UFC boss Lorenzo Fertitta says flatly Brock Lesnar cannot participate in WWE event. "He's under exclusive contract with us." Fertitta says he has no firm information Lesnar was even talking to WWE, that at this point it's "internet rumors."
Meanwhile, the usually aloof UFC co-owner Lorenzo Fertitta feels the need to talk to LA Times Investigative/Boxing/MMA reporter Lance Pugmire in an attempt to kibosh the Brock Lesnar wants to appear at WrestleMania reports, after Dana White's many original attempts to do so fall on dear ears.Dave Meltzer publicly clears up what he meant by the Brock Lesnar that's looking for an "exit strategy" to the confused Steve Cofield of Yahoo! Sports. He meant that Brock was looking to prepare for his retirement within the next few years. He says he hasn't been told that Brock only has one fight left and thus doesn't know whether this is a bargaining chip (or a negotiating ploy to raise his asking price as Kid Nate speculated yesterday). He says the last thing he would expect Brock to do is to go back to pro wrestling (i.e. WWE) full time, because Brock hated the travel and the toll it took on his body (just making that clear to the MMA fans who might naively think that's a serious possibility). He says friends of Lesnar have talked about the "give and give" situation where Brock would coach on the next season of The Ultimate Fighter in return for doing WrestleMania, but Brock hasn't as best he can tell, brought this idea up with Dana White, nor does he expect him to. He says that doing both would be perfectly timed with when his book is set to be released. Egged on by Cofield, he said he was mad at people for misquoting him off his radio show (to be fair, Dave deserves a lot of the blame for this one, given that he didn't make clear that Brock wasn't looking for an immediate exit strategy, just one down the line in a few years time).
Keep in mind that this could be a negotiating ploy to get more from Dana White. It's been widely speculated that Lesnar would like to headline WrestleMania in 2011 and Dana won't let him. White has openly discussed his desire to book Lesnar against Frank Mir as a coach on The Ultimate Fighter. Rumors of a Brendan Schaub vs Frank Mir match in spring 2011 seemed to have scotched that possibility, but yesterday's announcement that Schaub would be facing Stefan Struve Mirko Filipovic aka Cro Cop, re-opens Mir-Lesnar 3 as a possible capper to an epic season of TUF.
My bet (hope) is that Meltzer's source is someone in the Lesnar camp (ie Paul Heyman) who is trying to talk up Lesnar's disinterest in returning to the UFC in order to raise the asking price.
Flock Flashback, Week 3. Raven recollects as best he can an anecdote of a 3 day bender with Perry Saturn, Lodi and Scotty Riggs culminating in a night club in Baltimore the night before a WCW PPV before telling us not to do drugs and sharing some of his psychiatrist's insight. Have to agree, Raven was like the Keith Richards of Pro Wrestling considering all the other guys he's outlived.
Smackdown Superstar Kaval has been released by WWE, according to their website. Anyone care to speculate on why?