MMA vs Pro Wrestling

For years, Pro Wrestling has been dominated by one Global Organization, which is the juggernaut better known as the WWE. For nearly three decades, it has grown into a Global phenomenon, which has taken the World of Sports Entertainment to a whole new level. One of the important features for that, is WWE’s creation of a crop of talented, charismatic stars who have went on to become house hold names; the Hogans and Austins and the Rocks. The amount of Creativity going in to come up with good storylines and good feuds is extensive; you have a crop of writers sitting in cubicles trying to come up with good “stories”, which would captivate the imagination of the fans. Let’s be true to ourselves, how many of us didn’t do the cut-throat sign of the Undertaker, or the crotch chops made famous by D Generation X, or repeat the catch phrases of the Rock? As fans, we’ve all done that. That is why WWE has been successful in doing what they do; entertain the millions and millions (Taking a page out of the Rock’s playbook. See what I mean?) of fans Worldwide.

So what happens when another organization is successful in catching a normal fan’s attention? Some organization which doesn’t boast of being an “Entertainment” entity, but takes pride in being real. For over a decade, there has been only one organization which has been able to get onto Vince Mcmahon’s nerves; this is where Dana White has been highly successful. It is not often that Vince gives his competitors respect, or even acknowledge their existence (Remember, he acknowledged WCW’s existence, but never answered Eric Bischoff on Nitro, neither has he acknowledged TNA’s existence). Dana White is also a big fan of Vinnie Mac. He claims Vince to be the second Greatest Promoter of all time. So what happens when the two collide? This has been an interesting research for most of the Wrestling Writers and Observers, which has changed Wrestling fans into MMA fans. You can understand the gravity of the UFC influence, when you come to know that the Undertaker, or Mark Calaway, is a huge fan of MMA, and has stated in many interviews that if UFC was present when he was still a rookie, he’d go for MMA rather than pro Wrestling! Or CM Punk who even wanted to be present at a PPV, come out on National TV as the flag bearer of a UFC fighter! Or to know that Kurt Angle, the Olympic Gold medalist, wanted to try his hand in UFC, but Dana White refused a try out!

By now you’d realize the impact of UFC, and how it has bothered Vince Mcmahon, although, if you go to the Origins of the Organization, you’d be more than surprised. The first person who took UFC to unimaginable heights, when it was still relatively new, and a child in front of the then WWF, was a former WWF employee! You heard it right, that person was none other than the UFC legend, Ken Shamrock. Ken signed up with WWF after quitting UFC, but his second term in UFC took Ken Shamrock’s name and UFC’s name to unprecedented heights. Even during his first term, he became the UFC Superfight Champion, and was termed as the “World’s most dangerous man”! He main-evented many PPVs, but it wasn’t till his second term that things heated up! In ’02, Ken fought his long time nemesis, Tito Ortiz at UFC 40. This is widely considered as the most important, and the saving grace, of UFC PPVs, with nearly 150,000 buys! It was more than three times the highest buy rate till that point, and is rightly considered by many as the one fight that saved UFC! He also main-evented, and was directly responsible to the huge TV ratings, for the “Ultimate Fighter 1 Finale”. You can understand his importance by the fact that he was the very first inductee into the UFC Hall of fame!

There have been other Mixed Martial Artists who followed in Ken’s footsteps, in trying their hand in the world of pro Wrestling. Tito Ortiz made small cameos in TNA Wrestling, and the former fighter King Mo has signed a contract with the same organization, and is currently in their developmental, training to debut soon! But perhaps, the biggest name to have ever created an impact in both pro Wrestling, and in the world of MMA is the controversial Brock Lesnar!

When Lesnar quit WWE, this enraged Vince Mcmahon, and he has never created a star and gave him a direct push, like he did with Brock. It is not wrong to say that Brock is a money making machine, whether it be for WWE, or MMA. When he joined UFC, a lot of people scratched their heads, and a lot of them didn’t expect him to make it big. But when Dana immediately gave him a fight with the UFC Heavyweight Champion, a lot changed. Brock became one of the biggest draws of UFC, and obviously, Dana’s plans were working! He dragged a lot of attention and media hype, and soon became the UFC Heavyweight Champion! As expected, all did not sit well with the Vince camp, but he could do nothing. All the lawsuits didn’t help him regaining any vengeance. It looked like UFC finally was in direct competition with the WWE. Fans all over the world were rejoicing; for the first time in a decade, WWE finally had someone who could face them, albeit not directly in their field.

Things drastically changed, Lesnar became ill and had to put his UFC career on hold, to undergo a major surgery which nearly killed him. He made a comeback, but was never the same beast he was. Dana was staring down at a loss, and after losing a fight against an old opponent, Brock Lesnar decided to quit UFC. They say one man’s loss is another man’s gain. You’d realize by now that the other man is none other than Vince Mcmahon. He shelled out a lot of money to get his pride back, the one person that screwed Vince over, was back in the WWE! By the looks of things, it will only get more interesting as time passes! Who is to say this rivalry ended? You can be rest assured that these two colossal organizations will keep battling it out for power and supremacy, and in the end, the winners are us, the fans. Competition is healthy, but a brawl is entertaining!