Is Conor McGregor marking out for his own gimmick?
Following yet another public outburst from Conor McGregor, Daniel Cormier asked “has this gimmick overtaken who Conor McGregor is as a person?”
One fighter who knows a thing or two about pro-wrestling and building a persona, is Chael Sonnen. He tackled Cormier’s question on his latest video, and he started off by praising McGregor’s gimmick and persona that has worked brilliantly for years.
“I have the same fear, but don’t quite have the confidence that Daniel has in labeling Conor a certain way, because I have watched him masterfully maneuver through a very tough industry,” Sonnen said.
“I’m actually watching him do his finest work right now. Do you know how hard it is to be talked about if you don’t have a fight coming up? Even if you want to fight a massive fight, if it’s not coming up you just don’t fit into the media cycle.
“If you’re Conor, you’re hurt, you’re broken, you’re in rehab — and you’re still a headline? You’re doing something very well,” he said. “I just can’t quite blame him, yet.”
While Sonnen says he’s still not sure if he can come to the same conclusions as others, he concedes that having issues outside of promoting fights is a bit concerning.
“How you stay in character is you take it from the ring, to your real life. If Hulk Hogan was to book a reservation for a restaurant, he doesn’t call up and say ‘hey table for two, Terry Bollea,’ he will book it under Hulk Hogan. He will live the gimmick,” Sonnen explained.
“If you live the gimmick and the character at all times, you can then do what Daniel is talking about, which is mark out for your own gimmick. I’m just not sure where within Conor’s schtick, he had to be a prick.
“He was aggressive towards opponents. He would show up late to his own press conference. He would make people clamor to come watch him when he was about to warm up — when he had a match for sale on pay-per-view. These were the brilliant things, these were the entertainer…
“But I can’t dismiss what Daniel Cormier said, where it does appear that there needs to be a more distinct separation between the person and the character.”
Is it painkillers making him go “out of his mind”? Is it the money that changed him? Is it the losses or even the brain trauma? Is it still even a gimmick at this point? Several people seems to have speculated about how and why McGregor has changed, but in reality, this VMA dust up isn’t even the first time he’s had a public outburst. It’s actually one of the milder ones too.
Even ignoring all the vile things that was said about Dustin Poirier’s wife and kids recently, McGregor has had numerous arrests, altercations, and very serious allegations and legal issues through the years. None of those things are due to promoting fights, nor have they just started after the recent injury and losses.