Comparisons have been made between pro wrestling and MMA for decades, but especially after UFC came to prominence in the 1990s. Many MMA fans are known to look down on wrestling as “fake” compared to their real combat sport.
Despite this, there have been several high-profile crossover stars over the years. Brock Lesnar made the jump from WWE to UFC in the mid-2000s and had a dominant run as the promotion’s Heavyweight Champion.
Meanwhile, Ronda Rousey went in the opposite direction, leaving her highly successful UFC career in 2016 and signing with WWE in 2018.
Road Dogg doesn’t appreciate MMA fans looking down on pro wrestling
During the latest edition of his podcast, Oh You Didn’t Know, Road Dogg discussed the 2018 Royal Rumble event which featured the first-ever Women’s Rumble match, where Ronda Rousey made her first appearance after signing full-time with WWE.
After Asuka won the historic bout, Alexa Bliss and Charlotte Flair – respectively the Raw and SmackDown Women’s Champion at the time – came out to confront the star. However, they were all interrupted by Rousey, who put the champions on notice.
Road Dogg said Rousey’s popularity was good for getting lapsed fans and Rousey fans to watch WWE. However, he doesn’t think there is much crossover between MMA and pro wrestling and has an issue with MMA fans who think less of wrestling.
“I don’t know that there’s that much crossover in our fan base either. And I’ll tell you why. A lot of the, well there’s some of course there’s some, just because of the combat, sports nature of it.
“But I think people in combat sports and maybe some of their fans think less of pro-wrestling because it’s not legit. You know what I mean? It’s not a shoot fight and so I can see them thinking like ‘yeah, I don’t watch it, that’s fake.’
The Hall of Famer then joked that MMA fans should just calm down and buy a John Cena action figure.
“You know what I mean? ‘I watch real fighting.’ Okay, calm down, calm down and buy your kid a John Cena action figure.”
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