The Future of 'The Beast'

Brock Lesnar. Right now he’s the WWE world heavyweight champion. Come Monday 30 March that probably won’t be the case. Because that’s the night after WrestleMania 31 and if Lesnar doesn’t lose the title before he’ll definitely lose it on that show.

There are two main reasons for this. First is that last year Lesnar ended The Undertaker’s WrestleMania winning streak. That’s a winning streak that consisted of twenty-one victories over a variety of names, compiled over twenty-three years. Since at least 2008, though arguably several years earlier, The Undertaker’s annual defence of his undefeated status had been one of the major selling points of the show.

Lesnar being the man to defeat ‘The Phenom’ was a big deal. The next person to beat Lesnar will be elevated by the victory. They’ll not only be beating a big star they’ll be pinning the man who ended The Streak, the man who beat the man. The longer this chain becomes the less impact it will have but that’s not important here. Whoever beats Lesnar next gets a significant boost, and if he’s the champion come WrestleMania he’ll be in a position to give that boost at the biggest WWE show of the year, ensuring a huge number of people are watching and bolstering ‘Mania’s status as the premier event of the company.

Secondly, and far more mundanely, Lesnar’s contract expires shortly after WrestleMania. Nobody outside of the company knows exactly when but it’s known that Lesnar signed a two year extension in 2013 that runs through WrestleMania 31. It’s presumed to include the following evening’s RAW too, because post-‘Mania RAWs have become pretty big deals too in recent years.

What will this guy be doing in April?

It’s been impossible to miss the talk of Lesnar’s contract. There have been reports of MMA outfits UFC and Bellator (who, just for laughs, I’ll remind you were once affiliated with TNA) both preparing to make hefty offers and counter-offers to the current wrestling champ. It’s not clear how keen WWE are to keep Lesnar around but you’d assume they’d at least make a token offer to retain his services.

So there’s a choice coming up for Lesnar. He can return to the MMA world, where he was successful for several years and made good money. He can stay with WWE, where he has also been successful for several years and made good money. Or he can take all his good money and return to his log cabin in the woods, leaving the fighting game, both real and predetermined, behind.

MMA and WWE provide Lesnar some of the same things. They both allow him to pursue his own sponsorship deals, pay him well, and present him as a major box office attraction. But there are things unique to both too. MMA allows him to sate his competitive desires in a way that the world of pro wrestling never would. WWE provides a safer working environment and a less gruelling training regimen.

At 37 Lesnar is not old but he’s also significantly older than many of the men who compete in companies like UFC and Bellator. While he wouldn’t have the same stigma he carried on his initial foray into MMA (thanks to the fact that he’s already proven he can succeed in the real-righting world) he would still be a marked man. In addition to being a former UFC champion he’s coming off a hot year as a pro wrestler. Is it far-fetched to believe that an MMA guy would want to beat Lesnar to brag about being the man who beat ‘The One’? I don’t think so. MMA and wrestling are very different things but they ape one another in certain ways, one of them being the fashion in which MMA guys promote themselves with wrestling style promos. And dropping in references to beating Lesnar after the year WWE’s given him is great material for that.

It’s also worth noting that Lesnar has a five- and a four-year-old at home (plus a teenager from a previous relationship). Would he want to risk any sort of serious injury with a return to the MMA world, limiting the way he can interact with his kids?

Actually, I think he might. Anyone involved with MMA can’t afford to have the attitude of “What if I get really hurt?” It’s not a mindset that matches the sport. Looking back at Lesnar’s career, which saw him go from amateur standout to WWE, to trying football, before moving into MMA, tells us that he’s a man who wants a steady stream of challenges and an environment that allows him to be competitive. He also has a knack for getting himself very cushy deals: his current WWE schedule and the fact that he’s the only man in company history to be allowed control of his own sponsorship deals tells us that. I can’t imagine he’ll retire before he hits 40.

A new contract with WWE isn’t out of the question but I think it’s more likely that Lesnar will use his status as a top WWE star to leverage a sweet deal with an MMA company. The likeliest one is UFC, because they’re bigger. WWE could probably scrape enough cash together to compete with them financially for Lesnar’s services, but I doubt they’d want to grant him even more concessions or a lighter contract. After a couple of years in UFC I could just as easily see Lesnar returning to wrestling for one final run. Because they’ll have him back. They’ll always have someone like Lesnar back. He knows that and he’ll use it to his advantage.

#August1warning: We Were Warned

If you're a loyal TNA fan you may be aware of their latest attempt to grab new viewers. I'm taking of course about their #August1warning videos. They're a series of videos that first appeared last week on the promotion's YouTube accounts.

