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As UFC comes upon the 18th anniversary of its debut on 11/12, while the modern version downplays its connection to pro wrestling, and for sound business reasons, the crossover between the two, both in terms of performers and fan base can’t be denied.
While almost every fan knows about Brock Lesnar, Ken Shamrock and Kazushi Sakuraba, the UFC/pro wrestling connection goes a lot deeper than that.
In fact, the number of athletes in UFC alone, let alone MMA in general, who have participated in pro wrestling in some form is now hovering around the triple digits. The current TNA roster has ODB, who did one fight in Minnesota under real name Jessica Kresa (losing to future Gina Carano opponent Kelly Kobold), and Kid Kash did at least one MMA fight in Kentucky (although it was such a small-time show that we can’t find any record of it, but one of our readers was there so I know it happened). WWE champion Alberto Del Rio did 14 fights over the past decade in Japan, Mexico, Honduras and even Spain, including his three fights while under WWE contract (how he got away with that I’ll never know). Del Rio fought under his Mexican pro wrestling name, Dos Caras Jr. In his early career he fought always wearing a mask. At times he had his father in his corner. He had a high profile Pride fight against Mirko Cro Cop, in 2003, which he lost in 46 seconds. Santino Marella, who has a legitimate judo background, did one fight in Japan in 2004 under the name Joe Basko, takeoff of his then-pro wrestling name Johnny Geo Basco, losing via knockout in 24 seconds in a minor promotion.
Many pro wrestling stars like Bam Bam Bigelow, Jushin Liger, Yoshiaki Yatsu, Kazuo Sakurada (the Japanese Kendo Nagasaki), Steve Williams, Canek, Brazo de Plata, Solar, Dos Caras Jr., Yuji Nagata, Sylvester Terkay, Volk Han, Bart Gunn, Sean O’Haire, Bobby Lashley and others dabbled in non-UFC MMA. Bob Sapp, Kazuyuki Fujita, Josh Barnett, Bas Rutten, Tsuyoshi Kosaka, Yoshihiro Takayama, Don Frye, Kiyoshi Tamura and Masakatsu Funaki ended up being legitimate stars (I didn’t necessary say good fighters or good workers in all cases, but they had stardom) in both. And at times, the line has been blurred. MMA fighters like Matt Hughes, Pat Miletich and even Randy Couture and Fedor Emelianenko worked for pro wrestling promotions but never did any worked matches. And there have been pro wrestlers on MMA shows (Nathan Jones, Mitsuhiro Matsunaga, Dan Severn) who have done worked matches. One of the funniest cases was Shannon Ritch, who has a reputation for doing works in MMA, ended up getting his arm broken in a kickboxing match with Frank Shamrock and Antonio Inoki believed it was a work and that he sold it so well he brought him into Japan as a pro wrestler. And then in some cases, you don’t even know for sure what is what because the matches are so short but seem to have the “correct” ending.
Another interesting note is that two Hall of Famers in pro wrestling, Genichiro Tenryu and Nobuhiko Takada were both very close to appearing on the first UFC show in Japan in 1997. While I can’t say for sure, most likely in both cases the problem was the Japanese promoters were unable to find the right opponent that they trusted to lose. Takada was to face Ken Shamrock, who was under contract to WWF, and WWF approved of Shamrock vs. Takada on the show as at the time the WWF was not doing well financially and would have gotten a significant rights fee for the fight. But it fell apart, most likely because the Japanese side, not the American promoters, wanted Shamrock to allow Takada to win to rehab him after his humiliating first loss to Rickson Gracie on the first Pride show a few months earlier. The Japanese side also contacted Tenryu, who at one point was booked on the show, but Tenryu, who had a tough guy rep as a pro wrestler, was nearly 48 years old at the time and doing an MMA match at that age would have been a terrible idea. Another major Japanese wrestling star, Kiyoshi Tamura, was someone UFC, and particularly Joe Silva, was interested in because he had an exciting style and was a big star in Japan. At the time, Tamura turned down UFC, citing he had never fought with punches to the head legal on the ground. Eventually, because Pride offered him so much money, Tamura fought under Pride rules and by that time when he would have agreed to fight in UFC, his price was so high because of Pride, that no deal ever happened.
In the history of UFC, there is no evidence the promoters, neither SEG nor Zuffa, have ever tried to fix a match. With Zuffa, it is so completely against their mindset that nobody for a second would have likely ever considered it. Plus, with the owners having casino licenses in Las Vegas, there is nothing that could have been worth the risk. From an SEG standpoint, they had their favorites, most notably Tank Abbott, but Abbott’s record made it pretty clear they weren’t fixing his fights.
It is generally believed (and reported as such in most of the books that cover that era of UFC including by John McCarthy) as well as discussed privately, the two “worked” UFC fights were in the early days, when you had stable mates under the same management in tournaments, the Anthony Macias walking right into a guillotine by Oleg Taktarov in :09 in the semifinals of the UFC VI tournament (and it is also believed Taktarov himself didn’t know about it) and Don Frye and Mark Hall at the 1996 Ultimate Ultimate where Hall tapped out to an Achilles tendon lock in :20, the only time in Frye’s career he ever attempted that type of submission. In both cases, Zuffa’s favorite, Tank Abbott, got screwed, as his opponent both times in the finals got an easy semifinal win making them fresher to face him in the finals.
In those days the sport wasn’t regulated by commissions, so it was up to SEG to regulate. Frye did never fight again in UFC, but that was because he signed a lucrative contract with New Japan, as Frye was scheduled to face former coach Dan Severn for the heavyweight title, but had a broken hand and by the time the fight could be arranged, Severn had lost to Mark Coleman and Frye signed with New Japan.
