Two months ago, Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff shared an nWo-style black-and-white video teasing their return, with a third man set to join them. At the time, people were speculating about several names, with Vince McMahon and podcaster Conrad Thompson being the most frequently mentioned. However, to say the subsequent announcement of MMA coach Izzy Martinez and the launch of a new company called “Real American Freestyle” was a damp squib would be an understatement.
And now, with the first Real American Freestyle show taking place at the Wolstein Center at Cleveland State University in August, @WrestleTix has reported that only 380 tickets have been sold despite 3,882 being made available in an arena that holds 13,077 people. Of course, there’s still plenty of time for the new promotion to create some buzz and sell more tickets, but at this point, it’s hard to find anything positive in this news.
This isn’t the first attempt someone has made to take amateur wrestling to a professional level in the United States, with “Real Pro Wrestling” being the most well-known example. Yet, despite the involvement of Daniel Cormier, King Mo, and Rulon Gardner, RPW would only run for two seasons and ceased operations in 2007. Therefore, it was always going to be an uphill struggle for Bischoff and Hogan to make this project a success, especially given the immense popularity of MMA nowadays, which partially fills this gap in the market.
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