By now, you’ve all heard the news: The main event of Bellator’s inaugural pay-per-view has been cancelled due to one of the headliners getting injured only one week out from the fight…again. Except this time around, Bellator isn’t simply moving the remaining card to Spike TV. Instead, Bellator is making Rampage vs. King Mo the new main event, having Michael Chandler fight Will Brooks for a completely meaningless interim lightweight title, moving Alexander Volkov vs. Blagoi Ivanov to the main card, and asking us to kindly fork over our money for this new line-up.
I hate to be pessimistic, but I really don’t think this strategy is going to end well for anyone involved.
The biggest problem with the “Alvarez vs. Chandler III-free” Bellator 120 is that there’s no hook. Every good pay-per-view has to be about something, and if “These two aging light-heavyweights used to really hate each other five years ago” is that something, it’s doubtful that too many fans are going to spend both their money and a Saturday night on it. The boom period for MMA on pay-per-view is long gone. If a new competitor is going to put on a successful pay-per-view event, it’s going to need a stronger product than UFC Lite — it’s going to need something to make it actually stand out.
So it’s in that spirit that I’ve decided to offer up a few last-minute suggestions to make Bellator 120 a more interesting card, to both the casual MMA fans and the grizzled diehards who Bellator is hoping to attract. All of these suggestions are at least a little crazy. Some are crazy enough to actually work. We’ll start off with what I feel is the most practical, then descend further into madness in no particular order…
By now, you’ve all heard the news: The main event of Bellator’s inaugural pay-per-view has been cancelled due to one of the headliners getting injured only one week out from the fight…again. Except this time around, Bellator isn’t simply moving the remaining card to Spike TV. Instead, Bellator is making Rampage vs. King Mo the new main event, having Michael Chandler fight Will Brooks for a completely meaningless interim lightweight title, moving Alexander Volkov vs. Blagoi Ivanov to the main card, and asking us to kindly fork over our money for this new line-up.
I hate to be pessimistic, but I really don’t think this strategy is going to end well for anyone involved.
The biggest problem with the “Alvarez vs. Chandler III-free” Bellator 120 is that there’s no hook. Every good pay-per-view has to be about something, and if “These two aging light-heavyweights used to really hate each other five years ago” is that something, it’s doubtful that too many fans are going to spend both their money and a Saturday night on it. The boom period for MMA on pay-per-view is long gone. If a new competitor is going to put on a successful pay-per-view event, it’s going to need a stronger product than UFC Lite — it’s going to need something to make it actually stand out.
So it’s in that spirit that I’ve decided to offer up a few last-minute suggestions to make Bellator 120 a more interesting card, to both the casual MMA fans and the grizzled diehards who Bellator is hoping to attract. All of these suggestions are at least a little crazy. Some are crazy enough to actually work. We’ll start off with what I feel is the most practical, then descend further into madness in no particular order.
Throw a One-Night Heavyweight Tournament
Tell Rampage, King Mo, Tito Ortiz and Alexander Shlemenko to forget about that pesky cut down to 205, and throw in Cheick Kongo, Eric Smith, Alexander Volkov and Blagoi Ivanov for good measure. Keep the original four fights as the opening round of the tournament, then air Michael Page vs. Rickey Rainey before the semi-finals and Michael Chandler vs. Will Brooks before the tournament championship bout.
Why It Would Work: The appeal of one-night tournaments has been obvious since the dawn of MMA (no matter what you consider that to be), and the tournament concept is consistent with everything Bellator already does. Why It Wouldn’t Work: Well, let’s ignore the fact that this season’s light-heavyweight tournament will be decided by a heavyweight bout in this scenario, and instead focus on how this tournament would guarantee that at least one division’s tournament winner will go on to earn a title shot despite coming off of a loss. Also, anyone who thinks a one-night heavyweight tournament is a fool-proof promotional strategy has clearly never heard of YAMMA Pit Fighting.
On that note…
A One Night Open-Weight Tournament
Embrace your inner-Super Hluk. You know you want to.
Why It Would Work: This is the type of spectacle that practically sells itself to the hardcore fans who remember when staying up until 7 AM to find out that Sakuraba mangled his arm seemed like something a normal human being would do. Why It Wouldn’t Work: This is also the type of spectacle that the Mississippi Athletic Commission would (presumably) frown upon.
