Brock Lesnar Fighting at UFC 200 Continues WWE’s ‘New Era’
Brock Lesnar fighting at UFC 200 may have opened a new can of worms.
On Saturday night, we noted a report that Brock Lesnar finalized a deal where he would fight at UFC 200, his first MMA bout since 2011.
The one interesting caveat is Lesnar’s contract with WWE, which runs out in 2018. This means he would have had to get the thumbs up from the company to work this UFC event, something that fans would assume could never happen. WWE stars haven’t been able to work for different companies like this at once, but it seems they possibly started a new precedent. The only thing is 2016 has been the year of the unprecedented in WWE, setting up this “New Era” that Lesnar’s contract fits into.
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Brock Lesnar is Back!! #UFC200 https://t.co/QTm3eIVn2B
— UFC Europe (@UFCEurope) June 5, 2016
It all started the day after New Japan Pro Wrestling’s Wrestle Kingdom 10, when reports of Shinsuke Nakamura, AJ Styles, Karl Anderson, and Luke Gallows all leaving the company came out. The four would head over to WWE, with the latter three going to the main roster, while Nakamura went to NXT. These were stars who no one would have thought would go to WWE, especially someone like Nakamura or Styles, both of whom were the faces of NJPW and TNA, respectively.
The first one to come aboard was Styles at Royal Rumble 2016, and it went pretty well.
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Then, we saw WWE bring back the WWE Women’s Championship at WrestleMania 32. The “Diva” moniker had run its course and wasn’t a term fans ever liked, so there was a major adjustment. Seeing Lita unveil the new title as part of this “New Era” at the same time felt almost surreal.
Now, we have Lesnar fighting for UFC while under contract with WWE. Even with this being a one-off, it’s unlike anything we have seen before. While WWE won’t acknowledge the “New Era” being part of it, Saturday’s news certainly fits in.
WWE had no choice but to acknowledge Lesnar doing this UFC 200 fight, which was eye-popping just seeing it on the website. They’re going to have to bring it up on TV too, which will make for some weird audio as well.
.@BrockLesnar to compete at #UFC200 prior to return at major @WWE event. https://t.co/PiPwNzYhFM pic.twitter.com/LlZNBVRWME
— WWE (@WWE) June 5, 2016
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Then, you have to factor in Lesnar’s character. If anything, this means WWE is going to book him even stronger going forward. Against who remains to be seen, as they also announced he will be coming back at SummerSlam. It’s kind of unusual for WWE to do this, but with questions about his status revolving around the UFC announcement, they had to do this.
There’s one more way WWE could make this year even more unprecedented: bringing in Ronda Rousey.
It would be difficult to believe that WWE would agree to let Lesnar fight without some kind of tradeoff. Not doing so would be a bad business decision on Vince McMahon’s part, especially since he has never allowed anything like this to happen before. His logical move would probably be to bring in Rousey and have her wrestle one match for the company, most likely at WrestleMania 33.
An alternative is bringing in Conor McGregor for a one-off WWE match. His name has floated around before, and his star power is still there despite the loss at UFC 196. A possible opponent could be Sheamus.
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Brock Lesnar fighting for UFC while still in WWE is odd, strange and unprecedented. Wrestling in 2016 has certainly been something. If you’ve been following along, we hope you’re enjoying the ride, because it’s only going to get better.