RAF wrestling 2025: Real American Freestyle wrestling debuts in Cleveland

CLEVELAND, Ohio — The late Hulk Hogan would have been pleased.

The legendary WWE professional wrestler, 12-time champion and two-time Hall of Famer, Hogan — who helped create Real American Freestyle with former WCW Vice President Eric Bischoff, Chad Bronstein and Israel Martinez — died suddenly just a month before the promotion made its long-awaited debut Saturday night at Cleveland State’s Wolstein Center. But his presence was felt all night long, complete with pre-recorded wrestler intros by the man himself and a tribute involving his son, Nick, to kick off the event.

Titled RAF 1, there were 10 matches held on the card, including eight to crown champions in their new weight classes — bantamweight, lightweight, middleweight, starweight (female), featherweight, cruiserweight, light heavyweight and heavyweight.

The event even saw a surprise appearance from former UFC and multi-time boxing champion Holly Holm, who was thrust into her first-ever wrestling match with just 48 hours notice to replace Kennedy Blades, who was not cleared to compete in this event by the NCAA.

Bronstein revealed that approximately 4,500 tickets were sold. The arena, with seats on the floor and the first two decks sold, looked mostly full.

“I don’t think anyone promoted better than us,” Bronstein said. “Fox Nation have been unbelievable partners, they put us everywhere. For us, this was a win all around. I believe our next event scheduled for Nov. 8 will sell out the crowd.”

“You could feel the audience build,” Bischoff added. “From the matches we put out on that mat, the crowd was invested from the opening match to the end of the night, and that’s hard to achieve. But Izzy (Martinez) did a great job assembling this card.”

The 10-match card was headlined by defending NCAA heavyweight champion Wyatt Hendrickson taking on Mustafa Elders — a former Africa national champion — for the inaugural RAF heavyweight championship.

Hendrickson, an Oklahoma State product, dominated Elders with an offensive flurry in the first period. He picked up two quick takedowns, two back points and another takedown to take an 8-0 lead.

A huge 4-point move – a takedown and pushout – finished off Hendrickson’s dominant 14-1 tech. fall victory over Elders to claim the heavyweight belt. A clear fan favorite, the crowd was very happy. They were treated to a surprise when Hendrickson issued a challenge to 2023 Pan Am Games gold medalist Mason Parris, and Parris wound up running on to the mat to accept the challenge. Martinez ran out to confirm the match for a future RAF event.

“I’m always down for a match,” Hendrickson said. “I’m faithful to wrestling, it’s what I love to do. I feel like this is a great opportunity to give back as much as I can. Now that we have a platform to wrestle, there’s no reason for me to leave.”

In the semi-main event, former freestyle national champion and three-time NCAA champion Bo Nickal battled 2-time NCAA All-American Jacob Cardenas for the 205-pound light heavyweight title.

Nickal, a Penn State grad competing in his first match in four years, opened up a 3-0 first period lead and expanded that to 4-1 after two. Cardenas hit a takedown and a back point to tie the match at 4. But Nickal, laying on his stomach, caught Cardenas and reversed him to his back to retake the lead, 6-4. Nickal held on to claim the victory.

After the match, Nickal said he was sticking with RAF while jointly competing in the UFC’s middleweight division.

“It felt great to be back out there,” Nickal said. “I did want to push the pace a bit and it affected my cardio. 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.”

Prior to that match, there were two surprises. The first was former UFC champion Tito Ortiz challenging event commentator and former MMA legend Chael Sonnen to a wrestling match at a future RAF event. Sonnen accepted. The second was the reveal of Holm.

Bischoff came out and announced to the crowd that Spires wouldn’t be competing, but then introduced Holm to a rousing ovation. Holm competed against Alejandra Pinera on 48-hours notice. In a very competitive bout, Holm took a 4-0 first period lead, but Pinera came back with a wild second period to emerge with a 9-7 lead.

Holm tried to get a takedown in the third, but was unable to score any points, giving Pinera the victory.

“I was just coming out to watch,” Holm said. “I’ve known Real Woods since he was in seventh grade and Kennedy Blades since she was 12. I was just about to fly out and Izzy called me and said, ‘Hey, Kennedy can’t wrestle, how would you like to compete?’ I said, ‘If you guys are serious, I’ll do it.’ I’ve got two more boxing matches coming up – they gave me special permission to compete tonight, but only allowed one. After those two matches, we’ll see I have one more match in me.”

The opening match of the card had some local flair. Cuyahoga Valley Christian Academy and Ohio State grad Nathan Tomesello – a former four-time state champion, one-time national champion and four-time NCAA All-American – took on Matt Ramos for the 135-pound bantamweight championship

The hometown crowd was really behind Tomasello, who jumped out to a 4-0 lead after two periods on four pushouts.

Ramos got a point on a pushout midway through the third and final period, and then landed the only takedown of the match with just over 2 seconds left. However, time ran out before Ramos could capitalize, and Tomasello held on for a thrilling 4-3 victory to win the inaugural RAF bantamweight championship belt.