BellaTNA: The Hybrid MMA/Professional Wrestling Card
Why It Would Work: At least TNA Impact has a built-in fan base that has demonstrated they’re willing to spend money on the company’s pay-per-view events. And besides, Bobby Lashley is currently on the TNA Roster, so there’s that, I guess. Why It Wouldn’t Work: So, you expect TNA to announce its involvement in the pay-per-view on Thursday’s edition of Impact, hope that fans actually buy it in time for Saturday, and present it to an audience that paid for a show they assumed would only feature MMA bouts? TNA has made some boneheaded business decisions, but this would be a low point even for them.
On the next page: PRIDE, boxing, and the most obvious solution of all…
The man born as Jim Hellwig — famous for wrestling as The Ultimate Warrior in the WWE during the late eighties and early nineties — died last night in Arizona. His death comes just three days after being inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame, and one day after his final appearance on “Monday Night Raw.”
Professional wrestling is an art over-saturated in hyperbole; it’s an art where every wrestler is “the biggest” and/or “the best,” every event is “the most important,” and the phrase “the most” is uttered so frequently it practically loses meaning. Yet it’s hard to overstate the popularity that The Ultimate Warrior achieved, and the influence that he has had on any wrestling fan who grew up during the late eighties and early nineties. I know it’s lazy to compare professional wrestlers to superheroes, but for millions of kids like myself, The Ultimate Warrior was as close to a real-life superhero as it got. The Ultimate Warrior’s look and in-ring style — from his heavily-muscled physique and facepaint to his energetic entrances and quick, devastating matches — were convincingly brutal, and his intense, chaotic interview style was extremely unique. His WWE feuds against “Ravishing” Rick Rude, Hulk Hogan, The Undertaker, and Jake “The Snake” Roberts were nothing short of legendary.
(Highlights of The Ultimate Warrior’s best promos. Yes, clips from the Hulk Hogan “Crash the Plane” promo are at the very end.)
The man born as Jim Hellwig — famous for wrestling as The Ultimate Warrior in the WWE during the late eighties and early nineties — died last night in Arizona at the age of 54. His death comes just three days after being inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame, and one day after his final appearance on “Monday Night Raw.”
Professional wrestling is an art over-saturated in hyperbole; it’s an art where every wrestler is “the biggest” and/or “the best,” every event is “the most important,” and the phrase “the most” is uttered so frequently it practically loses meaning. Yet it’s hard to overstate the popularity that The Ultimate Warrior achieved, and the influence that he has had on any wrestling fan who grew up during the late eighties and early nineties.
I know it’s lazy to compare professional wrestlers to superheroes, but for millions of kids like myself, The Ultimate Warrior was as close to a real-life superhero as it got. The Ultimate Warrior’s look and in-ring style — from his heavily-muscled physique and facepaint to his energetic entrances and quick, devastating matches — were convincingly brutal, and his intense, chaotic interview style was extremely unique. His WWE feuds against “Ravishing” Rick Rude, Hulk Hogan, The Undertaker, and Jake “The Snake” Roberts were nothing short of legendary.
(Highlights of The Ultimate Warrior’s best promos. Yes, clips from the Hulk Hogan “Crash the Plane” promo are at the very end.)
As big of a star as The Ultimate Warrior was, his career could have been even bigger if it weren’t for his shaky, mercurial relationship with WWE owner Vince McMahon. There were his numerous departures from the WWE. There was tension over Jim Hellwig legally changing his name to the mononym “Warrior” and suing for the rights to his character (which he eventually won, by the way). There’s been Warrior’s refusal to work with the WWE on a career retrospective DVD, which lead the WWE to turn the project into The Self Destruction of The Ultimate Warrior; not to spoil it for you, but Warrior’s portrayal is less-than-flattering. And, of course, there were Warrior’s stints in WCW (as well as their cheap Warrior knockoff, The Renegade) and in Nu-Wrestling Evolution — the less said about those, the better.
