April 10, 2018
By Ryan Porzl
Back in January, former UFC & Strikeforce Women's Bantamweight Champion "Rowdy" Ronda Rousey made her WWE debut at the Royal Rumble PPV. Despite Rousey being a huge pro wrestling fan and the fact it's been rumored for some time, many MMA fans can't see why anyone would go from MMA to the "fake" world of Professional Wrestling. The interesting thing is that many big MMA names and legends have begun in MMA and did wrestling at some point. With Rousey having just debuted at Wrestlemania, we'll take a look at MMA Fighters who later dabbled in pro wrestling. Keep in mind that this list will only feature fighters who started in MMA and then did pro wrestling whether it be short term or long term. That means that wrestlers who then did MMA like Brock Lesnar, Ken Shamrock, Kazuyuki Fujita, Masakatsu Funaki, Kiyoshi Tamura, Minoru Suzuki, Dan Severn, & Kazushi Sakuraba don't count.
Bas Rutten- Despite his short UFC run and being a former UFC Heavyweight Champion, Bas has made his biggest name in Japan as a fighter & announcer as he spent almost his entire fighting career in Pancrase where he was a former King of Pancrase and became probably even more famous as the long time color commentator for PRIDE Fighting Championships. While most remember him for these things, Bas did something else in Japan and that was wrestle. After his MMA career ended, Bas occasionally stepped into the squared circle from 2000-2002 and originally debuted in wrestling legend and MMA pioneer Antonio Inoki's first Inoki Bom-Ba-Ye in 2000 teaming with wrestling and PRIDE vet Alexander Otsuka to take on Ricco Rodriguez & Naoki Sano. After competing twice in Battlarts in 2001, Bas then wrestled a few matches in New Japan Pro Wrestling during the spring, summer, and fall of 2002. He debuted at New Japan's Toukon Memorial Day 30th Anniversary show at the Tokyo Dome on May 2, 2002 where he defeated the future IWGP Heavyweight Champion Manabu Nakanishi and would then score wins over future top star Hiroshi Tanahashi and former RINGS champion Masayuki Naruse while going to a draw with Osamu Nishimura in a "European Catch Rules" match. Bas also received two title shots though came up short in both as he challenged Yuji Nagata for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship on July 20, 2002 and then, in his last match, challenged Koji Kanemoto for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship on October 26th.
Josh Barnett- Barnett is a no-brainer given he's a fan of wrestling, his behavior coming off like a pro wrestler, and his comments coming off like promos. Barnett started wrestling after leaving the UFC after being stripped of the UFC Heavyweight Championship due to a drug test failure. Barnett joined New Japan in the middle of Antonio Inoki's MMA obsession and debuted at New Japan's yearly January 4th Tokyo Dome show in 2003 called "Wrestling World 2003" where he challenged Yuji Nagata for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship. Despite coming up short, Barnett would tour with New Japan for a year and half though he was no longer a contender for titles or tournaments. Barnett left New Japan after defeating Ken Shamrock by disqualification at Nexess on May 3, 2004 and then wrestled MMA/wrestling legend Kiyoshi Tamura at a U-STYLE show in 2005 while resuming his MMA career. From 2007-2014, Barnett made appearances for Inoki's IGF (Inoki Genome Federation) where he largely wrestled many wrestler/MMA fighters including Naoya Ogawa, Tank Abbott, Don Frye, Tadao Yasuda, and Bob Sapp. In 2011, Barnett competed in a tournament to crown an IGF Champion and made it to the finals before losing to kickboxing legend Jerome Le Banner. In 2017, Barnett made appearances for TNA (now Impact Wrestling) where he wrestled twice, defeating German wrestler Bad Bones to set up a TNA World Heavyweight Championship match against Bobby Lashley which he ended up losing. Along with occasionally still wrestling, Barnett has also become a color commentator providing English commentary to New Japan's California shows in 2017 & 2018 with legendary wrestling announcer Jim Ross and also announces for New Japan's show on AXS TV also with Ross.
