The sport of wrestling has long been the victim of a tug of war between craft and entertainment. With college wrestling and NCAA divisions focusing on the ‘craft’ of the sport and the formal training aspects of it, the entertainment industry transformed the very meaning of the sport with platforms like WWE and wrestling superstars with larger-than-life personas like Hulk Hogan.
Hogan has now returned to the world of wrestling to tug that rope harder in the direction of entertainment with his new endeavor, Real American Wrestling, a joint project with Eric Bischoff and coach Israel “Izzy” Martinez. RAF promises to provide the audience with unscripted freestyle wrestling with solid storylines; however, whether this is enough to break into the competitive entertainment market is still up for debate.
Additionally, considering Hogan’s recent broadcasting choice, it looks like RAF may have a hard time reaching the masses. It has just been announced that RAF is going to be streaming exclusively on Fox Nation. Fox Nation is a subscription-based streaming service that charges $4.99 (annual packs) to $7.99 (monthly packs) a month; other than that, the channel is known for its biased reportage and political favoritism, which doesn’t really bode well for a large audience base but rather severely limits it.
BREAKING: @foxnation is the exclusive broadcast partner for Real American Freestyle.
Watch the historic launch of #RAF01 streaming live August 30. pic.twitter.com/S6sDp0Akpg
— Real American Freestyle (@RAFWrestlingUSA) July 21, 2025
So, with the historic launch of RAF coming up on the 30th of August, many wrestling fans are speaking out about the decision about the broadcasting rights, with the majority being quite clear on where they stand with Hulk Hogan’s latest decision.
Fan reactions to Hulk Hogan’s decision to stream Real American Freestyle exclusively on Fox Nation
Some fans kept it simple, writing, “Fox Nation?! Damn, I was looking forward to this but I’m out,” which pretty much sums up the whole thing. RAF was looking like it’d offer something interesting to both the world of wrestling and entertainment, but the fact that the platform it is associated with lacks credibility is pushing away prospective audiences.
Another fan chose to make some hurtful comparisons, saying, “might as well stream this on Rumble. If RAF makes it past 3 events, I’ll be shocked. Every decision they’ve made has been questionable, but this takes the cake.” Rumble is widely considered one of the lowest quality broadcasting services because of its bad video quality, so clearly Fox Nation doesn’t have the best reputation with this fan. Additionally, the allusion to other bad decisions might be in reference to the controversy over RAF’s name, Real American Freestyle. Some fans believed that it wouldn’t cut across to an international audience, which might definitely now be the case based on the streaming platform alone.
Another fan made an obvious understatement, writing, “If it ain’t free, I’m probably not gonna subscribe to Fox News to watch it.” True, the launch of an already somewhat dubious wrestling league on a pay-per-view channel is not the best marketing choice.
Yet another fan made another interesting comparison, writing, “This is like ESPN being the exclusive broadcast partner for the Commission on Presidential Debates.” So, instead of a news channel broadcasting a sports show, it’d be a sports channel broadcasting a news show, neither of which makes sense!
Finally, someone at least came through with some sound advice for Hulk Hogan, constructive criticism, if you will: “You would be seriously much better off showing it for free on YouTube to try to build a fan base.” the fan wrote, adding, “This is worse than the MLS / Apple deal. Completely bury it before it even happens.” The Major League Soccer deal with Apple TV has already shown its cracks, with not even Lionel Messi able to drive up viewership.
In any case, there is time till the 30th of August if fans choose to subscribe or if Hulk Hogan chooses to change his mind!
The post “I’m Out”: Hulk Hogan’s Major Decision For Real American Freestyle Backfires For Fans appeared first on EssentiallySports.