But time has a way of healing all wounds, and The Ultimate Warrior would make amends with the WWE shortly before his death. Warrior is a playable character in WWE2K14, was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame merely four days ago, and made one final appearance on “Monday Night Raw” the night before his death. In retrospect, the speech he gave on Raw was haunting: The Warrior essentially gave his own eulogy.
“No WWE talent becomes a legend on their own. Every man’s heart one day beats its final beat. His lungs breathe a final breath. And if what that man did in his life makes the blood pulse through the body of others, and makes them bleed deeper and something larger than life, then his essence, his spirit, will be immortalized. By the storytellers, by the loyalty, by the memory of those who honor him and make the running the man did live forever. You, you, you, you, you, you are the legend-makers of Ultimate Warrior. In the back, I see many potential legends. Some of them with warrior spirits. And you will do the same for them. You will decide if they lived with the passion and intensity. So much so that you will tell your stories and you will make them legends, as well. I am Ultimate Warrior. You are the Ultimate Warrior fans. And the spirit of Ultimate Warrior will run forever!”
Warrior is survived by his wife, Dana, and his two daughters. Feel free to share your favorite Ultimate Warrior memories in the comments section.
But can we please talk about how Brock Lesnar snapped The Undertaker’s undefeated Wrestlemania streak at Sunday night’s Wrestlemania XXX at 21 straight Wrestlemania victories? Because holy shit, Brock Lesnar snapped The Undertaker’s undefeated Wrestlemania streak, and I’d really like to talk about it.
(Your reaction. Enjoy it before it gets taken down.)
But can we please talk about how Brock Lesnar snapped The Undertaker’s undefeated Wrestlemania streak at Sunday night’s Wrestlemania XXX at 21 straight Wrestlemania victories? Because holy shit, Brock Lesnar snapped The Undertaker’s undefeated Wrestlemania streak, and I’d really like to talk about it.
I probably don’t speak for the majority of fans when I write that I was getting pretty sick of The Streak. It was next to impossible to get excited about his Wrestlemania matches when everyone already knew the routine: ‘Taker kicks out of his opponent’s finisher a few times, hits the tombstone, roll credits. (The irony of wrestling fans complaining about predictable booking, then celebrating The Streak wasn’t lost on me, either.) And let’s face it, if The Undertaker won on Sunday night after spending the overwhelming majority of the match on his back, it would have felt cheap.
So then why am I writing yet another article about what a company that sells choreographed “fights” experiencing some of its lowest viewership numbers can teach the UFC? Because the WWE’s idea of “terrible numbers” involves only averaging 3.53 million viewers. To put that into perspective, the TUF 18 Finale main card drew 1.129 million viewers. That’s right, the WWE is in panic mode because their weekly Monday night show only attracted three times as many viewers as a UFC event.
Don’t worry, I’m not about to suggest that the UFC resort to ridiculous storylines, assigning character gimmicks to fighters, forcing celebrity guests into shows, forming an ill-advised partnership with a dying pro-wrestling promotion, or any of the other things that would make most MMA fans roll their eyes. Nor am I going to ignorantly blame the UFC for less than spectacular fights, controversial finishes, and other things that a legitimate sports league cannot possibly be expected to control. On the contrary, my first suggestion is something that the UFC actually used to do better than the WWE…
(On second thought, make that seven things. Photo via With Leather.)
So then why am I writing yet another article about what a company that sells choreographed “fights” experiencing some of its lowest viewership numbers can teach the UFC? Because the WWE’s idea of “terrible numbers” involves only averaging 3.53 million viewers. To put that into perspective, the TUF 18 Finale main card drew 1.129 million viewers. That’s right, the WWE is in panic mode because their weekly Monday night show only attracted three times as many viewers as a UFC event.
Don’t worry, I’m not about to suggest that the UFC resort to ridiculous storylines, assigning character gimmicks to fighters, forcing celebrity guests into shows, forming an ill-advised partnership with a dying pro-wrestling promotion, or any of the other things that would make most MMA fans roll their eyes. Nor am I going to ignorantly blame the UFC for less than spectacular fights, controversial finishes, and other things that a legitimate sports league cannot possibly be expected to control. On the contrary, my first suggestion is something that the UFC actually used to do better than the WWE…
Put Over Your Talent Instead of Expecting it to Just Happen
There was a time not too long ago when I would have told you with a straight face that the UFC was better at creating stars out of its roster than the WWE could ever dream of being, simply because they could turn even the most boring personalities like Georges St. Pierre and Matt Hughes into intriguing fighters. Yet these days, I honestly wouldn’t be able to pick Hyun Gyu Lim out of a line-up, despite the facts that he holds two brutal knockout victories in the organization and is about to headline an upcoming card. The UFC’s new formula for getting fans to invest themselves into a fighter is basically “let’s hope everyone magically decides to follow a winning fighter’s career,” despite how poorly that strategy has been working.
