Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff’s New Promotion Sells Just 380 Tickets for Cleveland Debut

Hulk Hogan’s new freestyle wrestling venture is off to a rocky start.

Earlier this year, the WWE Hall of Famer and former Senior VP of World Championship Wrestling, Eric Bischoff, announced the launch of Real American Freestyle, the first-ever professional freestyle wrestling league.

The inaugural event is scheduled to go down on August 30 at the Wolstein Center at CSU in Cleveland, Ohio, with nearly 4,000 seats available. Unfortunately, for Hogan and Bischoff, not even 10% of those seats have been filled since tickets became available.

According to @WrestleTix on X, 3,882 tickets are available, 3,502 of which remain. That means the event has only sold 380 tickets, just 66 days before showtime.

Ouch.

For freestyle wrestling enthusiasts, the show is jam-packed with notable names, like Olympic medalists Kyle Snyder, Kyle Dake, and Aaron Brooks.

“David, Kyle, Aaron, Trent, and Kyle represent the best of the best, and that’s who we’re targeting for Real American Freestyle,” Hogan said in a statement. “Our goal is to give these athletes an opportunity to continue their careers, create a platform for greatness, and inspire a legacy that lasts.”

Hulk Hogan only has himself to blame

One could certainly speculate as to why the event is tracking so poorly. Chances are, it’s mostly due to the lack of interest around a promotion offering a hybrid between the fantastical world of professional wrestling and the very real athletic competition that is freestyle wrestling.

And, of course, you can’t ignore the tarnished reputation of Hogan after a tape emerged in 2015 of the former WWE Superstar using a racial slur while discussing his daughter’s love life.

Despite being more than a decade ago, wrestling fans have not forgotten. That much was evident when they booed him out of the arena during an appearance on the promotion’s very first episode of WWE Raw on Netflix in January.