TAKE PWTORCH
WITH YOU! Get our iPhone App (FREE!): Click Here Or enter "PWTorch.com" on your Blackberry or other Smart Phone browser for mobile-version of PWTorch.
WWE News
WWE News: Brock Lesnar says he didn't want to join WWE when he finished his college wrestling career Nov 3, 2008 - 11:28:05 AM
Had the money been right in 2000, Brock Lesnar never would have made a splash on the sports scene in WWE. Lesnar tells the U.K. Sun that he wanted to join MMA right out of college after finishing his amateur wrestling career, but there was no money in the sport at the time.
"When the time came to leave college, WWE came to me with a bunch of money and I was a guy from a farming town so it wasn't too hard a decision to sign with them," Lesnar told the Sun.
Lesnar finished college in 2000 and signed with WWE to train at Ohio Valley Wrestling before debuting on TV in March 2002. "But I didn't like it too much," he said. "The traveling was awful. I even bought a plane so travel was less time consuming and it was still too much."
Lesnar, who will be headlining the UFC 91 PPV on Nov. 15, says he doesn't have any regrets about being in WWE, but he's dedicated to being an MMA fighter now. "This is my life and I live it for me," he said.
Caldwell's Analysis: It's dangerous to play the game of "what if?" had Lesnar gone directly to MMA in 2000 rather than spending a few years in WWE, then trying the NFL, and now becoming a headliner for UFC. Lesnar became a household name in WWE, which he's used to propel his career and draw huge PPV buys in UFC. Part of why Lesnar probably doesn't regret being in WWE is because it gave him a platform to become a mega-star in the sport he originally wanted to pursue out of college.
FYI: In 2000 when Lesnar finished college and had his options in front of him, UFC was in a dark period when they were struggling to get fights sanctioned by athletic commissions in the U.S. It wasn't until 2001 when Zuffa, Inc. bought the company that UFC started to lay the groundwork for what they've become as the national leader in MMA.
INCREDIBLE BENEFITS! Over 50 full-length audio updates per month (iPod compatible)... New weekly award-winning Pro Wrestling Torch Newsletter (text and printable pdf versions) with latest exclusive insider news, new Torch Talks, great columns, Keller's cover story, much more... Hundreds of full-length back issues of PWTorch Newsletter from late-'80s to today... Ad-free access to PWTorch.com's Main Listing... VIP Forum with interaction with other subscribers and Torch staff... Torch Talk Library with text and audio of hundreds of interview installments from last 20 years... Great layout... Deepest archives on pro wrestling history anywhere... Keller's PWTorch Today PDF Bulletins with email alerts... VIP Email reports on major PPVs and TV shows... Staff Roundtable Reviews (text and audio) followiing major events... The best staff of writers and world class reporting since 1987... We'd love for you to join us and experience the most entertaining, authoritative, experienced staff of professional reporters and commentators in the business...
Compare the value of four or five months of PWTorch VIP content to the price of just one PPV. Can you cut 25 cents a day from your budget to make room for PWTorch VIP?
AND NEW FOR 2009! Monthly "Vintage Audio Torch Talks." We are releasing for the first time ever audio versions of our text Torch Talk updates, the historical first series of insider interviews ever. Wade Keller's newsmaking in-depth interviews with wrestling's biggest names are now being made available exclusively to VIP members. But you must be a member each month, as these are not archived, so they are replaced with a new one each month! This debuted in January 2009 with a 68 minute interview with the late "British Bulldog" Davey Boy Smith. Who's next? Hulk Hogan? Eric Bischoff? The Rock? Goldberg? Jeff Hardy?