The videos show a shadowy figure and are of deliberately poor quality, although they’re made in such a way that even the deliberately poor production is a letdown. The figure appears to be bald and is either a man or the most unfortunately masculine woman I've ever come across. Speaking via a voice modulator he has addressed his impending Impact Wrestling appearance (on August 1^st, obvs) and assured us he's a name known to TNA fans.

The videos have succeeded in getting people talking. Whether they'll get people tuning in remains to be seen. I have my doubts but I'd love to be wrong.

Even this moderate success is blunted by TNA's standard issue inefficiency. The videos have had less than a week to take effect. Had they started earlier they could have been seen by more people, which obviously would have increased the chances of higher viewing figures. As it is they've not even been seen on TV.

I understand TNA wanting to present them as real but that shouldn't be done at the cost of potential success. They could have been played on TV with an announcement that management don’t endorse the content, which is what’s happened on YouTube. Even the old “the airwaves were hijacked” routine would have been better than making them online exclusives.

The identity of the silhouette is a genuine mystery, partly because there are no big names unaffiliated with a wrestling company who could realistically be expected to join TNA. The "favourite" seems to be ‘Scrap Iron’ Adam Pearce, in large part because he's bald like the mystery man. Apparently it's occurred to very few people that a voice actor could be providing the voice for the video, and an actor could have been hired (in kayfabe terms) to portray the figure.

You may recall Pearce appeared as a Gut Check contestant a while back. While he failed to get a contract he was written out in such a way as to make a return possible. For various reasons I hope it's not him behind the vids. For one thing he's not a big enough name to qualify as a non-disappointment in the role come the reveal. For another while he's a solid wrestler and a decent enough promo he doesn't possess those undefinable star qualities that make me think he could turn into a reliable headline star. He has a generic, mid-card look and at 35 it's unlikely that he's yet to peak. I wouldn't be averse to TNA bringing him in. I just don't think he's right for this particular route to the roster.

 

TNA's next star?

 

Another name suggested is Low Ki, although he used the name Senshi during his 2011 run in TNA. And WWE fans will know him as Kaval. Personally I feel he's a bigger name than Pearce but he's still not well known enough to justify such a (by TNA standards) much hyped (re)introduction. He could be of great benefit to the X Division but that's a moot point because TNA don't seem to care about that at the moment.

Sticking with bald wrestlers it could be Sonjay Dutt. Alright so he was on Impact last week, but that's not the sort of thing to stop TNA. He's not under contract and nobody's expecting him to be on tonight's show, that's about all the motivation they'd need to put Dutt in this role.

Anyone who thinks it could be Batista is kidding themselves. He's beginning to make headway with his acting career. He wouldn't jeopardise that by flying to a 3,000 seat arena once a fortnight to feud with Bubba Ray Dudley. It's just a completely unrealistic suggestion. If and when he returns to rasslin' it'll be with WWE.

The former MVP is yet another longshot. When he left WWE he negotiated a deal that would allow him to use the MVP name anywhere except TNA. That's reason enough to make me think it’s not going to be him. There are other reasons available too. He's talked publicly about having left WWE on good terms, which indicates that he's got a mid-card spot waiting for him should he want it. Also discussed publicly is his non-wrestling project with a US TV network. Right now the guy doesn't need wrestling. He's achieved his dream of wrestling in Japan and if he wants to return to the business in a meaningful role it will be with WWE.

John Morrison is in pretty much the same position. He seems satisfied working indies, taking minor acting roles and doing a bit of standup comedy. I expect to see him back in WWE at some point, not joining TNA. And on a side note the standup should help to improve Morrison's stilted promo style. That's the one area that's consistently let him down over the years and if he can fix it he could get the WWE success many feel he's entitled to.

A more credible name than the former WWE performers is Tito Ortiz. A former UFC stalwart, Ortiz has recently come out of retirement to sign with Bellator. That's the same Bellator that has contracts with TNA performers King Mo and Rampage Jackson.

Ortiz is one of the bigger names I've mentioned here and strikes me as a very real possibility. He's got the name value and crossover potential TNA seem hell bent on attaining at the moment and could, theoretically, have been in training for a wrestling career for a while now.

Bringing in Ortiz would be a dreadful move. I've noted before that Mo and Rampage are good tools for TNA to tap into the MMA market for new fans. Two MMA guys in a wrestling promotion is ample. It allows for them to do an inter-promotional feud with one another. In an ideal world that would consist of a trio of matches: a straight MMA match (going first to ensure that whoever wins can lose the second match to necessitate a third), a straight wrestling match, and then a gimmick wrestling match.

