UFC’s Joe Rogan takes a jab at WWE and pro wrestling fans

Joe Rogan blasts professional wrestling and the wrestling fans

If you thought MMA and professional wrestling can’t even be mentioned in the same sentence, then MMA personality and UFC’s announcer, Joe Rogan took it up a notch with a scathing attack on professional wrestling, and the fans of the business. There is no love lost between the UFC’s commentator and the professional wrestling business, as he laid into the industry and had some harsh words for the fans of the scripted sport.

“You know what else would stun that audience? A simple card trick. It’s all planned out, it’s obvious. [Wresting] is some weird, *expletive* thing that strange guys do, sit in front of the TV and pretend they don’t know it’s fake. You’re pretending. You don’t want to know. You shut that part of your brain off. I’d watch lions killing gazelles on television because that’s real. I need real. I can’t get entertained by fake. When you watch Game of Thrones and you watch a guy get his head cut off, you know what it looks like? It looks like a guy actually getting his head cut off. It looks real. When I watch wrestling, and I see a guy get hit and go, ‘UGH!’ and turn to the crowd, I know that’s bullsh*t. It’s offensive to me.”

Some of the MMA fans have been vocal against WWE and professional wrestling, but there are those who manage to understand the differences between a real fight and a male soap opera. Although professional wrestling is a ‘scripted’ sport, neither the fans nor the independent/global organizations ever go out of their way to claim themselves to be legitimate.

The wrestling fans claim that when someone can appreciate and sit through a movie, even though they can guess the plot and the ending, then they shouldn’t bash an industry which more or less focuses on the art of wrestling. Also, we cannot forget the fact that someone like Brock Lesnar, who competed first in the WWE managed to climb to the top in the world of Mixed Martial Arts, when he won the UFC Heavyweight championship of the world.

This isn’t the first time that someone from the world of MMA has bashed professional wrestling, but there have been others from the world of MMA who have contrasting views from that of Joe Rogan’s. Former Strikeforce Light Heavyweight champion, Muhammed “King Mo” Lawal recently spoke about how professional wrestling is actually tougher than MMA.

“Pro wrestling is harder than MMA. Here’s the reason why, in MMA I can avoid damage. I can circle, I can pull guard, I can take you down, I can push you to the cage, hell I can tap, I can verbally give up. In pro wrestling I’ve seen guys tear their ACL and continue to wrestle solely to please the crowd. You know regardless of what happens, the show must go on. You go out there, people are out there at one point they were wrestling like three times a week, four times a week. You know Hulk Hogan’s leg drop shrunk his spine, but guess what, he was still doing it. You know, your body is banged up, you’re taking bumps, you’re flying over ropes, through the ropes, hitting the ropes, hitting the turnbuckle, getting body slammed, taking a bump. You know that stuff breaks your body down, and you could ask any wrestler, you get a wrestler that’s 47 years old and you get an MMA fighter that’s 47 years old, the wrestler’s going to look like he’s sixty compared to an MMA fighter. You get Randy Couture and compare him to someone like the Undertaker, I know Undertaker’s a little older but I guarantee you the Undertaker at 47, 48 years old was far more beat up then what Randy Couture was.”

In any case, Rogan’s words will add fuel to the fire regarding MMA fans looking down upon professional wrestling fans and the entire industry. Although everyone is entitled to their own opinion, Joe Rogan verbally bashing the entire industry and the fans that support the business might not have been the smartest thing to do. Will anyone stand up for the wrestling business? It will be interesting to see if the WWE or anyone from the industry responds to Rogan and the MMA fans who claim wrestling to be ‘fake’. One thing is for sure, the MMA vs. pro wrestling debate is far from over!