Brock Lesnar in UFC is a Big Bet on the Beast Incarnate
Before Wrestlemania 31 the status of Lesnar’s WWE contract was heavily discussed as it was to end shortly after the event. Lesnar was the WWE Champions at the time booked to face Roman Reigns and the conclusion to the main event felt like a foregone conclusion. It was a conclusion that was dreaded as it meant an end to Lesnar being a special attraction in WWE. Lesnar went on ESPN Sportscenter shortly before Wrestlemania to announce that he would continue to wrestle.
"I'm officially closing the door on MMA," Lesnar said. "It was hard. I re-signed last night with the WWE.”
Six months later Lesnar was a guest on the Stone Cold Steve Austin podcast to discuss how those negotiations unfolded.
"I felt robbed by diverticulitis,” Lesnar said. “ I felt robbed by being sick. I was feeling good and it took me a couple years to start feeling good. I'm at home, I'm working out, my life is great, everything's in tune, my contract's coming to an end with WWE, hey it's been a great time but something's missing.”
The hunger for another fight in UFC was there for Lesnar but all signs pointed to the door closing on a return. So it was a huge surprise when it was announced last month that Lesnar would face Mark Hunt at UFC 200. Lesnar is still under contract with WWE and getting together a one-off special attraction like this would require all sorts of negotiations between UFC president Dana White and WWE owner Vince McMahon. UFC is betting that Lesnar will be a big draw and big enough headline for a show that just lost it’s main event between Jon Jones and Daniel Cromier due to Jones’ failing a PED test.
White shed light on these negotiations after UFC 200 weigh-ins, which WWE covered on social media and streamed on WWE.com. In post-weight in interviews White mentioned that negotiations occurred between Brock Lesnar’s team, White, McMahon and Triple H.
“Listen, Vince and I have had our ups and downs and Vince is a tough character to deal with. He's an animal. It's one of the things that I respect about him. I think he's loosened up a bit on the UFC," said White.
WWE is making a big bet by allowing Lesnar to fight at UFC 200. MMA has exploded in popularity and WWE is hoping for some crossover appeal. Lesnar’s ties to WWE cannot be ignored and the opportunity for promotion from UFC is the kind of rub that puts WWE more in the mainstream. When asked if UFC would promote the WWE, White said, “The fact that they did this, I wanted to reciprocate, so yes.”
It’s no coincidence that without any backstory, Lesnar was given an opponent for WWE’s Summerslam Pay-Per-View on this week’s episode of Smackdown. If UFC is going to promote WWE then it might as well promote the guy who is on both cards. WWE is betting on names alone here as there is no current backstory that would warrant such a feud.
WWE has to be hoping that Lesnar wins, too. A Lesnar win puts WWE over as a destination for world-class athletes. It’s an argument they can hold on to for a while before former WWE Champion CM Punk has his first fight in UFC at UFC 202.
Of course, Lesnar doesn’t care about any of this. Lesnar was asked if his performance at UFC 200 would affect his booking and his draw in WWE and he responded with, “I really don’t give a shit...This is about me living my life, being the person I want to be. I mean, granted, without the fans and everything, none of us would be able to do this and I get that. But I don't sit up at night wondering if my drawing power is going to be hurt [and] are my WWE fans going to tune and watch me do this. I don't give two shits about that. This is about me. I want to get in there and be an athlete again."
No doubt that Lesnar is betting big on himself too.