[Geralt of Rivia]

let's face it, people like daniel bryan and cm punk weren't meant to be huge stars. the wwe needs to look for talent beyond the indy circuit. similar to how they found angle, they should find some champion in a martial art and throw a contract his way. this works perfectly because of the whole "reality era", and the wwe trying to make wrestling more "real".

they should look at all martial arts, and find a fighter who has the look of a wrestler (which pretty much means anyone above 200 pounds). there is a ton of talent out there, especially in the brazilian jiu-jitsu/judo scene, as well as the muay thai and kickboxing scenes. if they can make minimally talented people like cm punk a star surely they can make legit martial artists stars.

so to sum it up, if this really is the "reality era", the wwe needs to look for talent in real martial arts.

 

[GillbergReturns]

If I wanted to watch MMA I'd watch the real thing.

The reality era sucks and will kill wrestling.

 

[Warren Zevon]

Pro wrestling and MMA are two different target audiences, I don't get why people think they are directly related/direct competition. People don't watch WWE to see kickboxing.

 

[Geralt of Rivia]

Pro wrestling and MMA are two different target audiences, I don't get why people think they are directly related/direct competition. People don't watch WWE to see kickboxing.

who said it was going to be mma? they'll just have moves that resemble their martial art. BJJ guys will have a lot of exciting and fast paced groundwork, judo guys will have throws, etc. better than getting some boring, unknown indy guy that no one cares for. the reason angle was so successful was because his gimmick was based around his gold medal, plus he was already established as the greatest amateur wrestler at the time.

name recognition + real talent = win for the wwe, win for the fans, and win for the overall product.

PLUS, mma pays shit compared to pro wrestling. a lot of these guys who are champions in their sport have little career options after the olympics/world championships. that's why a lot of them turn to mma. pro wrestling offers a lot of exposure and a lot more money. i'm not saying pro wrestling > mma at all, because i'm a bigger mma fan, but pro wrestling is a great option for a martial artist to pursue.

 

[Chicago Warrior]

This is WWE so having mic skills and charisma is also important. Not everyone with a martial arts background can get over.

 

[Warren Zevon]

You make a good point on the starpower, but in my mind, starpower can only take you so far. I'd rather WWE build new stars who are trained in wrestling as opposed to bringing in an established star in another discipline. Relying on starpower from other companies just brings to mind dying TV shows casting well known actors in a last bid to save themselves from cancellation.

 

[GillbergReturns]

who said it was going to be mma? they'll just have moves that resemble their martial art. BJJ guys will have a lot of exciting and fast paced groundwork, judo guys will have throws, etc. better than getting some boring, unknown indy guy that no one cares for. the reason angle was so successful because his gimmick was based around his gold medal, plus he was already established as the greatest amateur wrestler at the time.

name recognition + real talent = win for the wwe, win for the fans, and win for the overall product.

Olympic gold medalist is an accomplishment that really can't be matched. Not even by MMA. You're talking about stage that reaches a billion homes.

Never the less if you're going to bring in an MMA fighter chances are they're going to be washed up (See Lesnar). People just don't trade real fighting for fake fighting.

Not too mention that people don't care too much about the toughest guy in a fake fight. You tell me who you want to win Rock and Austin or Shamrock and Blackmon?

 

[Chicago Warrior]

They also have to be careful who they hire. A guy with an Indy background or who grew up in the business is more likely to have more success and that is because they are passionate and enjoy doing what they do. If you don't have the passion then you won't make it far IMO. A UFC fighter only using WWE for a check solely won't last long.

 

[LINK]

Alright but why the hell would they do that?

When I build a football team, I don't make a baseball catcher the center.

What you are saying is changing the entire business that is over 100 hundred years old. Martial arts, boxing and etc. have their place in wrestling but not as a complete overhaul.

 

[Geralt of Rivia]

Olympic gold medalist is an accomplishment that really can't be matched. Not even by MMA. You're talking about stage that reaches a billion homes.

Never the less if you're going to bring in an MMA fighter chances are they're going to be washed up (See Lesnar). People just don't trade real fighting for fake fighting.

Not too mention that people don't care too much about the toughest guy in a fake fight. You tell me who you want to win Rock and Austin or Shamrock and Blackmon?

again, i'm not talking about an mma fighter. i'm talking about a martial artist who is a champion in his discipline. also, martial artists such as grapplers pick up pro wrestling extremely quick, and are actually better than indy guys what have been doing it for years. just look at kurt angle and brock lesnar, they both picked it up extremely quick.

 

[Geralt of Rivia]

Alright but why the hell would they do that?

When I build a football team, I don't make a baseball catcher the center.

What you are saying is changing the entire business that is over 100 hundred years old. Martial arts, boxing and etc. have their place in wrestling but not as a complete overhaul.

failure of an analogy. football and baseball are extremely different sports. you can't incorporate baseball into football and vice versa, but you CAN incorporate legit martial arts into pro wrestling, because they're both full-contact. and you do realize that legit martial artists have crossed over to pro wrestling for years, right? this isn't anything new. hell, back in the 50's a lot of them had amateur wrestling/judo backgrounds. look at "judo" gene lebell and masahiko kimura, two world class judokas who had a HUGE impact on pro wrestling and mma as well.