On the flip side, in Japan, there have been a number of outright worked matches and fixed matches to protect stars and championships, but that probably hasn’t been the case in many years. Attempting to protect stars while giving them favorable matchmaking, which due to the nature of the sport, often backfires, is a different issue.
But the following is a history of fighters who have appeared in UFC and have also been pro wrestlers. For the sake of this discussion, participate in a pro wrestling promotion has been the criteria. For the purpose, a pro wrestling promotion would be one that billed and promoted within the pro wrestling world, so Randy Couture, who fought for RINGS, a pro wrestling group, but his matches were real, counts. Mark Schultz, who agreed to do a pro wrestling match on a Brazilian Jungle Fights show promoted by Antonio Inoki, and did it but ended up being double-crossed on the finish when he let his guard down, does not count. For purpose of this, RINGS counts as pro wrestling, as does Pancrase from 1993-1997. Also, keep in mind while compiling this article, that it is probably very close to complete, but there will likely be a few names that fell through the cracks.
In an interesting trivia note, the 1996 Ultimate Ultimate tournament in Birmingham, something of a night of champions, saw all eight men in the tournament later do pro wrestling–Don Frye, Gary Goodridge, Tank Abbott, Cal Worsham (who only did one or two matches), Kimo, Paul Varelans, Ken Shamrock and Brian Johnston.
In addition, with the exception of Frank Mir, Andrei Arlovski and Cain Velasquez, every UFC heavyweight champion has at one point or another done pro wrestling, and WWF at one point was interested in Arlovski. The title lineage starts with Ken Shamrock (then called the Superfight title), and then goes to Dan Severn, Mark Coleman, Maurice Smith, Randy Couture, Bas Rutten, Kevin Randleman, Couture, Josh Barnett, Ricco Rodriguez, Tim Sylvia, Mir, Andrei Arlovski, Sylvia, Couture, Lesnar, and Velasquez
This is going to have to be a multi-part series, as this first part covers fighters who appeared on UFC shows from its debut on November 12, 1993, until UFC 16, on March 13, 1998.
TANK ABBOTT - One of UFC’s earliest stars and greatest marketing gimmicks, Abbott was arguably the most popular fighter in the organization for a few years. Promoted as an unskilled brawler, a pit fighter, he was actually a state high school wrestling champion in California and JC All-American. He made his name in his UFC debut with a brutal 18 second knockout of John Matua, billed as a 400-pound Samoan, and in one of the most exciting matches at the time when he lost the tournament final that night to Oleg Taktarov, who ended up going to the hospital due to exhaustion. Abbott is 11-14 in MMA, but did go to the finals in his first tournament, as well as in the 1996 Ultimate Ultimate tournaments, losing to Oleg Taktarov and Don Frye, respectively. At 46, he won a decision on 10/30 in Dayton over Scott Ferrozo, who avenging a 1996 loss in a UFC fight. It was Abbott’s first fight in more than one year. In 1999, Abbott signed a three-year contract with World Championship Wrestling. He remained with the group until the promotion folded, and still got paid on his contract for more than a year. He was sometimes pushed as a tough guy, and other times as a comedy guy. He was a poor pro wrestler who was there simply because he had made a reputation in UFC. However he was important historically, as in early 2000, when Bret Hart retired as WCW champion due to post-concussion syndrome, booker Vince Russo decided to surprise people and have a Battle Royal to determine the champion, and make Abbott, who nobody would expect, the winner. This belief of insanity, given that Abbott wasn’t over, and wasn’t good in the ring, ended up overruled and led to WCW ordering a committee as bookers instead of Russo making the decisions. When Russo noted his contract stated he had to be the head booker, citing it, he went home, and was being paid. Kevin Sullivan was made booker and decided to make Chris Benoit world champion, partially as a political olive branch since Benoit hated him. However, that didn’t work out well, because a dozen or more WCW wrestlers threatened to leave unless Sullivan was replaced. Management held firm, many of the wrestlers buckled, Benoit got the title, and the next day, Benoit, Eddy Guerrero, Dean Malenko, Perry Saturn, Shane Douglas and Konnan quit the promotion. They had vowed to stick together as a group, and negotiated with WWF. WWF wasn’t interested in Douglas and Konnan, took the other four, and forced Douglas and Konnan to then have to return to WCW, where they were punished in booking the rest of their run. Abbott ended up being part of “Three Count,” a boy band group. He was brought back to UFC in 2003 by Dana White, who kept his signing a secret from everyone. But Abbott was past his prime, the fighters had evolved far past him, and he lost all three of his fights on his final UFC run, all in less than 2:15. But his return drew a sellout in Atlantic City and actually made Frank Mir into a star, and even with loss after loss, he still had drawing power when his fight with Kimbo Slice on Showtime in early 2008 did a 1.9 rating. At the time it was the record for MMA on that station and still among the highest numbers ever. He lost that fight via knockout in 43 seconds.
YOJI ANJO - A pro wrestler since 1985 with the original UWF, Anjo is best known for going to Rickson Gracie’s dojo and challenging Gracie, and getting massacred in the process. This was a key in the death of UWFI, which by that point he was a top star in and the promotion was on fire until it came out one of its top stars got beaten up in a street fight, and Nobuhiko Takada, its world champion, never publicly challenged Gracie to avenge the beating as Japanese custom would warrant. Anjo was with New Japan during the first UWF vs. New Japan feud in the 80s, although only as a prelim guy, then left for the second UWF, and really became a star in the 90s with UWFI. After that promotion closed, he worked in WAR, All Japan, Hustle and a number of other promotions as a heel. He was 0-5-1 in MMA, losing to Abbott in his lone UFC appearance in 1997.
