By Gavin Boyle
WWE legend Hulk Hogan has plans to accelerate professional wrestling through a new league designed to provide amateurs with the chance to develop their skills.
“It’s a completely underserved sport, meaning there’s no professional league that allows these amateurs to evolve like they would in any other sport and it’s such an underserved market, and I know having spent a little bit of time in amateur wrestling as a kid, these are unique athletes,” Hogan told Fox News.
“As we started digging around, we found the athletes [were] very interested,” Hogan continued. “We found a partner that really had influence in that arena of NCAA champions, a gold medalist who has trained almost everybody in the world that is somebody, and we decided to start moving forward with that idea.”
While the world of professional wrestling is very different from the sport that high school and college athletes compete in, Hogan hopes his Real American Freestyle league will help bridge the gap and provide those with talent a place to start.
“The idea was so exciting that I get a chance to be involved with all these young people and help guide them in any way, especially to make them huge stars and create a future for them,” Hogan said, per AP News. “People might be surprised, but wrestling is wrestling, brother.”
The creation of this development league comes as wrestling has exploded into mainstream culture within the past year. This January, the WWE’s Monday Night programming began to run on Netflix, allowing it a chance to reach tens of million new viewers.
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“WWE is off to a great start. Our first week, we drew about 5 million views, which is about two times the audience that MONDAY NIGHT RAW was getting on linear television,” Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos previously revealed.
At the same time, some of the sport’s most recognizable figures have returned, including Dwayne Johnson and Mike Cena. On April 20, Cena had the biggest night of his career as he ended WrestleMania on top in his last match before retirement. Though he will no longer compete in the ring, he plans to remain intimately connected with the sport and assist it behind the scenes as it continues to grow.
“I’ve always said to the audience that WWE is my home and I love it,” Cena said earlier this year. “Just because I physically feel I’m at my end, doesn’t mean I need to distance myself from something I love.”
“The business is at incredible heights of popularity and awareness,” he continued. “There are some big things going on, especially the Netflix [deal] and I take pride in being an individual WWE can call up and say, ‘Remember that idea? The time is now.’ Let’s do something that can bring all of us together.”
As wrestling continues to reach new heights, it will be interesting to see how Hogan’s Real American Freestyle league will play into the development of the stars of the future.
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