Nine things to know about Real American Freestyle before RAF 01 on Saturday in Cleveland

Saturday, August 30 marks the launch of Real American Freestyle, the new professional freestyle wrestling promotion, with the hosting of its first competition, RAF 01 at the Wolstein Center in Cleveland, Ohio.

We visited with Izzy Martinez, who along with Chad Bronstein and the late Hulk Hogan, were the primary leaders for the launch of this new opportunity for the wrestling community. Those in wrestling know Izzy as the highly successful coach of Izzy Style Wrestling, who also has extensive experience in MMA as well.  He is someone who has always brought a flair to wrestling.

When asked about how things were going with RAF 01, Izzy was fired up.

“We are getting better. When we first launched, we didn’t know. Before you know it, we had the best wrestlers, our announcing crew, our production. It is serious. We are rolling. It is going to be a great crowd,” he said.

Izzy agreed to answer nine other questions and provide some inside information about what wrestling fans can expect when they are in-person at Wolstein Center or watch RAF 01 live on Fox Nation.

Question 1: Are there any rule changes to look out for?

Izzy Martinez: The athletes and the purity of the sport always comes first and foremost. There is nothing gimmicky about the rules. There are obvious deficiencies in UWW rules. We did tweak ours a little bit. We put in three two-minute periods, which helps with the fan engagement and pacing of the match. Our only tie criteria is the last point scored. We don’t have time for the new fans to figure out the scoring. With the new fans, if they watch one match and do not know who is winning, we will be in a lot of trouble.

We are cracking down on injury time outs. As you saw at the U20 Worlds, it is plaguing the sport a little bit. We have two minutes of injury time. Not only that, your first injury time is a warning. The second time is a caution and a point. The third time you are out. That’s it. If you are really hurt, you shouldn’t be wrestling.”

Question 2: Will there be any special production features that will make RAF unique and special?

Izzy Martinez: It is going to be beyond anything the sport has ever done before. There is a team of people we have hired who are experts in sports, whether it is FIFA soccer, whether it is UFC, whether it is WWE. We have one of the best production teams ever. Not only that, we have the best wrestlers on the planet at the highest level. Our production is going to be the same. You will see great video angles, camera cuts, audio, lighting, preview packages. It is going to be an electric experience for everyone.

Question 3: Will there be RAF titles awarded, and will there be championship belts?

Izzy Martinez: Yes, you can be an RAF champion. You just have to take out who is in your weight class. We are going to be producing belts for our athletes, for whoever is going to be No. 1 in the world. The champion in our league is going to have a belt. Titles will be awarded for winners of certain weight classes, but not all. We are going to make that announcement on Thursday. There are two women’s weight classes, and yes, those belts will be up for grabs. We want to create some interest, so on Thursday, we will announce which men’s weight classes will be for titles. It will be everywhere. We will promote the heck out of it.  We are everywhere right now. We have had a crazy amount of impressions for the sport of wrestling that has never been seen before.

Question 4: What are the exact ticket prices? Will there be any information on how ticket sales are doing?

Izzy Martinez: Ticket prices are across the board. All of our tickets are on TicketMaster. We have a deal now, four for $99. You can go almost-ringside for $150. There are VIP options where you can meet the stars, a premium package. There are all levels of ticket sales. We are going to announce our attendance, but we have sold over 3,000 tickets. I anticipate between 3,500 and 5,000 fans in the building.

Question 5: Will there be any special memorial activities in honor of Hulk Hogan?

Izzy Martinez: I don’t want to give too much away, but the short answer is absolutely. He was a special guy who influenced the world. He influenced me and he became my brother. He was inspired by wrestlers. It was the wrestlers he fell in love with. Literally, this was one of his career projects. He loved working on it. He knew many of the wrestlers. He was awesome. We are definitely going to do something for him. The WWE did an awesome tribute video for him. He was invested in this. We are going to do a special promotion for him.

Question 6: Have they decided upon the bout order? Will there be any “Main Events” and/or “Co-Main Events”?

The Official Bout Order

135 lbs. – Nathan Tomasello vs. Matt Ramos

155 lbs. – Yianni Diakomihalis vs. Bajrang Punia

155 lbs. – Lance Palmer vs. Austin Gomez

175 lbs. – Jason Nolf vs. Evan Wick

120 lbs. – Sarah Hildebrandt vs. Zeltzin Hernandez

145 lbs. – Real Woods vs. Darrion Caldwell

190 lbs. – Kyle Dake vs. Dean Hamiti

150 lbs. – Kennedy Blades vs. Alejandra Rivera

205 lbs. – Bo Nickal vs. Jacob Cardenas

Unlimited – Wyatt Hendrickson vs. Mostafa Elders

Izzy Martinez: The Main Event is Wyatt vs. Mostafa. There are two Co-Main Events, Kennedy’s match and Bo Nickel’s.

Question 7: This is a professional league. Will the prize money awards be announced?

Izzy Martinez: We have performance bonuses for each card. They will be announced at the end of each card. It depends upon what time of athlete they are. Some are NIL athletes. They are not being paid for performance. They are doing more on the sponsorship, NIL side. Some athletes are getting show and win money. It just depends upon what your contract says. It is the same as everywhere.

Question 8: When will information on the second RAF event be announced?

Izzy Martinez: Next week, we will launch our second event with our second location for RAF 02. Then we will be probably finalizing RAF 03 at the same time. Next week we will have a huge announcement about the next event.

Question 9: For you, has there been anything that has come out of this that you weren’t expecting?

Izzy Martinez: I was expecting the wrestling community to be shaken up a little bit with the opportunity we were able to put on for the sport, with the spotlight we have put on the sport. We are trying to bring wrestling mainstream. We knew the challenges. The most exciting thing for me is watching how inspired these wrestlers are, just how motivated they are and how hungry they are. There was a stigma that all these certain athletes were so hard to work with. That is not true. They are hungry, they all want this league to succeed. Every coach I have talked to want this league to succeed. I am overwhelmed with the amount of support we have. What is surprising to me is just how awesome people really are. The wrestling community has really stepped it up, college coaches, high school coaches, fans, random people reaching out and saying they are going to be attending. It is exciting that we have some hype back in the sport. We have some work to do and we are excited.

The Basics

Event: RAF 01

Date: Saturday, August 30

Time: 7:00 p.m. EDT

City: Cleveland, Ohio

Venue: Wolstein Center

Tickets: Ticketmaster

Broadcast: Fox Nation

Announcers: Chael Sonnen, Bubba Jenkins, Kurt Angle

Lineup and more Information: Real American Freestyle website