No matter how hard we try to pretend we’re above valuing emotional investment in a fighter’s personality over said fighter’s actual accomplishments, the numbers that Jon Jones, Renan Barao, Benson Henderson and Demetrious Johnson bring in don’t lie; you can’t just say “these guys are good fighters” and expect most fans to care. I’m in no way suggesting that the gimmicks that Vince McMahon uses to promote his wrestlers should be used by an MMA organization, but is it too much to ask for a little more than “these two are about to fight, try to remember who wins three months from now”? Get back to demonstrating why fans should be so excited about a debuting fighter, and give them a few details about his/her life outside of the cage that they might find interesting. If the UFC gets back to treating the new athletes like people the fans should care about, then who knows, maybe the fans will react accordingly.
Establish An Official Minor League
The UFC faces an interesting dilemma: On one hand, they’re supposed to be the premier MMA organization, reserved for only the absolute best fighters. On the other hand, they’re also expanding internationally, and need warm bodies to fill all of the upcoming fight cards, regardless of whether or not these fighters even have Wikipedia pages. So far, the solution to this problem has been to make Fight Night cards the proverbial “one-fight cards” that Dana White said he’d never promote, and viewership has tanked to the point where a strong-ish World Series of Fighting show can outdraw a UFC Fight Night.
So if UFC Fight Night cards are already essentially minor league cards, then why not give the program the full WWE NXT treatment and designate Fight Night as the promotion’s official minor league? It can be the UFC’s way to continue its international expansion while also giving the locals being signed to fill the cards some extra time to develop their skills, the same way that the WWE makes even respected indie veterans like El Generico andSamuray del Sol prove themselves in NXT before getting a shot on the WWE’s main programs.
Sure, Fight Night will continue to draw relatively weak ratings – the same way that TNA Impact! Wrestling can actually compete against NXT – but is it really worth weakening the drawing power of the UFC brand just to continue to pretend these Fight Night cards feature UFC caliber fighters? It wasn’t too long ago when all I needed to do to convince my friends that a fight card was worth caring about was tell them that it was a UFC event. Those days are long gone, and that’s largely due to how weak these Fight Night events have become.
Pull the Plug on The Ultimate Fighter
When Tough Enough both lost the fans’ interest and failed to keep finding wrestlers the WWE could actually use, Vince McMahon pulled the plug. So, um, what exactly are you waiting for, guys?
Give PPVs a Proper Build-Up
The biggest gripe that my professional wrestling friends have against watching the UFC is that there is never any logical correlation between events. One day, they’ll catch a commercial for a heavyweight fight, then the next day it’s flyweights, and then the next day they’re being asked to pay for a rematch between Anderson Silva and Chris Weidman, with no explanation for how these fights are related except for the fact that they’re all UFC fights. Tempting as it may be to dismiss this as professional wrestling fanboy talk, all of them are NFL fans, because the season logically progresses to them: Sixteen games to determine which teams make the tournament for the championship, followed by said tournament and championship game.
What if the UFC instead booked shows so that the main events would have a clear featured weight class each month, with the monthly PPV featuring the title fight? Instead of booking Machida, Kennedy, and Belfort as the build-up for a fight between Georges St. Pierre and Johny Hendricks, why not book them as the build-up for Weidman vs. Silva II? Even the dimmest fans can then see how the free cards built up to the PPV: You’d have two free cards where Kennedy and Machida establish themselves in the middleweight division currently controlled by Chris Weidman – who will be defending his title on PPV against Anderson Silva, and it will be awesome – a free card featuring top middleweight Vitor Belfort keeping active while waiting for the Chris Weidman to defend his title on PPV against Anderson Silva, which will be awesome, and then the actual fight that pretty much everything that happened this month built up to.
