Earlier this week, Bellator announced that their first ever pay-per-view will take place on May 17th, 2014, in Memphis, Tennessee, headlined by the third Lightweight title match between Michael Chandler and Eddie Alvarez and Quinton "Rampage" Jackson vs. "King Mo" Muhammed Lawal in a light heavyweight tournament final.
TNA wrestling fans will be familiar with the latter two names for their short-lived appearances on Spike TV's Impact to help promote the fledgling Viacom owned MMA promotion.
Mo hasn't been seen in a TNA ring since serving as a special guest enforcer for the street fight between Bobby Roode and James Storm at Bound for Glory 2012, but had continued to train at Ohio Valley Wrestling in the summer of 2013 until TNA cancelled their affiliation with OVW to cut costs and reduce their red ink.
Jackson was part of the Main Event Mafia in TNA last year, mainly as a means to promote a scheduled pay-per-view fight with Tito Ortiz, which was cancelled after Ortiz suffered a neck injury in training. Shortly after a heavily criticised, cartoonish angle where Ortiz turned on Jackson by hitting him with a hammer and joining Aces & 8s in the process, they were pulled from TNA programming never to be seen again, apparently so they could both concentrate on their training for their fight together.
With another PPV to hype to as many viewers as possible, one which cannot be cancelled after the previous debacle, it's highly likely that both King Mo and Rampage Jackson will return to TNA to build a grudge between the two.
Indeed, Bellator has already been accused of entirely scripting a scenario where Jackson called out Mo after knocking out Christian M'Pumbu at Bellator 110 two weeks ago, which led to the King entering the cage and a scuffle ensuing, a charge which Bellator's President and CEO Bjorn Rebney strenuously denied to MMASucka.com:
"That is completely and utterly ridiculous. What we did is we talked to Mike Masooley who is one of the commissioners from the Mohegan Sun. We told him that after the fight if Rampage did indeed win, we are going to bring King Mo in and just to be aware of the situation. We did have security but we just wanted to make sure everybody knew what could happen and understand what could evolve. Mike understood and that was literally it."
Part of the reason the MMA media believe that the incident was manufactured was because Mo and Rampage publicly squashed their beef last year shortly after Quinton signed with Viacom, but Rebney claimed that they only settled their differences on his insistence as they would have to work together in TNA and the animosity between the two has always been very real:
"Both of the guys really do hate each other. They hated each other for 2 years and I had to ask them to squash their squabble at least publicly. When TNA signed them I had to do that because they would be working together in a TNA ring. They squashed it for a short period of time, but now it’s resurfaced. The only reason they became civil with each other because I asked them to in favor of TNA and Dixie Carter."
That may very well be true, but it will be extremely hard for MMA fans to really buy any genuine emotion shown in the cage by the two, if they are working obviously phony angles together in the ridiculous environment that TNA have crafted for themselves, where creepy stalkers run wild and the owner is an incompetent megalomaniacal buffoon.
Which is probably exactly what will happen, given that Rebney now wants Rampage to amp up his pro wrestling training, so that he can work proper matches for TNA by the summer:
"Dixie and I talk pretty regularly. Now that Rampage’s fight is over and didn’t get injured, we are going to really rev up the wrestling training. We have coaches and trainers traveling to Southern California to help him get through the process of becoming a well-rounded professional wrestler. The essence of what wrestling is, that it’s a real skill and you have to learn the craft. We hope he adapt to it quickly and after the May fight, Rampage will be doing full blown matches."
That said, the cross promotion with TNA obviously benefits Bellator, as even in its current sorry state, Impact still typically draws many more viewers than Bellator does on all but its very best day, but one wonders what TNA gets out of it other than keeping Viacom sweet, whose television money ensures that the company still remains in business.
Even though Jackson and Ortiz were two of the biggest names in UFC history, their appearances for TNA generated little buzz and no significant boost in viewership. That's not going to change, even if the former returns and starts being led through basic singles matches by veteran hands.