The inaugural Real American Freestyle event went down last night at the Wolstein Center in Cleveland, Ohio and by all accounts it was a great success despite the death of co-founder Hulk Hogan weeks before its debut.
Hogan and former WCW head Eric Bischoff envisioned a product that could take freestyle wrestling out of the college and university circuit and generate some excitement amongst fans of combat sports. While they’re still working on figuring out how to best present the athletes and their
stories, the wrestlers themselves put on quite the show on the mats through the night.
Highlights of the event included Wyatt Hendrickson (hot off his big win over Gable Steveson at the NCAA national championship in March) absolutely bodying Mostafa Elders en route to a 14-1 win.
And Two-time Olympic bronze medalist Kyle Dake showed he’s still got a lot of Dake Bombs left to throw at higher weight classes.
On the mixed martial arts (MMA) side of things, Holly Holm slapped on a singlet and wrestled Alejandra Rivera on extremely short notice after Rivera’s opponent (who Holm was on hand to coach) was ruled out. “The Preacher’s Daughter” was game but lost her match 9-7.
Bo Nickal got back to doing what he does best, taking Jacob Cardenas to a 6-4 win. But it wasn’t easy. Cardenas came roaring back to tie things up in the third period, but wasn’t crafty enough to beat the experienced Nickal, who used his opponent’s aggression to score a reversal and hold on for the victory.
Chael Sonnen is a man in high demand. Sonnen was on hand to commentate Real American Freestyle on Saturday night, and he’ll be on hand at the second Craig Jones Invitational (CJI) in Las Vegas today (Sun. Aug 31) to grapple Jones in the main event. He may have another match down the line at a future RAF event too, as Tito Ortiz challenged him to a bout during the broadcast.
Ortiz and Sonnen have extensive history together. Sonnen pinned Ortiz in just 44 seconds during a 1998 wrestling match. Ortiz would get his revenge when the two fought in a 2017 Bellator match, tapping Sonnen with a first round rear naked choke.
More highlights here, courtesy of Real American Freestyle and Saturday Night Lights.
