Chris Jericho Doesn’t Believe An MMA-Wrestling Crossover Event Would Work
Wrestling and MMA have gone hand-in-hand for decades, but would a crossover event between the two sports work?
Jake Hager is signed to AEW while also competing for Bellator MMA. Brock Lesnar transitioned from wrestling to MMA and back to wrestling. Cain Velasquez is a former UFC Heavyweight Champion who is now in WWE. And Alberto Del Rio recently fought Tito Ortiz inside the cage. But an event featuring both wrestling matches and MMA fights doesn’t seem like an idea that would work according to Chris Jericho.
“I don’t think so,” Jericho told Jimmy Varsallone of the Miami Herald when asked if a crossover event could work. “When Japan did it, the line was still blurred between what UWF was. It’s all or nothing. It’s either all a shoot or not. What we’re doing with Jake and working for Bellator, those fights are very real. Then he comes and works for us, where he’s playing that character, which has a lot of realism to it because of what he’s doing outside of the AEW world. And people watch that stuff. It’s one of the reasons why Brock Lesnar is still so intimidating to this day. He’s legit. There’s a line there that you can, ‘this guy is the real deal. Here’s the proof.’ We can do that with Jake. The better he does in Bellator, the more valuable he is in AEW.”
Matt Riddle and Josh Barnett have kept the crossover tradition alive with Bloodsport, a mix of wrestling and MMA where matches take place in a ring with no ropes and end via (T)KO or submission. AEW wrestler Jon Moxley will headline Josh Barnett’s Bloodsport III against Barnett over WrestleMania 36 week.
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