8 Big Lessons WWE Must Learn From 2018
5. Former MMAers Are The New Former Footballers
Jim Ross' WWE legacy will always be as voice of WWE first and Vince McMahon abuse victim second, but the Hall-Of-Famer perhaps deserves his ring most for how he spearheaded the restructuring of the locker room in the mid-1990s.
Ross hasn't ever made a secret of his other love, but football and wrestling weren't ever that far from one another in his mind anyway. He liked and hired footballers and other sports stars whenever he could, and the rationale was sound - they were competitive enough to get to a certain level once before, that fire will surely burn bright again.
Wrestling's results are predetermined but the battle for position and status during the Attitude Era was as real as it got, and those that had experienced such fervor in the sports world were already well-acclimated to the atmosphere and often naturally gifted enough to adjust to the artform.
In 2018, this seemed best applied those that had traded the Octagon for the f*cking daft big red cell. Ronda Rousey and Brock Lesnar are the biggest female and male stars on the WWE roster. Shayna Baszler and Matt Riddle look the most likely from NXT to transition into similar spots.
WWE scout everywhere and anywhere to stock and staff their Performance Center, but it might be worth setting up a semi-permanent residence in Dana White's deleted messages folder instead.