Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Ryan "The Tank Engine" Thomas

The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposed deletion of the article below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was delete. Coredesat 05:54, 18 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Ryan "The Tank Engine" Thomas (edit | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views) – (View log)

Delete nn bio about an amateur wrestler for a community college and later a 4-year college. Fails WP:BIO. Carlossuarez46 (talk) 01:54, 13 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]

• Delete - The single reference mentions the subject's name once, and only in passing reference to returning to the team. It is about the team, not the subject. A google search turns up this article, and nothing more. Fails WP:V. LonelyBeacon (talk) 02:08, 13 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]
• Delete per WP:BIO. --brewcrewer (yada, yada) 02:09, 13 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]
• Keep The WP:BIO guidelines for athletes states:

Ryan Thomas fits both of these criteria. It is generally accepted that competing at the college level in the U.S. (particularly Division I, as he did in wrestling at Eastern Illinois) qualifies as competing at the highest amateur level in a sport. Thomas is now a professional mixed martial artist and has competed in several professional events including the Ultimate Fighting Championship. There is no professional MMA league, per se, but the events he has competed in are the non-league equivalent as stipulated by policy. LaMenta3 (talk) 02:30, 13 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I agree with what you are saying, about his status in terms of pro/amateur regarding establishing notability, but irrelevant of this, WP:V must be satisfied, and I cannot find any references where he is the subject of the reference. If someone can find articles where this person is the subject, then the notability can be established verifiably. LonelyBeacon (talk) 02:53, 13 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]

It's rare that any but the very most famous of professional MMA competitors will have any references where they are the primary subject. However, some records of the competitions he has been in exist in various places online, which is enough to establish that he is a professional competitor. Also, completely unrelated, I propose moving this article to a more standard name such as Ryan Thomas (mixed martial artist). LaMenta3 (talk) 04:39, 13 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]

• Delete per WP:V, it was even admitted above that only a few MMA wrestlers will have references. Anyways with the WP:BIO guidelines, it was noted that he needs to have sources for an article to exist. Secret ^account 05:40, 13 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]
• Delete per WP:V. Although WP:BIO does contain certain conditions under which a person may be notable regardless of lack of non-trivial coverage WP:V is still policy. We still need reliable references even if they don't have to contain non-trivial coverage. EconomicsGuy (talk) 06:31, 13 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]
  • True, references need to be added, trivial or non-trivial, however there is no deadline with regard to any of this. I haven't had the opportunity to collect and synthesize references I glanced at the other night as it is exam week and it's been piled up to "here" if you know what I mean. :) LaMenta3 (talk) 05:41, 14 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]
  • Ok, I've added a few references which verify his professional career. They're mostly trivial mentions, but in searching, there really aren't many articles that are really entirely about any MMA professional. Even the ones mentioned in headlines don't really receive more than passing mention in the article itself. Odd, really. LaMenta3 (talk) 06:22, 14 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]
• Delete per all of the above reasons. violet/riga (t) 21:46, 15 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]

The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.