10 Reasons Conor McGregor Would Become WWE's Franchise Player
6. Star Quality
The likes of The Rock, Hulk Hogan, and Steve Austin didn’t become franchise players on their wrestling and microphone skills alone. It takes the intangible “it” factor to become the industry's top guy, and an ability to captivate and hold a crowd’s attention that transcends everything else. A franchise player must effortlessly pull you out of real life and draw you into their story, and their name alone should be enough to get you excited about a show.
Such star quality is increasingly rare in wrestling, but McGregor has it in droves. The guy’s obviously one of the most exciting fighters in MMA, but he’s an electric presence and a born celebrity. His cult is so strong that he came out of a potentially devastating loss to Nate Diaz and broke his own PPV record: McGregor is a freight train, and nothing can derail his momentum.
There’s nobody on WWE’s roster that comes close to the guy in terms of creating buzz. He carries himself like a rockstar, and his mere presence transforms press conference from bland promotional affairs to must-see events. If anybody in modern sports possesses the ever-elusive “X factor,” it’s Conor McGregor, who has become a bigger celebrity than anyone else in MMA history.
If he can do that in the stoic, competition-focused UFC environment, imagine what he can do in sports entertainment...