There needs to be more Small and Medium grapple moves.

I'd definitely like to see more, and slower, early match grapples - slower, more wholesomely animated armwringers, armwringers transitioning into minor holds/takedowns, more non-knockdown strikes...I always get more excited for new basic moves than I do new craziness. The new headlocks are among my favorite new moves that we've gotten.

This is one reason I can't live without the move lists mod anymore - early matches in FP can get stale because they can only do so much: you've got room for a basic punch, a slam, a takedown, and a knockdown, and that's essentially your light grapple set. You're gonna see the same buildup every time. But when you can have four punches/chops, two slam/takedowns, three transitional moves and two or three knockdowns, you don't know exactly what you're gonna see and it stays much more varied.

I'd still like to see more light grapples PERIOD, but variety mitigates the lack of absolute volume somewhat.

There's a couple of submissions, the dragon screws, Ashi Yokosuka, and a couple of leg trips, yeah. Bsck grapples add a joint kick, the shin breaker, the knee clip tackle and Zack Sabre's finisher. You end up with a lot of samey leg offense. :/

Here is the entire list of front small grapples and I would like to see more "B" moves that don't result in a knockdown and maybe a nice standing hammerlock, it shouldn't submit anyone but it would be just nice to see.

Im not really surprised that there arent a ton of Small Dmg grapple moves, because even 1 Off vs 10 Def will quickly advance into Medium Dmg if the Edit lands several moves in a row.

Ive actually been setting Standing Front grapples recently as:

A) Standing Strike - Usually quicker strikes animation-wise. this move will be 10-15% throughout the entire logic (15%->10%->8% usually).

B) Knockdown/Lift - either a bodyslam, fireman carry, or a knockdown strike for strike heavy guys. move will start 10-15%, fall to 5-8%, then 0%.

C) B Move - used with Sml Dmg stun gating to nearly always (ie 60%+) be used with a Sml/Med Strike that wouldnt knockdown until late match. These moves stay roughly 5-10% throughout logic.

D) Standing Strike/Knockdown - usually a slower standing strike (again, animation-wise) for early, or potentially just a knockdown strike for limb-targeting edits to get some early stomp action in. These will start WAY higher, at like 20-25%, fall down to 10-15%, then be 0% in large in favor of the faster strike/bigger knockdowns.

This uses the Small category more as a VERY early 'soft-exchange' of moves, but they'll stay into Medium as to extend the duration of Medium to further lengths. I plotted this at first in order to actually extend Small but it really is just super short. After embracing it as an 'early Medium' and just setting the Logic to blend the two together (then similarly blending Medium into Large) has given me a better appreciation of when those big moves DO start cropping up.

I understand the 'samey' argument, though, but early match wrestling usually is just a bunch of flavor-striking and a few shoulder blocks, etc.

Modded options will always resolve the issue of limited base game features. I'm assuming the OP wants to see these changes in the base game, without the requirement of mods though.

i don't know why basic pinfalls like the school boy or backslide aren't in small grapple

you can already do la magistrals in small or whatever in small (on the ground), and they don't do enough (or any) HP damage to where it'd change anything pace-wise, nor I think they need to take one of five slots for a 'big' move or a submission hold.

(im aware you can do this with move data editor mod but this should be a thing for vanilla/ps4 users imo)