Mark Coleman- Given how decorated an amateur wrestler Coleman is, it's probably not surprising that he's tried wrestling out. Coleman first appeared at Inoki Bom-Ba-Ye 2000 teaming with Mark Kerr to defeat Yuji Nagata and Takashi Iizuka and then appeared at New Japan's Dome Quake show on July 20, 2001 to defeat Nagata. Coleman also appeared in All Japan Pro Wrestling's Wrestle-1 supershows (not to be confused with the Wrestle-1 promotion) and Pro Wrestling ZERO1 for some shots with one match being a true freakshow teaming with Kevin Randleman against MMA & kickboxing tomato can Jan Nortje & future WWE World Heavyweight Champion The Great Khali. From 2004-2007, Coleman largely competed in HUSTLE where he teamed with Randleman which makes sense since HUSTLE was owned by Dream Stage Entertainment (the parent company of PRIDE) and even used a masked superhero gimmick named "Coleman". He eventually finished up with IGF in 2010.
Kevin Randleman- Coleman wasn't the only Team Hammer House member to wrestle and like Coleman, Randleman made sense as he had a great wresting background, was a great athlete, and had a great personality. Randleman first appeared at those WRESTLE-1 supershows teaming with Coleman. During the summer of 2003, he appeared in Pro Wrestling ZERO1 where he competed in the OH Tag Festival Tournament where he teamed with "The Predator" Sylvester Terkay with the two making it to the finals before losing to 2004 PRIDE Heavyweight Grand Prix Semifinalist Naoya Ogawa and UFC 23 Heavyweight Tournament Runner up Katsuhisa Fujii. From 2004-2007, Randleman wrestled for HUSTLE where he too used a masked superhero gimmick named "Randleman" while having two shots with IGF in 2007.
Shayna Baszler- Most people probably know this. Baszler is a member of Ronda Rousey's Four Horsewomen and like Rousey, is a huge fan of professional wrestling who turned to wrestling after her MMA career flamed out. Baszler turned pro in 2015 and started small working the indies where she won some titles while touring Japan for the Joshi (Japanese Women's Wrestling) promotion Stardom and then competed in the women's independent promotion SHIMMER during which time she challenged for the Heart of SHIMMER Title and the World of Stardom Title. In 2017, Baszler took part in WWE's Mae Young Classic where she made it to the finals before falling to Japanese sensation Kairi Sane. Afterwards, Baszler signed with the WWE and began working in their developmental territory NXT where she feuded with NXT Women's Champion Ember Moon who she eventually beat for the title at NXT TakeOver: New Orleans in April 2018.
Matt Riddle- One of the biggest success stories. Who'd a thought the former Ultimate Fighter would go from a pot smoking middle of the pack UFC fighter to a sensation on the wrestling independent circuit? Riddle trained at the legendary Monster Factory in 2015 and quickly won their promotion's heavyweight title. Since then, Riddle has primarily competed in the World Wrestling Network umbrella specifically for their EVOLVE promotion where he became the inaugural WWN Champion in April 2017 and then won the EVOLVE Title in April 2018 while also winning their Styles Battle Tournament in 2016. Riddle's work also earned him the Wrestling Observer Newsletter's Rookie of the Year & Most Improved for 2016. Riddle has also since competed in independent promotion Pro Wrestling Guerrilla where he held the Tag Team Titles. Riddle has also reportedly at one time been on the WWE and Impact Wrestling's radar to potentially come in.
Minowaman- Don't tell me you didn't see this one coming. I know I know, hard to believe that an MMA fighter with a nickname like "Minowaman", who runs around with a Japanese flag like a superhero cape, who fights much larger opponents, & who famously started his fight with Butterbean with a running dropkick would enter wrestling. Shocking but true. After big runs in Pancrase, PRIDE, and DREAM, Minowaman was trained by Satoru Sayama (the Original Tiger Mask & founder of Shooto) before he began wrestling in 2010 where he's mainly competed in IGF (notice a pattern?) where competed in the GENOME-1 2015 Osaka tournament but lost along with a few shots in Big Japan Pro Wrestling and an indy appearance at NOSAWA Bom-Ba-Ye 6 ~ Rongai All-Star Fight Night 2010. He also made appearances as Tiger Mask V including one in All Japan Pro Wrestling.
