Presently, Brock Lesnars main event mystique boils down to two main factors. 1) MMA is hot right now and Lesnar is a former UFC World Champion And 2) Nostalgia is good for business right now and Attitude Era fans remember Lesnar from his days pummelling The Rock and co in ill-conceived squash jobs, which earns him bonus points as a badass in the watered down PG Era of the companys output. However, as long time fans will remember, WWE promoted a former UFC Champion long before Lesnar even debuted. Nicknamed The Worlds Most Dangerous Man, Ken Shamrock was as legit as they come and a badass to the very core. Shamrock had actually worked as a pro wrestler before entering the world of MMA, but his WWE career began in earnest when he refereed the (masterful) Bret Hart vs. Stone Cold match at WrestleMania XIII. For a while at least, Vince McMahon was definitely high on Shamrock, with the former UFC Champ getting heavy TV exposure, cool entrance music and regular upper/mid card main event spots. Most famously, he feuded with (at the time) up and coming star The Rock, won the Intercontinental Championship a couple of times and was even crowned as 1998s King of the Ring, all surefire signs that Shamrock was being groomed for a run with the WWE Championship. Somewhere down the line though, his push faltered and Steve Austin emerged as wrestlings ultimate badass, rule-breaking champion, effectively limiting Shamrocks appeal. Following his departure from the WWE, Shamrock was crowned NWA Worlds Heavyweight Champion by TNA, signalling that he was still a bankable name. Today, with the focus on Lesnar and other MMA fighters in pro wrestling being tighter than ever before, there has to be a place for a man that was undeniably one of the greatest MMA fighters of all time. Hows this for a fantasy booking idea: Ken Shamrock returns for one night only to challenge Brock Lesnar for the WWE Championship, he loses, but spends the next few weeks of RAW training Roman Reigns for his big WrestleMania matchup? This would add legitimacy to Reigns in the eyes of the fans and also credibly allow him to dethrone the man that has been sold to the WWE faithful as an indestructible (if perennially absent) force over the last few months of WWE programming. Ken Shamrock was an excellent wrestler and his influence can still be felt in pro wrestling to this day (where do you think WWE adopted tapping out from? And also, who initially popularized the Ankle Lock as a devastating submission manoeuvre?), he could still be a force to be reckoned with in WWE, if not as a performer, then definitely as an on-air personality. Shamrocks talent, legitimacy and raw, unmatched aggression were a contributing factor to WWEs ratings turnaround and his contributions deserve to be respected and remembered.
I am a professional author and lifelong comic books/pro wrestling fan. I also work as a journalist as well as writing comic books (I also draw), screenplays, stage plays, songs and prose fiction.
I don't generally read or reply to comments here on What Culture (too many trolls!), but if you follow my Twitter (@heyquicksilver), I'll talk to you all day long!
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I also write for FLiCK http://www.flickonline.co.uk/flicktion, which is the best place to read my fiction work.
Oh yeah - I'm about to become a Dad for the first time, so if my stuff seems more sentimental than usual - blame it on that!
Finally, I sincerely appreciate every single read I get. So if you're reading this, thank you, you've made me feel like Shakespeare for a day! (see what I mean?)
Latcho Drom,
- CQ
