5 WWE Wrestlers Who Dabbled In MMA

3. Sean O'Haire

Sean Ohaire Mma Remember Sean O'Haire? Remember Chuck Palumbo and Sean O'Haire, otherwise known as just Palumbo and O'Haire? The championship tag team came over from WCW when the WWE picked it up in the early 2000s, debuting in June 2001 and attacking the Hardy Boyz. They would eventually lose their belts to the Brothers of Destruction (The Undertaker and Kane). Despite being a promising tag team, like most things not created internally in WWE-land, they didn't get much of a push and were soon split up. Palumbo would go on to have a storyline where he was potentially gay (I guess this was the company's approach to modernizing, so lets just forget that whole damn embarrassing angle), and O'Haire, who had the look of a bona fide superstar, was sent down to OVW, then re-packaged. His new gimmick, starting out in 2003, had O'Haire as a devil's advocate character who would tempt other wrestlers (and the audience) into sinning or committing acts they normally wouldn't. He had a sleek look (tatts, trenchcoat), and wound up being mentored by Roddy Piper. However, when Pipper was let go by the promotion, O'Haire's devil's advocate found himself in purgatory, and after a motorcycle crash and time off to mend, he was released from the WWE. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yqNX9JQlnvs It was after this, starting in 2004, that O'Haire began to focus on MMA. Winning his debut fight against Tony Towers via guillotine, O'Haire would go on to fight Butterbean at Pride 32, being dropped and TKO'd with punches. O'Haire would compile an official record of 4-2 in MMA between 2004-2007, however in recent years he's been more noted for the wrong kind of fights - domestic disputes. His twitter, however, hinted at a wrestling comeback last year, but there's been no activity there in recent months. Now in his early 40s, it's far too late for an MMA run, but who knows about a comeback in the pro wrestling ring, at least in smaller promotions.
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Primarily covering the sport of MMA from Ontario, Canada, Jay Anderson has been writing for various publications covering sports, technology, and pop culture since 2001. Jay holds an Honours Bachelor of Arts degree in English from the University of Guelph, and a Certificate in Leadership Skills from Humber College.