WWE's Great Cross Over Gamble

At UFC 200, Brock Lesnar will become the first ever under contract WWE athlete to be granted a one off opportunity to fight at a UFC PPV.

The success of the multi-billion dollar wrestling conglomerate, World Wrestling Entertainment has largely been scripted by its willingness to boldly take risks that nobody else was willing to take. The first ever WrestleMania was an awfully big gamble by Vince McMahon to say the least but today, over 30 years later all of the WWF’s then competitors have been relegated to the annals of history. Will the great cross over gamble with the UFC reap rich dividends or will the WWE end up on the losing board?

Brock Lesnar is a once in a lifetime superstar who is both a freak athlete and a massive box office draw. Just ask the UFC. His much anticipated rematch against Frank Mir at UFC 100 ensured an astounding 1.6 million PPV buys which is the all time highest in their PPV history. Number 2 on the list? Brock Lesnar against Shane Carwin from UFC 116 with 1.06 million PPV buys. His destruction of Randy Couture at UFC 91 is at number 5 on the UFC list with 1.01 million PPV buys. Indian fans are not used to the PPV culture so the impact of these numbers is often lost on us. Bear in mind that each PPV buy costs around $ 55 which means that UFC 100 (admittedly one of the strongest cards ever in UFC history with many great matches) did $ 88 Million just in PPV buys. Throw in the live gate, advertising, merchandize sales and the numbers just keep piling up.

Brock’s battle with diverticulitis while in the UFC led him to  eventually return to the WWE where he continued his storied career. Oh and there was that small matter of him beating the Undertaker at WrestleMania which will go down as the most shocking moment in WM history. Who else could have made the term Suplex City extremely popular? Riding high on his victory over Dean Ambrose at WM32, Brock had enough momentum to propel him into any top tier feud heading into SummerSlam. Which is why UFC’s ground breaking announcement at UFC 199 on the return of Brock Lesnar nearly broke the internet. I was watching UFC 199 live and I will frankly admit that I jumped out of my chair in excitement on seeing the promotional video. And apparently I wasn’t the only one.  

As details emerged, it looked as though the old foes had finally smartly turned into friends – the WWE would allow Brock to return to the UFC’s biggest PPV of all time and in return would look to have Rhonda Rousey at next year’s WM. Surely the monetary benefits far outweighed the potential cons, right?

I’m not too sure. The WWE has built Brock Lesnar into a near unstoppable force through mostly strong booking ever since he returned. He’s also on the cover of this year’s WWE 2K17 video game cover which is an honor reserved for those at the top of the WWE mountain. Obviously WWE would ensure that Brock got himself an easy opponent at UFC 200 so that he would come back triumphant and be a major part of SummerSlam, right? Mark Hunt is the furthest thing from a walk in the park and apparently the bookies agree because Hunt is going in as the favourite at -160 while Brock is at +140.

 WWE 2K17 Cover 

(Picture courtesy WWE.com)

So how much does a Brock Lesnar loss hurt him in the WWE? A lot would be an understatement. The WWE will not be able to ignore it so they will have to figure out a way to address the loss in their storylines and try to set things back to the way they were which is easier said than done. If they ignore it , they risk making Lesnar look weak since casual fans would rightly claim that he loses genuine fights but easily tramples his opponents in fixed ones.

What no one else seems to be talking about though is that Ronda Rousey’s star has fallen faster than a pile of bricks and she is no longer the superstar that she was a few months ago. Holly Holm took her apart before proceeding to knock Rousey out and while it is quite possible that the once seemingly invincible judoka could reclaim her title, I believe it wont happen. She is focusing on her fledgling movie career and while the WWE beckons as well, the Rousey that they get just isn’t going to be the same dominant game changing superstar that they expected.     

It could however, just as easily go the other way. Brock Lesnar could pull off the upset win and ride the wave of momentum to insert himself back into the WWE title picture at SummerSlam and be the dominant champion all the way up to the Royal Rumble or even next year’s WM. Rousey could face the winner of Miesha Tate and Amanda Nunes and regain her title while becoming a top Hollywood movie star as well. Time will tell whether Vince McMahon’s next big gamble on cross over superstars will hit the jackpot.