the events this software runs · Updated 2026-10-20
How video review works in NCAA men’s wrestling: the referee review, the coach’s challenge with a foam brick, limits per team and what can be overturned.
Quick answer
In NCAA men’s wrestling, mat-side video review lets the referee, or a coach by throwing a foam brick onto the mat, challenge a call. Each team has one challenge per dual meet, a fall is not reviewable, and a call changes only with indisputable video evidence. If the call is overturned the team keeps its challenge. Whether an event uses it depends on its rules and equipment.
What can be reviewed?
With the exception of a fall, mat-side video review may be used to confirm or reverse any wrestling-related call or no call by the official during the challenged sequence. The challenged sequence runs from the alleged error, as stated by the challenging coach, until the match was or should have been stopped. Calls related to coach behavior cannot be challenged.
The process assumes the ruling on the mat is correct. Only indisputable video evidence changes it; absent that evidence the original ruling stands.
How does a coach challenge?
A coach throws a foam brick into the competition circle to indicate the intent to challenge, and the referee has sole authority to decide whether it was timely. The referee stops the match as quickly as possible when no significant action is taking place. The coach then explains what is challenged.
| Event | Challenges |
|---|---|
| Dual meet | One per team |
| Tournament with video review throughout: 1–3 participants | One |
| 4–6 participants | Two |
| 7–10 participants | Three |
If video review is not used for a whole tournament, the tournament committee may set the number as long as it does not exceed the allotment.
What happens after the review?
If the questioned call is overturned the institution is not charged a challenge. If it is confirmed the institution is charged one. The referee announces the result as either the ruling stands or the ruling is changed, and announces unrelated corrections made during the review.
A coach who challenges a previously reviewed ruling, or challenges after the allotment is used up, is penalized with a control-of-mat violation. A coach who requests review of a fall is charged a challenge.
What equipment is required?
The rules book requires two foam bricks about 8 by 5 by 5 inches, one red and one green, in the coaches’ reserved zone, and a tripod and digital video camera connected to a monitor, or a system that integrates sound, time and score. In the absence of any required equipment, video review is not allowed.
The review area at the scorer’s table is restricted to the system operator, the referee and any third-party reviewer, and wrestlers and coaches stay in their reserved zone during a review. If the system fails, no challenges are allowed for the rest of that match.
What does this mean for most events?
Whether an event uses mat-side video review depends on its rules and equipment, and this page describes only the NCAA men’s book. Where it is not used, the score, time and corrections are the referee’s and table’s responsibility.
The correction rules apply either way. Read scoring error corrections.
Smart Wrestler is not a video platform and does not run a challenge system. It records the score and the audit trail that the referee rules on.
Frequently asked questions
How many challenges does a team get in a dual?
One per dual meet.
Can a fall be reviewed?
Not by coach challenge; a challenge of a fall is charged to the coach.
What is the foam brick for?
A coach throws it into the circle to signal a challenge.
Do I keep my challenge if the call is overturned?
Yes. The team is not charged when the call is overturned.
Sources
Sources checked 2026-10-20.
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