Cain Velasquez‘s pro wrestling debut garnered lots of attention on social media for the various high-flying moves that he did at TripleMania XXVII.
The former UFC heavyweight champion teamed up with Cody Rhodes and Psycho Clown to defeat Taurus, Texano Jr. and Killer Kross in one of the biggest shows of the year in Mexico.
After the match, Velasquez spoke with ESPN and discussed how he felt having competed in his first pro wrestling match in front of his Mexican fans. Velasquez admitted that he was a little bit surprised at the ovation and positive reception he got from the crowd and that it was a lot of fun getting to be in the ring.
“My perspective was that it went great. It went a little faster than I thought. It just went so fast what we did, but everything went well. It was how it was taught to me. It felt awesome just to be out there. Being in this new form of wrestling, that crowd, the tag team partners, it was so much fun, even everything in between. The whole thing was fun, talking trash, just having fun,” Velasquez said. “Was I surprised? Kind of, in a way. But for me, just to be here in Mexico City with all the people behind me that pushed me, to make me a better fighter, better wrestler, better person. I was just so proud to come here and do that and give the people a show. That to me was the best feeling in the world.”
Arguably the one must-see highlight of Velasquez’s performance was doing a hurricanrana, something that very few expected to happen coming out of a UFC heavyweight in his first wrestling match. Instead of opting to use more striking, submissions and grappling that is done in mixed martial arts, Velasquez wanted to perform more like a luchador than an MMA fighter doing pro wrestling.
“I wanted to show that because it’s traditional with lucha libre. Also, I’m a bigger guy, but I consider myself an athletic guy. So f**k it, if I can do it, I’ll do it. All of that, I learned it a couple of days ago, but it felt good, felt fluid. I was like, ‘Hell yeah, I want to do it.’ It was just awesome to that even in practice,” Velasquez said. “If somebody teaches me something and I can see it done, it’ll work out. That was it. I did it the first time and the guys were like, ‘S**t that looks great. Do it. You want to do that?’ And I’m like, ‘Hell yeah I want to do it.’ I want to do it for the people.”
Velasquez has also stated that he would want to wrestle again and has previously mentioned that he has signed on for a couple of more appearances for Lucha Libre AAA in the future, though did not specify when that would be.
