This rule is a mess. Every mat we had this come up on at our tournament had a different answer per the referee and was therefore entered into the bracket differently.

It should not be this difficult to get right. Just have 2 categories DEFAULT (injury, medical or because it's teammates who aren't going to wrestle) allows you to move on and continue in a tournament. FORFEIT (of any kind) means you can no longer advance in a tournament. Take all the extra unnecessary pieces out if it.

Some refs said they can default after checking in and all is good, others said it had to be a default after the match started so did the old 1 second injury default thing, and others said it has to be medical forfeit. When even the refs from the same association at the same tournament don't even have the same understanding of the rule it's wild to me. Means we are doing too much.

And in terms of it counting or not counting against your record, quite frankly I feel like if you are entered into a bracket and cannot or chose not to wrestle it should be a loss towards the record.