Shinya Aoki- Aoki is another who in recent years has begun dabbling in Professional Wrestling. The former Shooto, DREAM, and ONE Champion has been competing in IGF since 2013 as he debuted in an MMA fight at Inoki Bom-Ba-Ye 2013 and has largely transitioned into pro wrestling since by having wrestling matches. As is usually the case with IGF, Aoki has largely competed against former and current MMA fighters like Masakatsu Funaki, Kazuyuki Fujita, and Kendo Kashin while also taking on wrestlers like up and comers Daichi Hashimoto & Keisuke Okada to legends like Koji Kanemoto & Yoshiaki Fujiwara.
Gary Goodridge- MMA's most famous gatekeeper was one who entered wrestling very briefly only competing in four matches. Goodridge first appeared at Inoki Bom-Ba-Ye 2000 losing to former top New Japan star Shinya Hashimoto. He then wrestled three matches in New Japan in 2001 defeating Manabu Nakanishi at Dome Quake on July 20th, losing a rematch to Nakanishi during the G1 World tour on September 16th, and then defeated New Japan wrestler and PRIDE fighter Michiyoshi Ohara at Indicate of Next on October 8th.
Don Frye- The former two time UFC Tournament Winner made the transition to pro wrestling in 1997 after MMA went underground in America due to John McCain and other government officials launching a campaign against it's violent, no holds barred nature. Frye began competing in New Japan in August 1997 where he wrestled in wrestling matches and "different style fights" (worked MMA type fights). On April 4, 1998, Frye won the Inoki Final Tournament which granted him the opportunity to wrestle Antonio Inoki in his retirement match which he ended up losing but it was a huge moment not only given Inoki's status but the fact it was in front of a reported crowd of 70,000 fans in the Tokyo Dome. After briefly competing in Inoki's off shoot promotion UFO (Universal Fighting Arts Organization) as well as appearances in New Japan, Frye began competing regularly in New Japan by early 1999 and around this time would even come out with his UFC trophy belts. The Predator built a good career over the next two and a half years as one of New Japan's top foreigners as he became a member of Masahiro Chono's Team 2000 & then Keiji "The Great Muta" Mutoh's BATT (Bad Ass Translate Trading), he teamed with Chono in the 1999 G1 Tag League tournament, had three shots at the IWGP Heavyweight Championship against legends like Mutoh, Kensuke Sasaki, & Kazuyuki Fujita, and had an on-again/off-again rivalry with Scott Norton largely over who was the top foreigner in New Japan. Frye achieved another accomplishment when he won the only G1 World (a spinoff of New Japan's G1 Climax for foreigners) in September 2001 before resuming his MMA career in PRIDE. Along with being a wrestler, Frye also worked for New Japan as a trainer when Inoki began forcing his wrestlers into MMA with Frye helping to train them and corner them. After returning to MMA, Frye continued to make occasional appearances in wrestling including returning to New Japan for their Toukon Memorial Day 30th Anniversary show defeating Tadao Yasuda and reunited with Chono in his Black New Japan stable for a few matches in 2004. In 2003, Frye made a few appearances in World Japan and debuted in All Japan challenging Toshiaki Kawada for the top prize: the Triple Crown Heavyweight Championship. Since 2005, Frye has appeared rarely in wrestling mostly on special shows and an appearance in IGF in 2007 against Josh Barnett. In 2013, Frye returned to All Japan at their Pro Wrestling in Ryogoku 2013 ~ Basic & Dynamic show teaming with Mutoh against wrestler & former Pancrase fighter Masayuki Kono & Yoshihiro Takayama which saw Frye & Takayama recreate their legendary brawl from PRIDE 21: Demolition.
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