Team USA has a second gold on board at the 2025 World Wrestling Championships – Zagreb Camel with promises of glory for USA Wrestling. For the most part, it hasn’t disappointed. Ask Bo Nickal; he has been thoroughly entertained. In fact, he got so pumped up that he is ready to pick a fight. The contrasting nature of the two finals serves as a reminder that no two wrestlers have the same journey.

But in their ways, Zahid Valencia and Trent Hidlay both showed their fierce personas. For Hidlay, it was literally flipping the script from being 2-10 down to come away with a 13-10 win. And Bo Nickal couldn’t resist giving a shout-out through his X handle. “Congrats to @hoagieboyhidlay amazing performance.”

Thanks to Real American Freestyle (RAF), the wrestler-turned-MMA fighter can once again live his wrestling fantasies. Nickal fancies himself some Trent Hidlay action, we kid you not. “Let’s run it at @RAFWrestlingUSA,” Bo Nickal said in the tweet. But don’t get confused by it. It’s the highest grade of compliment coming from the 4-time NCAA Champion. He loves testing himself against the best.

The RAF is literally the place to set up this blockbuster match card. The Hulk Hogan-Erik Bischoff brainchild will probably even main event this card – Nickal vs Hidlay: defending champ vs world champion, where worlds collide. RAF was all about bringing the realism of wrestling and the entertainment value of UFC together. What could be more apt than this?

Trust us. You are probably seeing the birth of a storyline. In fact, Nickal even left the dangling bait for Hidlay in his congratulatory message. “PS underhooks don’t work on me :)”. Well, your move now, Mr. World Champion. Mind you, Trent Hidlay is also signed up with the RAF. So, keep an eye out in this chapter. The RAF 02 is set to take place on October 25.

Plenty of time for Hidlay to rest and recover from the historic World Championships campaign. It’s been an amazing season for the American wrestler.

Trent Hidlay’s glorious Zagreb run that impressed Bo Nickal 

The NC State alum finished 5-0 in the championships, with a score of 55-15. The first two matches were unanswered tech falls, 11-0 against Redjep Hajdari of North Macedonia and 10-0 against Switzerland’s Samuel Scherrer. In the quarters, the 26-year-old conquered Miriani Maisuradze of Georgia with a 6-1 result.

The match was supposed to be airtight, as the Georgia wrestler is a two-time World Wrestling Championships medalist with a silver in the 2024 Worlds. Miriani Maisuradze is also a 4-time European medalist, and he has been having a great 2025 season, clinching the silver at the Budapest Grand Prix and a bronze at the European Championships in Bratislava.

With one challenger conquered, next up was Osman Nurmagomedov of Azerbaijan. Nurmagomedov eventually got the bronze here in Zagreb, adding to the two silvers he has won in the Grand Prix and the European Championships. However, to Hidlay he fell 15-4.

For anyone interested, Hidlay is the 2025 Grand Prix champion, US Open National champion, and Pan American champion. But it was looking like he would have to settle for silver at the Zagreb World Championships. At 2-10, the real fightback of the final began. But the true drama didn’t start until the last minute on the clock, and the score reading 5-10.

Hidlay had just come alive with a couple of takedowns and then scored a 4-point takedown winner to take him to 13. The point we are trying to make? The man is crafted for the RAF spectacle. And it would be a huge promotion for the RAF to host the World Champion. So, what happens next?