Granted, injuries make this all but impossible to stick with, but when all goes according to plan, it’ll be easier to get the casual fans excited about dropping sixty bucks on a pay-per-view card. Of course…
One-Fight Cards – No Matter How Strong the Build-Up – Are Not Worth Paying For
I probably just launched one thousand “BUT THE FIGHTS ARE STILL GOOD JUST BECAUSE YOU DON’T KNOW WHO THE FIGHTERS ARE SO WHY DOES IT MATTER?!” rants in the comments section – as well as another “Don’t say it sucks until after the event” rant from Dana White – but there is no way I’m wasting both my money and my Saturday on a card featuring one fight that I care about.
As with anything else, if all I want is “good,” then I’ll gladly accept the cheaper alternative. If I only want to watch a “good” football game, I’ll buy tickets to The New Orleans Bowl instead of The New Orleans Saints. If all I want is “good” food, I’ll buy fast food instead of fine dining. And if all I want to watch are “good” fights, I’ll spend twenty bucks on tickets to a local amateur MMA event, where I’ll get plenty of “good” fights between guys I vaguely recognize from local gyms. Vince McMahon understands that he can’t charge money for Brock Lesnar vs. John Cena if his supporting cast is Zach Ryder, Tensai, The Brooklyn Brawler, andDyn-O-mite, because there are enough “good” matches coming from indie wrestling organizations to give his viewers worthy alternatives. It’s time for the UFC to acknowledge that my second-best option no longer involves driving thirty miles to rent a bootlegged King of the Cage DVD that I’ve already seen four times.
Make Your Subscription Based Digital Networks Actually Worth Owning
So, can we talk about that hilarious “UFC Digital Network” for a minute? Because I’d like to formally ask if anyone on the planet is dumb enough to buy that thing. I’m not sure how much the UFC thinks I’m willing to pay for “Not even basic cable worthy” UFC cards, but anything over $0.00 is pushing the limits of reality for me.
– Every single episode of Raw, Smackdown, and every pay-per-view the company ever recorded.
– Every future pay-per-view except for future Wrestlemania events.
– However, as a reward for purchasing a six month subscription, Wrestlemania 30 will be included as well.
There aren’t enough TUF outtakes, NSFW-ish ring girl videos, and Mean Gene Helwani interviews in existence to make the UFC network comparable to the WWE network, and the WWE network isn’t making you flip between two separate apps in order to access it.
Al Bundy, your reaction please:
If you’re going to charge money for a service, make sure you’re providing more than what I can already legally get for free from your rivals. Asking me to pay for the caliber of fighters I can easily find in Bellator and World Series of Fighting for free? Don’t care, not happening.
Coincidentally, it was at this point in the history of professional wrestling – once the novelty started wearing off and the casual fans lost interest – that promoters decided to drift away from legitimate competition. The UFC doesn’t have to follow directly in professional wrestling’s footsteps in order to learn from its history. Vince McMahon may promote an entirely different product, but that doesn’t mean he has nothing to offer our sport.
(See, Viacom? There ARE some things that are too stupid for pro-wrestling fans to watch.)
Remember when we told you guys on Sunday that Bellator is going through some hard times before its (extremely misguided) inaugural PPV? Well, with a brand new episode of TNA Impact scheduled to air tonight, we decided to look into how Viacom’s other promotion is doing. Try not to act too surprised, but here’s the short version of the story:
Believe it or not, the professional wrestling outfit that’s been repackaged as an infomercial for an MMA PPV that no one cares about is in some pretty dire straights. Over the course of the past year, TNA Impact has been making some drastic budget cuts, which have included firing numerous young prospects and veteran wrestlers alike (leading to somehilarioussatiricalstories from Kayfabe News). Okay, no problem with trimming the fat, right? Well, once main players in the company start getting cut, it’s not exactly a good sign. Follow us after the jump, and we’ll explain…
(See, Viacom? There ARE some things that are too stupid for pro-wrestling fans to watch.)
