It turns out Real American Freestyle Wrestling owes as much to Hulk Hogan as it does to a father-son wrestling match. There is a chain between them, connecting the controversial WWE legend to Chad Bronstein via their fellow co-founders: another WWE icon in Eric Bischoff, and one of the US’s top coaches in Izzy Martinez.
If you’re an American reader, you’ll easily differentiate between “professional wrestling”, which the late Hogan dominated (allegedly through persistent politicking, mind), and “amateur wrestling”. The latter has always stood out as a misnomer to this writer; while pro wrestler Hogan, up until his death last July, was a “Real American” per his entrance music, amateur wrestling is the real sport – an Olympic one, and a staple in high schools around the country. Actually, one can get more granular: the variety practised in schools and colleges is folkstyle, while the Olympic version is freestyle.
