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WWE News
WWE News: Jim Ross defends pro wrestling against MMA critics of Brock Lesnar Nov 17, 2008 - 11:44:46 AM
Brock Lesnar proved many skeptics wrong at UFC 91 last Saturday night in Las Vegas. He'll never be able to "escape" his WWE background, but that seemingly carried the talk leading to the fight in trying to discredit Lesnar's sudden rise to main event prominence in UFC.
Jim Ross, a self-proclaimed MMA fan and part of the WWE staff that discovered Lesnar in 2000, says MMA purists shouldn't hold Lesnar's WWE background against him, but it's an inevitable product of Lesnar carrying a "stigma" with him.
In the weeks leading up to the fight, Lesnar tried to shake that stigma and focus on his amateur wrestling background that preceded his WWE career. Even a big fight win over legendary Randy Couture won't be enough for some, says Ross.
"The pro wrestling bias has never been more prominently displayed than by what I perceive to be a vocal minority of MMA fans against Lesnar simply because he signed with the WWE after an outstanding amateur wrestling career," Ross said on jrsbarbq.com.
"UFC promoters discovered what many successful pro wrestling promoters had known for years and that is their fan base would pay big money to see someone get their ass beat if that individual represented what the majority of the fan base disliked which could come in a variety of incarnations."
Lesnar is UFC's top heel, representing an "invasion" of the MMA industry simply because he rose to national prominence in WWE. Ross says he's like the foreign heels who enter a wrestling territory to antagonize the lovable babyfaces.
"Lesnar was none of these but he did have the 'distasteful' pro wrestling stigma attached to him that will be a part of his UFC bio until the day he retires," Ross said. "Never mind that the guy was a superb amateur wrestler long before his short albeit successful stint in the WWE."
Ross says it's not just Lesnar trying to escape the stigma, but wrestlers who jump into the entertainment industry and force themselves or are forced to abandon their pro wrestling roots. "The Rock" Dwayne Johnson certainly comes to mind as someone who has been told by movie industry executives to distance himself from wrestling.
"Some former wrestlers have reluctantly had to distance themselves from the genre to become successful in other fields," Ross said. "That's not because these individuals don't respect the fans or the wrestling business but it's because the decision makers of their new endeavors don't want to be associated with the wrestling biz."
Caldwell's Analysis: The unfortunate thing is that pro wrestling will always have this stigma so long as the face of the industry, WWE, is being promoted by Vince McMahon, who is himself trying to distance the company away from pro wrestling. Ironically, McMahon helped create this "stigma" with low-brow humor and storylines appealing to the lowest common denominator, and now he's trying to distance himself from the monster he created.
McMahon wants to be entertainment, not small-scale pro wrestling. It's only reasonable to see the likes of Brock Lesnar and The Rock wanting to distance themselves from the wrestling genre because McMahon is trying to do the same thing. Is it fair for Lesnar and Rock to be forced to carry around the wrestling label everywhere they go? No. But, it's reality, especially if the WWE platform is where stars gained their national exposure.
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