Remember when we told you guys on Sunday that Bellator is going through some hard times before its (extremely misguided) inaugural PPV? Well, with a brand new episode of TNA Impact scheduled to air tonight, we decided to look into how Viacom’s other promotion is doing. Try not to act too surprised, but here’s the short version of the story:
Believe it or not, the professional wrestling outfit that’s been repackaged as an infomercial for an MMA PPV that no one cares about is in some pretty dire straights. Over the course of the past year, TNA Impact has been making some drastic budget cuts, which have included firing numerous young prospects and veteran wrestlers alike (leading to somehilarioussatiricalstories from Kayfabe News). Okay, no problem with trimming the fat, right? Well, once main players in the company start getting cut, it’s not exactly a good sign.
Two weeks ago, TNA Impact actually had to fire Hulk Hogan as a cost cutting measure. On the surface, Hogan’s dismissal from the company has been long overdue — he’s an overpaid sixty year old being used as an on-air authority figure because he physically can’t wrestle anymore. But for TNA Impact to finally part ways with the guy? Brother, that’d be like Dana White firing Chuck Liddell from his vaguely-defined job; even though it would make sense financially, it would never happen unless the company was circling the drain.
To make matters worse, the promotion’s first show without Hulk Hogan since 2009 only managed to bring in only 1.08 million viewers last Thursday, which is nearly an all-time low for the promotion. To put that into perspective, more people watched a midnight rerun of Pawn Stars than TNA Impact. But they did manage to pull in a few more viewers than an American Dad rerun that aired at 1:30 in the morning, so that’s a plus, I guess.
I’m not writing that the situation is hopeless, but I am writing that it may very well be hopeless if Bellator’s pay-per-view flops. Viacom has invested the futures of both promotions into this card. If it doesn’t end well, it’ll take more than Tim Sylvia to fix the ensuing fiasco.
For some MMA fighters, professional wrestling was just a one-time cash grab. For others, it became a second career. Inspired by yet another week of TNA Impact Wrestling’s efforts to get anyone to care about the professional wrestling experiments of two broken-down MMA legends, we’ll be examining fighters who took up professional wrestling after they made their names in MMA in our newest installment of The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly.
Bear in mind that this article is focusing on mixed martial artists who transitioned to professional wrestling careers, and not fighters who started off as professional wrestlers. So that means fighters like Brock Lesnar, Ken Shamrock, Bobby Lashley, Giant Silva, Bob Sapp, Dos Caras Jr. (aka Alberto Del Rio), Dan Severn (Google it) and Sakuraba will not be covered here — although a few of these men will make appearances in this article. Let’s start off on a positive note…
The Good
The Professional Wrestling Career of Josh Barnett.
When you’re thinking of good instances of an MMA fighter turning to professional wrestling as a second career choice, Josh Barnett should immediately come to mind. There have been other fighters who dabbled in professional wrestling, but Barnett is one of the only ones to be just as popular and successful in it as he was in MMA.
Before his transition, Barnett became the youngest heavyweight champion in UFC history by defeating Randy Couture at UFC 36. After being stripped of his title due to a positive drug test, Barnett set his sights on the Japanese professional wrestling scene, where the fans value legitimacy and toughness from their wrestlers more than mic skills and charisma (although Barnett has both in spades). He immediately challenged for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship, and although he came up short, he went on to enjoy the most relevant crossover career of any fighter on this list before his return to the UFC earlier this year put a halt to the wrasslin’ for the time being.
For some MMA fighters, professional wrestling was just a one-time cash grab. For others, it became a second career. Inspired by yet another week of TNA Impact Wrestling’s efforts to get anyone to care about the professional wrestling experiments of two broken-down MMA legends, we’ll be examining fighters who took up professional wrestling after they made their names in MMA in our newest installment of The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly.
Bear in mind that this article is focusing on mixed martial artists who transitioned to professional wrestling careers, and not fighters who started off as professional wrestlers. So that means fighters like Brock Lesnar, Ken Shamrock, Bobby Lashley, Giant Silva, Bob Sapp, Dos Caras Jr. (aka Alberto Del Rio), Dan Severn (Google it) and Sakuraba will not be covered here — although a few of these men will make appearances in this article. Let’s start off on a positive note…
The Good
The Professional Wrestling Career of Josh Barnett.
