48-year-old legend joins Hulk Hogan’s wrestling promotion

Hulk Hogan recently launched his own wrestling promotion. Now, a legend has joined his company.

Chael Sonnen is a name that is quite familiar to MMA fans. He made a name for himself in the UFC, where he fought for several years. He was involved in some of the promotion's biggest matches early in his career. His 2010 bout against Anderson Silva was named Fight of the Year by UFC.com. The 48-year-old's accolades and impressive career earned him a spot in the UFC Hall of Fame. Although his time in the octagon is over, he is willing to take on a new role in a new company.

Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff launched Real American Freestyle Wrestling, which is set to host its first event in Cleveland, Ohio, on August 30. The promotion took to social media to announce that Chael Sonnen will join the broadcast team for their upcoming events.

"It’s Official! The best in the business is RAF. Welcome, @ChaelSonnen! #RealAmericanFreestyle #RAF."

Check out his tweet here:

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Bill Apter says Hulk Hogan's new promotion fails to draw interest

Hulk Hogan launched Real American Freestyle Wrestling to launch megastars within the company. Based on the name, the promotion might feature freestyle wrestling as opposed to scripted matches, which do not interest Bill Apter.

During a recent edition of the UnSKripted podcast, Bill Apter said that he isn't interested in the type of wrestling Hogan and Bischoff are promoting with their company. He also noted that the Hulkster has many haters.

"So this is something that I probably, with my interest level, probably won't be something that I will run to see. I just don't have... I am just at scripted professional wrestling, that's my love... I don't know if the endorsing of Hogan and [Eric] Bischoff will mean tons of 'buy this.' I don't know. There is still a lot of Hogan haters out there, and he knows it," Apter said. [19:37 onwards]

It will be interesting to see if Real American Freestyle Wrestling will turn out to be a success.

About the author

Sunil is a pro wrestling journalist, covering AEW and WWE news stories at Sportskeeda. He holds an MBA degree in Marketing, and has nearly 7 years of experience. A wrestling aficionado since childhood, Sunil used to imitate his favorite wrestlers as a young kid, and started writing professionally about the sport via Sportskeeda’s revenue-sharing opportunity.

Sunil admires former world champions AJ Styles, Will Ospreay, and Kenny Omega for their ability to consistently deliver great matches as well as entertain crowds with their mic skills.

If ever given a chance to change a storyline, Sunil would have booked Roman Reigns to end The Undertaker’s WrestleMania streak instead of Brock Lesnar. According to him, The Tribal Chief needed the victory more than Brock Lesnar, as the latter was already an established performer when he defeated ‘Taker. He would’ve also made that as Taker’s final match.

Always focused on making his work accurate and reliable, Sunil thoroughly checks his facts before writing his articles. When not writing for pro wrestling, he spends his time watching cricket.

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Edited by Angana Roy