9 Ways WWE Owes A Debt To UFC

One of the ongoing effects that the popularity of mixed martial arts has had on WWE storytelling is a little more subtle, but far more alarming and wide-ranging.

It’s the emphasis of MMA in WWE, and it’s been going on for years without anyone really realising it.

You’ll have heard Jim Ross, in particular, listing the pre-WWE athletic credentials of certain WWE performers while at the announcer’s desk, citing the amateur wrestling careers of people like Jack Swagger and Dolph Ziggler.

It’s something that’s done with worked experience, too: CM Punk’s fake Muay Thai experience was lauded upon his debut in WWECW in 2006, and Wade Barrett’s bare knuckle boxing career was so thoroughly set up in interviews and biographical information that there are still thousands of fans worldwide that believe that it’s real.

Of course, until very recently WWE had a blanket policy of refusing to acknowledge a performer’s prior professional wrestling experience and accolades. If it was referenced at all, it would be with a condescending sneer, such as the many occasions when CM Punk and Daniel Bryan were contemptuously referred to as ‘internet darlings’.

The problem, of course, is that within the television storylines and the continuity they generate, the WWE is a professional fighting league the equal of the UFC.

Within the context of those storylines, someone with a dozen years of worked WWE experience - like John Cena at Extreme Rules in 2012 - should be treated as senior to someone like Brock Lesnar, who in 2012 had five years pro wrestling experience and eight MMA fights over a four-and-a-half year period.

The WWE’s insistence on emphasising real and worked mixed martial arts credentials - Muay Thai, BJJ, collegiate wrestling, etc etc - of their stars over their pro wrestling experience simply makes the WWE itself look weaker by comparison.

In kayfabe terms, Brock Lesnar’s UFC Heavyweight Championship isn’t any bigger a deal than the WWE World Heavyweight Championship, yet it’s consistently mentioned with far more reverence on WWE television.

Similarly, Ronda Rousey fronting up to the Authority with The Rock at WrestleMania 31 was loudly proclaimed by Dwayne Johnson to be the WrestleMania ‘moment’ of the night, and Triple H bumped out of the ring for her improvised judo throw like he’d been shot out of a cannon.

One of Vince McMahon’s main criteria for pushing a WWE performer is if he believes that they look like they could win a fight. Back in 1998, ‘Stone Cold’ was booked to appear to be on the same level as Mike ‘baddest man on the planet’ Tyson.

Well, now the goalposts have shifted: mixed martial artists are officially the baddest men and women on the planet, and thanks to the company’s insistence on bigging up these shooters over their own stars, the worked hardcases of the WWE are looking pretty weedy in comparison.