Pro Wrestling is to MMA as Artist are to Hacks.

It is unavoidable, pro wrestling and mixed martial arts have to step on each other toes. People feed on violence, and unfortunately for pro wrestling, the audience is differentiating and demanding the real thing. Honestly, that is kind of sick (what is more unsettling that it makes Vince looks like a saint).

Violence is not sex. Unlike the porn market, snuff is not something people expect to find on your PC. While directors are trying to incorporate unsimulated sex into cinema, you do not see them rushing the debut of unsimulated murder. Of course, trying to bring actual death to the big screen would screw over makeup artists, and I doubt the future Tom Savinis will stand for that. Hell, they are probably wise enough to form a union.

I would not call MMA fans sickos (I love the Japanese scene), but that is because I was an amateur wrestler and bar room boxer. If anything, my 15 seconds with Derrick "The Eraser" Noble at the Peoria 2001 "Toughman" contest demands that I admire mixed martial arts. My issue with the sport is that the art is fading away.

The most awesome tweet ever came from Chris Jericho (oh my disappointment when he reneged on it):

Ok guess I'm the only "old school pro wrestler" to say it...screw UFC fighter. U could NEVER do what me and my brothers do. #bringitbitches.

I share the sentiment of the tweet. It goes back to the days of kayfabe where wrestlers had to believe and prove they were bad asses. My Tae Kwon Do masters taught me all the short cuts to avoid losing fights, so I am not afraid any repercussions to my belief in our savior.

Still, I am not saying that the TUFs cannot execute the moves, but look at Ken Shamrock. We know they cannot sell, but since there is no A in MMA, maybe they cannot make the moves look good.

Working for promotions north of I-80 in Illinois, I have seen my share of full-time combat sports contestants try to be part-time wrestlers. The motivation is easy to understand. It is the reason I got into the business myself.

Outside of intercourse, there is no greater sensation than to give everything you have and risk everything, and be cheered and even loved for it. Guess that makes combat sound like an a homoerotic unprotected Thai sex show, but I digress. The point is, we get addicted to the rush, and unlike drug addiction, we can get paid to capture the this high (and in turn we have the option of paying for a drug addiction with the earnings). I can at least attest that this was my motivation, and I hope that it was theirs. Regardless of the motive, the MMA guys did not find much success, and I suspect it maybe because they have never mastered an art.

And I think Tyler "Seth Rollins" Black would agree to the statement after "The Ultimate Fighter 5" wash out Wayne Weems broke his jaw. A true artist should immediately know their power and need to restrain it. This is probably why instead of booking him in matches, that promotion would send out challenges to "fighters" for him to have shoot matches against and other promoters would cast him as a bystander to get stiffed.

I still love to fight, but the fight game requires that you win. In high school, I succeeded in being loved for my efforts, but that was because I was a babyface. My starts were notoriously slow, usually resulting in me needing to comeback from an 7-9 point deficit. 60% of the time, 20% of the time the matches were close, and the other 20%...well I succeeded in my last five years of my amateur career in never being pinned. Unfortunately, the amount of beating I took when I was used as a weight class filler my sophomore year was too much to finish with a winning record. Still having the itch to compete, and having flunked out of computer science (I did not think there was an actual use for calculus), pro wrestling seemed to be the right career move.

Oh the naïve nature of youth. Especially in 2000 when ECW showed the potential of a grounded mini in Little Spike Dudley and Tommy Dreamer taught us that you can have a fun and exciting matches without needing to lift anyone.

Pro wrestling was the art I chose to pursue when MMA required you to master one style, and trust that your mastery of it would lead you to success (like Big Foot did to Fedor). If I knew that I could cut and paste styles and not have to finish opponents, I may have made a different decision. I doubt it because I would rather be the best in the most entertaining televised athleticism next to Cubs baseball. Like Banky Edward's father told him about going down on women, "Don't do anything if you can't do it well.