A third MMA competitor wouldn’t make that scenario impossible but would detract from its unique appeal. It would also take some of the shine away from Mo and Rampage, neither of whom have done anything significant yet. Three MMA guys in one wrestling promotion risks harming the promotion's image. That’s not something TNA should be risking at the best of times.

Of course none of this means TNA aren't bringing Ortiz in. It would be a mistake but at least he has sufficient cache to meet the hype. I'm of the opinion it's either going to be him or Pearce. They strike me as names TNA would want to use, Ortiz because the company seems keen to try to take wrestling in the MMA direction and Pearce because he’s a competent wrestler whose lack of mainstream exposure would ensure at least six months’ worth of fresh matches.

It could be anyone. It could be Jeff Jarrett returning to take back the company he created from ineffective champions and rogue biker gangs. It could be Perry Saturn searching for Moppy. It could be Sean Morley looking for that world title win that eluded him during his porn star days. It could be Monty Brown making the return to wrestling that precisely no one has been crying out for. It could be Briley Pierce looking to outshine his brother. It could be Percy Watson looking to show WWE what they missed out on. It could be the Iron Sheikh looking to humble someone. It could be Shelton Benjamin. It could be Hardcore Holly. It could be Bob Backlund. It could be Viscera. It could be Mideon. It could be Kevin Nash. It could, in the sort of twist found exclusively in wrestling, be Shane McMahon.

There's no way of knowing who’s behind the videos until they’re revealed. Thankfully we’ll be put out of our misery tonight.

Mo Bang For Your Buck

Before Friday morning I had never heard of Muhammed 'King Mo' Lawal or Bellator Fighting Championships. Then I saw a press release from Spike TV proudly mentioning both in relation to TNA Wrestling.
 
Mo, it turns out, is an MMA star with an impressive record of ten wins in twelve fights (also having one draw and one loss). From what I can gather he has little to no training as a pro wrestler but he has an amateur background and is a fan of the business. He certainly appears charismatic enough to stand out in the elaborate world of professional wrestling: sporting a crown before his matches and giving interviews clearly inspired by the Attitude Era Mo is one of a growing number of MMA combatants taking influence from wrestling. He's also one of the better ones at doing so.
 
A promising start then?
 
My initial reaction to this story was that Dixie and co. were once again aping WWE, specifically the recent signing of Brock Lesnar. I think this assumption is understandable considering the Orlando outfit's obsession with their main competitor and the very obvious parallels between the King Mo signing and Lesnar’s WWE return. But in fairness it looks like there's more to it than that. Bellator currently airs on MTV2 in the States and will be moving to Spike TV in 2013. The plan is to have Mo regularly appear in TNA (as a wrestler) throughout 2012 in order to encourage MMA fans to check out the wrestling company and expose the fighter to a new audience to aid Bellator next year.

King Mo: a man clearly inspired by professional wrestling

 
Another potential reason TNA may have agreed to this deal with Bellator is one Dave Bautista’s recent negotiations with the MMA outfit. Best known (obviously) under the name Batista in WWE, Bautista has been plugging away at his mixed martial arts career for a few years now. He's not made anywhere near the impact he was hoping for. A working agreement between Bellator and TNA may be the best thing that could happen to him right now as it would allow him to return to the world of wrestling while still continuing his attempts at fashioning a shoot fighting career for himself.
 
It goes without saying that TNA would be interested in 'The Animals's' services. TNA is always interested in former WWE talent and Bautista is one of the biggest name free agents currently available to a wrestling organisation. Any appearances at the IMPACT Zone would create a genuine buzz. The question is more would Bautista be interested in appearing for Total Nonstop Action?
 
It's possible he would be. He has been very outspoken against WWE's current PG direction and has stated he prefers working with as much freedom as possible. TNA may have some pretty insane storylines but it also features blood and swearing, which 'Big Dave' seems to equate to the perfect wrestling formula.
 
I think it would take a bit of work but TNA could bring him on board. Doing so would give them a new drawing card untainted by their Reverse Midas Touch who could have enjoyable bouts with every single one of their current headline roster and wouldn’t mind putting people over if the loss were handled right. TNA should definitely be trying to bring Bautista on board: if handled correctly he could be a big help to the group.
 
The Bellator agreement is a big chance for TNA. It remains to be seen whether Mo is any good as a wrestler or if he'll entice some MMA fans to check out TNA but there's certainly a lot of potential in the cross promotion. If Mo turns out to be as good in the ring as he is on the microphone it could do him and TNA a lot of good. If Bautista is brought on board too all the better.