COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) -- It’s a day more than a year in the making: Ohio State University wrestler Sammy Sasso is returning to competition 453 days after being shot in the abdomen during a carjacking in Weinland Park.   He’s had the goal of returning to the mat from the moment he woke up in the hospital, but it was a goal that was never guaranteed to come.   "You know, you just go from training at such a high level,” Sammy said just days before his big return. “Then you're at PT learning how to stand up and walk again so it's definitely humbling."  Wrestling itself is a very humbling sport, and “The Savage” Sammy Sasso is used to being the one humbling opponents. A four-time All-American at Ohio State and two-time Big Ten Champion, Sammy wrestled for an NCAA title at 149 pounds twice. He lost in both of those finals and those were the losses that used to matter; but now, Sammy is just happy he didn’t lose his life or his ability to walk.   "You take it for granted when you just come to practice every day, so this just makes me appreciate it more,” he said sitting on one of the wrestling mats spread out along the floor of Ohio State’s practice facility. “Wrestling, it's just something that my body does naturally. I was wrestling better than I was walking at one point as crazy as that sounds. I would come into practice walking with a cane, put on shoes and go start wrestling hard."  "He has tremendous love for the sport,” Ohio State head coach Tom Ryan, who has been overcoming his own major injury after a horrific car accident merely months ago, said.   Ryan said that having to battle through almost losing his leg has given him perspective and added understanding into what his star wrestler is going through.   “His toughness is incredible,” Ryan said. “He's an incredibly tough person and he always said if I can come back to the standard I was, I will do it.”  The thing is, Sasso’s standard is the same, but his style in some ways was forced to change.   "He just doesn't have the speed he had,” Ryan said. “The one leg doesn't answer when he calls up on it to move, it doesn't move as quickly. So, I imagine he will be a lot more, I don't want to say conservative but a lot pickier about his wrestling.”  Sasso is also moving up two weight classes from the last time he wrestled competitively. In 2023 with the Buckeyes, he was in the 149-pound weight class. Now, he’s trying out 165 pounds.   “So there is a lot of learning that has occurred for him in the new Sammy," Ryan said.   The mental challenge has in some ways been harder than physically getting back to form. Sasso feels ready, though, for the first test – the first match -- and he’s waited for this day for a long time.  “Since it happened because you get something you love taken away so fast," he said.   "I've been doing this for 32 years. I would say from where he was to what he wants, this would be one of the more amazing things I've seen,” Ryan said with a smile. “For him to recover from what he went through and be ready to go and we can't wait to watch him."  “I'll feel the nerves and I'll enjoy them because I've missed that,” Sasso said with a big grin. “I’ve been thinking about running out of the tunnel for a while now, so yeah.  Let's Go Bucks, baby.”  The wrestling Bucks host the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga at 7:30 p.m. at the Covelli Center.