The competitions take place by direct elimination system with an ideal number of wrestlers, i.e. 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, etc. If there is no ideal number of wrestlers in a category, qualification matches will take place.

Pairing is made in the order of the numbers drawn at random. All wrestlers who lost against both finalists will have repechage matches. There are two separated groups of repechage: one group of wrestlers who lost against the first finalist, and another group of wrestlers who lost against the second finalist. The repechage matches begin with wrestlers who lost in the first round including in matches to obtain the ideal number against one of the two finalists up to the losers in the semi-finals by direct elimination. The winners of the two repechage groups will receive each the bronze medal.

Each weight category begins and ends in a day. Each category weigh-in and medical control take place the day before the beginning of the category concerned.

The competition takes place in the following manner:
- Qualification rounds
- Elimination rounds
- Repechage rounds
- Finals

If there are less than 6 wrestlers in a weigh-in category, the Nordic round will take place (each wrestler against each wrestler).

Example of a competition by direct elimination

Let us take the example of a competition with 22 wrestlers in a weight category. The 22 wrestlers draw a number at random which defines the order of start.

In our example, we have 6 wrestlers with the ideal number of 16. The qualification matches will be disputed by 6 wrestlers who drew the highest numbers after 16, i.e. 17, 18, 19, 20, 21 and 22 and by 6 wrestlers drawing the numbers at random directly before 17, i.e. 16, 15, 14, 13, 12, 11. According to the pairing principle in the order of the numbers drawn at random, the matches take place in the following manner:
- Number 11 against number 12, match number 1
- Number 13 against number 14, match number 2
- Number 15 against number 16, match number 3
- Number 17 against number 18, match number 4
- Number 19 against number 20, match number 5
- Number 21 against number 22, match number 6

The winners of these 6 qualification matches are qualified for the elimination round by direct elimination.

We have the ideal number of 16 wrestlers after the qualification matches. The 16 wrestlers competing for the elimination round are the 10 wrestlers who drew the numbers from 1 to 10 and the 6 wrestlers who won the qualification matches, i.e. numbers 12, 13, 15, 17, 19 and 22 (to arrive at 16). According to the pairing principle in the order of the numbers drawn at random, the first elimination round takes place in the following manner:
- Number 1 against number 2, match number 1
- Number 3 against number 4, match number 2
- Number 5 against number 6, match number 3
- Number 7 against number 8, match number 4
- Number 9 against number 10, match number 5
- Number 12 against number 13, match number 6
- Number 15 against number 17, match number 7
- Number 19 against number 22, match number 8

As mentioned above, all the wrestlers losing against the two finalists will make up a repechage. The wrestlers losing against the finalist no 5 are as follows:
- Number 6 (1st round loser)
- Number 7 (2nd round loser)
- Number 3 (3rd round loser)

The wrestlers losing against the finalist no 15 are:
- Number 16 (qualification round loser)
- Number 17 (1st round loser)
- Number 19 (2nd round loser)
- Number 12 (3rd round loser)

The repechage phase begins with the wrestlers who lost against the finalists at the lowest level of competition.*
- 1st match: no6 (1st round loser) against no7 (2nd round loser)
- 2nd match: no6 (1st match winner) against no3 (3rd round loser)
- The wrestler no6 is the winner in the repechage group who lost against the no5 finalist.

The same system applies to the wrestlers losing against the no15 finalist.
- 1st match: no16 (qualification round loser) against no17 (1st round loser)
- 2nd match: no16 (the winner of the 1st match) against no19 (2nd round loser)
- 3rd match: no16 (2nd match winner) against no12 (3rd round loser)

The no16 wrestler is the winner of the repechage group who lost against the no15 finalist.

*Repechage rounds starts following the number of the wrestlers in the upper and the lower bracket. Regarding the above example, the second repechage pool (lower bracket) has 4 wrestlers and first pool (upper bracket) has 3 wrestlers. Then the first repechage bout will start from second repechage pool. If both pools have same number of wrestlers repechage bouts will start from first repechage pool (upper bracket).

The two finalists in the elimination rounds, i.e. no5 and 15, take part in the match for the 1st and 2nd places. The two winners of the two last repechage matches (no6 and no16) receive each the bronze medal. The losers of both finals for the two bronze medals will be ranked 5th ex aequo.

Classification criteria

From the 7th place, wrestlers of each category will be ranked depending on their ranking points, retirement or forfeit, injury or disqualification. In case of a ranking tie, they will be ranked by analysing the following criteria successively:
- The most victories by "Fall"
- The most match won by superiority
- The most technical points scored in all the competition
- The fewest technical points given in all the competition

If the place of the wrestlers cannot be determined with the above mentioned criterion, they will be ranked ex aequo.

The wrestlers taking part in the repechage phase will also be ranked according to the ranking points earned during the competition, including qualification matches and repechage.

N.B. Disqualified wrestlers for brutality or unfair behaviour will be eliminated and not classified. Except with a medical certificate controlled by a UWW Doctor, if a wrestler does not present himself to the mat for whatever reason as soon as the competition has started, his opponent(s) will win the match, and the wrestler will be eliminated and not classified.

Ranking criteria for the Nordic tournament

Only 4 classification points will be allocated for the victory by fall, default, forfeit, or disqualification in the Nordic tournament system.

In the Nordic tournament, the wrestler with the highest number of victories will be ranked first, regardless of the total number of classification points.

If two wrestlers have an equal number of classification points, their direct match will determine the winner. The wrestler who won against his opponent will be ranked before the other one.

If more than two wrestlers have an equal number of classification points, the last of the ex-aequo group will be determined following these criteria until only two wrestlers remain:
- The fewest victories by "Fall"
- The fewest match victories by superiority
- The fewest technical points scored in the whole competition
- The most technical points given in the whole competition