When you’re thinking of good instances of an MMA fighter turning to professional wrestling as a second career choice, Josh Barnett should immediately come to mind. There have been other fighters who dabbled in professional wrestling, but Barnett is one of the only ones to be just as popular and successful in it as he was in MMA.
Before his transition, Barnett became the youngest heavyweight champion in UFC history by defeating Randy Couture at UFC 36. After being stripped of his title due to a positive drug test, Barnett set his sights on the Japanese professional wrestling scene, where the fans value legitimacy and toughness from their wrestlers more than mic skills and charisma (although Barnett has both in spades). He immediately challenged for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship, and although he came up short, he went on to enjoy the most relevant crossover career of any fighter on this list before his return to the UFC earlier this year put a halt to the wrasslin’ for the time being.
With Frye’s “rematch” against Yoshihiro Takayama being one of the few exceptions, the professional wrestling careers of Don Frye and Bas Rutten have been exactly what you’d expect them to be. If I need to explain why that’s a good thing, you’reobviouslynewhere.
The Polar Bear Fights Taz at ECW Hardcore Heaven.
(Enjoy the video while it lasts. Seriously, WWE’s lawyers will probably have it taken down soon.)
By 1996, a stocky, Brooklyn-born judoka by the name of Peter Senercia — better known as Taz — was one of the most talented, respected wrestlers on the independent circuit. Dubbed “The Human Suplex Machine,” Taz brawled his way through most of the ECW roster and was looking to take on some credible new opponents. This led to a problem for ECW owner Paul Heyman: Despite its success among hardcore wrestling fans, ECW was still very much an independent promotion that couldn’t afford to bring in established wrestlers just to job to one of their top stars. Always one to embrace new ideas, Heyman solved this dilemma by bringing Paul “The Polar Bear” Varelans in from the upstart Ultimate Fighting Championship to challenge Taz to a “real” fight at Hardcore Heaven.
At 6’8” tall and tipping the scales at 300 pounds, Varelans was the perfect fighter for Heyman to utilize. He was big enough to be seen as a formidable opponent, but his MMA record wasn’t too impressive for anyone to buy that Taz could actually beat him. The strong-style nature of the match hid The Polar Bear’s lack of professional wrestling training, yet also wasn’t out of place in ECW — especially not while Taz was in the ring. And while Taz obviously won the fight, he relied on outside interference. Having heels bend the rules in order to defeat larger, more skilled opponents is not only a common way to generate heat, but it also makes the ending more realistic in the eyes of the ECW fans who were familiar with those early UFC events. Well, at least as realistic as a fight that ends by Tazmission after an outsider dropkicks one of the fighters can look, I guess (work with me, people). Basically, everyone involved benefited from the situation and the fans actually cared about the angle — something that rarely happens when MMA fighters infiltrate the world of professional wrestling.
Bonus: According to wrestling legend, it was Taz who brought tapping out to professional wrestling. Taz was a huge Royce Gracie fan, and thought it would be more authentic if wrestlers tapped out at the end of their matches instead of just verbally submitting. If you think wrestling looks fake now, just imagine what it looked like when wrestlers verbally submitted to choke holds.
Brian Johnson Reinvents Himself in Japan
I’m willing to bet that, like most MMA fans, you’ve all but forgotten about Brian Johnson — the man who punched out a hapless Reza Nasri in under 30 seconds at UFC 11 before being emphatically tackled by Big John McCarthy. In terms of his real fighting career, you didn’t miss much — Johnson retired barely one year after he started fighting and lost to everyone he’s fought that you’ve heard of. However, with few other career options available for hulking spandex-clad athletes, Johnson turned to fake fighting and quickly excelled at it. He enjoyed success as a tag-team wrestler, pairing up with guys like Don Frye and Kazuyuki Fujita in the Japanese professional wrestling circuit.
Unfortunately, Johnson’s professional wrestling career would eventually serve as a brutal reminder that even though the fights are fake, the injuries that plague wrestlers are all too real. A series of concussions led him to retire in early 2001, and later that year, at only thirty-two years old, he would suffer a severe stroke. Though Johnson is alive and well today, he has wisely stayed away from the squared circle.
Hit that “next page” link for god awful gimmicks, the career that should have been, and the partnership that never should have…
