Austin would love to see UFC fighters test themselves in the WWE ring, and he had two guys in mind if cross overs start happening.
It’s a new era now that UFC and WWE have merged under the TKO banner. The walls that existed between mixed martial arts and sports entertainment are coming down fast, and who knows what crazy crossover experiments await us in the future.
UFC lightweight Michael Chandler’s appeared on Monday Night Raw to call out Conor McGregor, fueling speculation that the two could engage in some sort of promotional feud leading up to WrestleMania. What that would look like isn’t clear, but it’d be insane to do without an actual real MMA fight date set, so whatever gets us to that.
Or maybe Chandler is just going to cross over and compete in pro wrestling until the McGregor situation shakes out. If so, we can’t imagine he’ll be the only UFC fighter to do it. Opinion is divided amongst WWE superstars as to whether MMA fighters have what it takes to step into the squared circle. But legend Stone Cold Steve Austin has a few guys he thinks would be a good fit.
“Stone Cold” Steve Austin thinks two UFC fighters could cross over successfully into WWE. His answers may or may not surprise you pic.twitter.com/7XrCzbl9Qh
— Marc Raimondi (@marcraimondi) February 20, 2024
“If I’m going right now, I’m going Sean Strickland,” Austin said in an interview with ESPN. “I like Sean Strickland. Boy, he stays economical in the Octagon. But what a promo!”
“Then I go Colby Covington. All the trash talk talk, all the athletic ability. Guy never runs out of gas, he’s always in shape. Talks a mean streak and can back it up. He’s very exciting, he has that X factor that you always look for. He’s double tough.”
A week ago, all of this would have been purely hypothetical. Nothing but a fun thought experiment! Now it feels all much more possible, and we don’t know how to feel about that. Things could get silly real fast. But on the other hand, the UFC has been doing things the same way for so long that a dose of something different might be just what we need.
Let’s see how this Chandler situation plays out. And if Stone Cold wants to take Colby Covington off our hands for a while, that’s cool too.