Quinton "Rampage" Jackson to co-host the June 7th episode of WWE Monday Night Raw

WWE has updated the guest host listings and a pretty interesting one was revealed: The show two weeks from tonight will be hosted by members of the cast of The A-Team film remake: Bradley Cooper, Sharito Copley, and former UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Quinton "Rampage" Jackson.  It should be interesting to see how the show is written and how certain MMA and wrestling reporters react to it, as some have seen shots at MMA recently on WWE TV that weren't actually there.

Internally, UFC has been considered competition by WWE for the last several years at least, though they deny it publicly.  It wasn't always that way.  In 1997, with UFC in trouble due to dwindling cable TV clearances, Ken Shamrock decided to parlay his fame from UFC and the "World's Most Dangerous Man" gimmick given to him by the media into a return to pro wrestling, where he had more earning potential.  After coming very close to an agreement with New Japan Pro Wrestling, he ended up in the WWF.  For at least the first several months of Shamrock's run with the company, the WWF and UFC were pretty chummy: UFC would provide fight videos to help hype Shamrock, and in return, their PPV events would be plugged on WWF TV.  Vince McMahon, then nearing the end of his run as lead play by play announcer, would even talk about how UFC was being unfairly maligned in the media.  When Dan Severn eventually followed Shamrock to the WWF, he wore his UFC tournament winner belts along with his NWA World Heavyweight Title belt that he defended on independent wrestling shows.

In late 2004, Vince McMahon made a decision that he probably regrets.  When Spike TV (then the home of Raw) and UFC were about to launch The Ultimate Fighter, they felt that the best time slot for it was immediately following Raw, but would only put it in that slot If Vince McMahon approved it.  He did, the show did solid numbers, and the live finale special having the wild brawl it needed in Forrest Griffin vs Stephan Bonnar (whose name was pronounced "Steven Bonnar' by a clueless Bruce Buffer in a forgotten moment) was the catalyst for UFC's explosion in popularity.