This sure is a weird way to "not support" something.
Ever since it was announced Brock Lesnar would return to mixed martial arts while still under contract to WWE, fans and industry observers have been wondering what kind of deal was struck between Vince McMahon and UFC.
Speculation ran from a talent swap to promotion of WWE pay-per-view (PPV) on UFC events, but nothing overt happened over the month or so in between the announement at UFC 199 and this weekend’s event in Las Vegas, where Lesnar will now headline against Mark Hunt. WWE’s Chief Brand Officer Stephanie McMahon famously said the fight was not a cross-promotional arrangement.
We already now WWE will capitalize in the public and media’s interest in Brock by announcing the opponent for his next scripted fight tonight (July 7) on SmackDown.
Ahead of that, however, we’re getting some signs there might be more of a formal arrangement between the two combat sports entertainment giants than they’ve admitted.
Case in point, the above videos currently running on WWE’s YouTube channel and available on the front page of WWE.com. Anyone familiar with Zuffa, LLC (the MMA promotion’s owners) can tell these are UFC produced. One is an interview conducted by their Megan Olivi.
What’s next? UFC 200 will have to be mentioned tonight on USA Network, you’d think... but they’ve avoided specifically addressing the fight on television. Perhaps this is a passive promotional deal where they’ll talk about Brock in relation to the other company online but not on a broadcast?
This is almost as intriguing as the match-up with Hunt (and next month’s - which is all but 100% confirmed to be Randy Orton).