Where to start with this – the idea, the wrestling, the belt, the pre-match face off, the atmosphere, the stories. All of it – electric!
RAF is the next step. RAF is progress and is preservation, all while being entertainment. RAF does something that no platform has done before.
RAF is taking care of athletes and even the sport of wrestling in general. There hasn’t been something in wrestling that everybody can tune into and be excited about if they don’t know much about the sport. By creating this platform, there’s now a stage for wrestlers to perform on and show off not only their skills, but further the sport into areas that we haven’t reached yet. It combines fan bases and while that’s partly to grow the sport, that’s also how they’re taking care of the athletes.
Retiring isn’t talked about much in the sports world, or at least not the part that comes after. People aren’t aware of the pain that an athlete may go through, knowing they’ll never compete again. Going from practices every day to maybe once or twice a week, if that. Partly losing something that they’ve held on to and loved for the past few years, decades, sometimes they’re whole life. Partly losing themselves. RAF gives these athletes something to come back to. Sarah Hildebrandt gets to compete again, just for fun, after retirement and the Olympic games.
There’s not much for wrestlers to continue to after collegiate wrestling, other than world and Olympic teams. Bo Nickal went on to UFC instead, and with this platform, he gets to come back to wrestling again too. He even said, “I’m just grateful to compete and I love wrestling so much. I’ve done a lot of training the last 4 years, but no competing, so it’s different. I’m just happy to go out there and score some points.” There’s something about being able to compete in wrestling that is key to the sport. A mindset maybe, but also a passion and love for the game. And being able to give athletes this to come back to is so important and well done by RAF.
Combining UFC fighters and wrestlers, and concepts from UFC into wrestling, is perfect for what this platform needs to further this sport. The face off with Real Woods and Darrion Caldwell, once again – electric. That’s what had people looking forward to this match off. Again, even Real Woods commented this to be the next step in this sport. And then we’ve even got UFC fighters stepping up and stepping in with a special appearance made by Holly Holm. It takes guts to do something you haven’t done before and she did it well. These are the stories that will further this platform. They’re the stories that make up Real American Freestyle.
This platform is doing something special and it’s just the beginning. RAF02 coming to Penn State next, home of the 2025 Wrestling National Champions.
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