Lewis wants to go full Golddust if the WWE follows through with their interest in getting ‘The Black Beast’ into the squared circle.
Derrick Lewis is serious about working with the WWE, so long as he gets to be ridiculous while doing it.
Lewis is coming off a big third round KO of Rodrigo Nascimento in the main event of Saturday’s UFC St. Louis event. Leading into the show, he revealed that he had been in talks with WWE to work together for months. He was even supposed to visit the WWE Performance Center in Orlando, Florida.
That could still happen down the road, but MMA fans don’t have to worry about losing “The Black Beast” to wrestling.
Derrick Lewis is asked what he would want his WWE outfit to look like: You remember Goldust? Probably something like that.#UFCStLouis pic.twitter.com/Wk8HVtFiqZ
— Jed I. Goodman © (@jedigoodman) May 12, 2024
“I wouldn’t stop here at UFC, but I would like to dibble dabble in WWE,” Lewis said at the UFC St. Louis post-fight press conference. “It’s probably going to be — you remember Gold Dust? Probably something like that. As long as I get to paint my face so people don’t really know it’s me, I’m going to be a ho freak out there and be a little sassy with it.”
UFC COO Dana White gave Lewis his blessing.
“I didn’t know that, but I would do anything for Derrick Lewis,” White said at the presser. “I like Derrick Lewis a lot. Some of the fighters here have always dreamed of a WWE match or whatever it is. Yeah, I don’t have a problem with that.”
Now that the UFC and WWE exist under one corporate roof at TKO Group Holdings Inc, there’s plenty of opportunity to synergize the two companies. We’re about to start seeing UFC and WWE events going down over one weekend in the same city. Would it be that surprising to see cross-promotion that involves guest spots or an angle?
The only example we have thus far since the corporate reorganizing is Michael Chandler’s promo on Monday Night Raw calling out Conor McGregor. Despite suggesting there was more to come with WWE, “Iron Mike” hasn’t showed up on any wrestling programming since.
Normally we’re not too hot on anything that erodes the already shaky barrier between wrasslin’ and MMA. But when it comes to Derrick Lewis, we gotta admit we’re intrigued. How about you, Maniacs? Let us know what you think of “The Black Beast” wrestling in the comments below.