 

[PotterNo1]

Hmmm, I'm divided on this one- as a martial arts man myself I think, with a little training, it would be good to develop a wrestling style based around grappling based martial arts. Indeed, I've often thought of it myself. With a lot of work it could be done but with a half-arsed approached you could end up looking like Vladimir Kozlov- original style, good technique but horribly out of place and quite dull to watch.

 

[Chicago Warrior]

I would be all for it, just find guys who are charismatic like Angle and as athletic as Lesnar. Lesnar is the only 300 lbs pound guy who I have seen do a shooting star press.

 

[Chicago Warrior]

Hmmm, I'm divided on this one- as a martial arts man myself I think, with a little training, it would be good to develop a wrestling style based around grappling based martial arts. Indeed, I've often thought of it myself. With a lot of work it could be done but with a half-arsed approached you could end up looking like Vladimir Kozlov- original style, good technique but horribly out of place and quite dull to watch.

You got a point and lets not forget Sylvester Terkay from ECW. He was a NCAA Division 1 wrestling champion, but man did he suck in a pro-wrestling ring.

But if it makes OP feel better, WWE do actively look for amateur wrestlers. They just signed Derrick Foore who is also a collegiate wrestler and has an uncanny resemblance to Kurt Angle.

And I think they also just scouted for some in the Olympic trials.

WWE’s Gerald Brisco has been heavily scouting amateur wrestlers lately. Brisco was at the Olympic trials in Iowa City last week and currently has two heavyweight wrestlers that he’s really high on. A Greco-Roman heavyweight from Turkey who is 6-5 and 285lbs. wants to join WWE but the hold-up is that he doesn’t know English so they are trying to get him to learn it now.

 

[pryme tyme]

Before the PG Era the product was targeted at 18-30 year old males. That's what mma's target audience is now. I personally stopped watching wrestling in favor of mma a few years ago. I felt WWE's product was so poor at the time that I couldn't even watch, mma was able to fill wrestling's void for me. So they're are people that have chosen mma over wrestling, because wrestling no longer targeted them like they used to. I now of course watch both mma and wrestling, but if I had to choose between current day wrestling and current mma, I'll take mma. I love wrestling as much as the next guy but the current product isn't targeted at my demographic, mma is, it's that simple for me.

I have plenty of friends that followed wrestling with me in the attitude era and now when I ask if they watch wrestling, it's just "Nah I'd rather watch a real fight in mma". Point is the same audience wrestling used to target, is the current target of mma.

 

[daemonicwanderer]

Before the PG Era the product was targeted at 18-30 year old males. That's what mma's target audience is now. I personally stopped watching wrestling in favor of mma a few years ago. I felt WWE's product was so poor at the time that I couldn't even watch, mma was able to fill wrestling's void for me. So they're are people that have chosen mma over wrestling, because wrestling no longer targeted them like they used to. I now of course watch both mma and wrestling, but if I had to choose between current day wrestling and current mma, I'll take mma. I love wrestling as much as the next guy but the current product isn't targeted at my demographic, mma is, it's that simple for me.

I have plenty of friends that followed wrestling with me in the attitude era and now when I ask if they watch wrestling, it's just "Nah I'd rather watch a real fight in mma". Point is the same audience wrestling used to target, is the current target of mma.

The Attitude Era was an aberration. Professional wrestling has typically been a family orientated medium. Most of the stars of today started watching when they were very young, much too young for Attitude Era programming. They watched with their FAMILIES. One of the biggest problems among many IWC members is that many seem to think pro wrestling has always been targeted toward 16-40 year old single men. It hasn't.

Jim Cornette (not the exhaustive source of all wrestling knowledge, but someone far more knowledgeable than myself) has said he found it odd that the audience of the late 90s was so heavily skewed toward young men. A form of entertainment that has loads of attractive young men in not much clothing can't manage to attract a decent crowd of women who came of their own volition and are interested in what happens?

WWE does look for individuals with a amateur wrestling background. The idea that WWE could use the star power of champion martial artists is rather laughable. Judo and BJJ (and other such grappling heavy martial arts) champions are not typically household names in the United States and Canada unless they are MMA champions or successful Olympians. WWE has never been too highly concerned with mat work and even if they were/are there are dozens if not hundreds of solid to excellent in-ring workers who are trained in the art of professional wrestling first and foremost.

 

[Here To There]

Uhhhh...no. Not gonna happen. Ever.

 

[doctorj89]

OP, here's two big things I think you've got wrong. First, there is NO name recognition in martial arts if it isn't MMA. Second, The matches would be awful. Professional wrestling isn't real martial arts. How would a WWE trained wrestler put on a match with a BJJ guy? It would be almost impossible to utilize his real martial arts grappling skill in his matches unless you expect everyone who works with him to learn to wrestle his style. They'd have to put him in developmental for ages and teach him WWE (or any) style wrestling and give him a few moves that are similar to some in his discipline, and that wouldn't be anything you couldn't teach any person in developmental

 

[kingshark]

As long as these martial artists have charisma, I'm fine with it.