“I want to thank everyone from my hometown for coming out here and supporting me,” Tomasello said. “(Ramos) is a great competitor and I knew it would be a tough match. But I’ve been training hard for the past six weeks for this match, and I wasn’t going to be denied.”

Up next was the 155-pound lightweight championship match between Bajrang Punia, a 2020 Olympic bronze medalist, and Yianni Diakomihalis, a former four-time NCAA champion at Cornell and the 2022 Pan Am Games silver medalist. Diakomihalis was 2-0 vs. Punia in their careers coming into Saturday.

The match was scoreless after one period, but Diakomihalis got a point via stalling (Punia didn’t take a shot within the allotted time) and picked up another on a pushout. Punia got on the board with a pushout to make it 2-1 after two periods.

In the third, Diakomihalis dominated, landing a takedown and a quick pushout midway through the period to extend his lead to 5-1. Punia couldn’t do much after that, and Diakomihalis walked away with the title.

“When you have the opportunity to compete against a world medalist, it’s a good test to see if, ‘Hey, am I moving in the right direction,’” Diakomihalis said.

Next up was a 155-pound lightweight bout featured St. Edward and Ohio State grad Lance Palmer – a four-time state champion and four-time NCAA All-American – and Austin Gomez, a two-time NCAA All-American and a defending NCAA runner-up at Michigan.

Gomez went right to work on Palmer, a Columbia Station native who was one of the oldest competitors at 38, taking him down just 10 seconds into the match and quickly picking up 6 points. Just 58 seconds into the first, the match was stopped at 11-0, and Gomez was awarded a tech. fall victory.

Gomez talked smack about Ohio State and acted like he planted a flag in the middle of the mat, much to the chagrin of the crowd. He then issued a challenge to new champion Diakomihalis.

“Hey Yianni, spit-shine my belt, I’m coming for it,” he said.

The 175-pound RAF middleweight championship bout between Jason Nolf – a three-time national freestyle champion and former three-time NCAA champion – and Evan Wick, a two-time collegiate All-American, followed this up with arguably the match of the night.

Wick and Nolf battled back-and-forth for three periods. Wick jumped out to an 8-2 lead midway through the second period before Nolf – who came out of retirement to compete in RAF – mounted a comeback, hitting a takedown to make it 8-4 after two.

A pushout and a takedown by Nolf in the early going of the third tied the match at 8, getting the crowd on their feet. With 25 seconds left, Wick hit a takedown to take a 10-8 lead, then withstood a wild scramble in the waning seconds to hold on to win the belt.

“I have a list of NCAA champions I’ve knocked off – none of them have ever won more than one and none of them are as good as Jason Nolf,” Wick said. “Regardless of the points, I think you can look at the match and say it was an exciting match, but he was the definitely the best wrestler I’ve ever competed against. It was just a great match.”

The women were on display next for the 120-pound starweight championship between Sarah Hildebrandt – a seven-time Pan Am Game gold medalist and a 2024 Olympic gold medalist – and Zeltzin Hernandez – a former Mexican national champion.

Hildebrandt jumped out to a quick lead, scoring a takedown and hitting two quick rolls for a 6-point maneuver. She added one more point on a stall to take a 7-0 lead after one.

After a scoreless second, Hildebrandt took down Hernandez one more time, and hit another quick roll to end the match by tech. fall, 11-0.

“Any time I’m out there on the mat, it’s electric,” Hildebrandt said. “I’m just grateful for the opportunity and this was great to be a part of.”

Real Woods – a three-time NCAA All-American – battled Darrion Caldwell – a former Bellator MMA bantamweight champion – for the inaugural 155-pound featherweight title.

Woods jumped out to a 4-3 lead after the first period, then hit a takedown, four more back points and wound up sticking Caldwell for a pinfall in 3:29 – the first pin of the event – to claim the belt.

“When you think about it, being able to get a match like this on a huge stage and platform with a huge fan base around it, it was awesome for my preparation for Worlds,” Woods said. “This was the best thing I could have done, I’m happy to have come and done this and I’m ready to move on and see what’s in store.”

For the RAF 190-pound cruiserweight championship, Dean Hamiti – a three-time NCAA All-American and an NCAA champion – took on Kyle Dake – a former four-time World and NCAA champion and two-time Olympic bronze medalist.

Dake dominated the match from start to finish, and the finish came via tech fall, 11-0, midway through the second period. Dake took a 5-0 lead after the first, and then ended it with a takedown and a roll after two stalling points.

“Being able to compete on a huge stage like this is really nice in front of a ton of people here and at home,” Dake said. “Wrestling’s fun and you want to compete as much as you can. I’m grateful for the opportunity.”

All in all, everyone seemed to come away very satisfied with the event and for the future of the promotion.

“It was a big team effort,” Bischoff said. “A lot of people on our team had never done this before, and they came together quickly and they got the job done. You saw the big crowd that we had tonight. I don’t know how this couldn’t have come off any better.”

Dan Gilles is a freelancer from Lorain.