Why did the IOC eliminate wrestling in 2020? As a matter of principle, shouldn't the IOC favor athletic sport, over other competitive games?

It is less popular. It will compete with softball and some others for a single Olympic spot in the next games.

You seem to think that the Olympics is about sport and strength.

It’s not. It is about money, TV ratings, selling tickets, and making profits. Athletics are only a sideshow.

Wrestling has a low viewership; commercials can’t be sold for as large a fee when wrestling is on. There are other sports (they are talking about baseball and softball) that more people watch, and are played in bigger stadiums. Which means more tickets will be sold.

It’s ALWAYS about money.

Golf and rugby will be joining the games in 2016. They are much more popular sport. Hardly anyone wrestles any more. These are the modern games, not the ancient Greek games. As @elbanditoroso says, filthy lucre is the paramount concern. So they’ll get rid of a sport that is too poor to dope and add some sports where there’s enough money to seek unfair advantage. Such is the nature of sport these days.

As has already been said, it’s all about bums on seats & wrestling along with modern pentathlon, another to bite the dust, just isn’t financially viable.
The olympics, a global corporate brand…who knew?

Why, oh why, could it not have been synchronized swimming that got cut??

And surely they would not cut curling from the winter olympics? Would they?