Source: PWInsider.com
Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, who is forming his own Mixed Martial Arts promotion, recently told MMAWeek.com that he would be interested in a potential partnership with World Wrestling Entertainment.
Cuban said, “We’ve been in discussions with the WWE, Vince and Linda McMahon and Shane about doing some cross promotions under the HDNet Fights banner. Since they do a great job of putting together events, within some of the restraints that I talked about, the no ring girls and obviously the events have to be straight up, thereâs no scripted anything, but they want to get into that side of the business. They realize that if they just brand it as WWE, that people arenât going to believe that itâs not scripted, but if they work with Mark Cuban and HDNet Fights and the Dallas Mavericks approach, then people will trust it.â
Shane McMahon has been said to be high up on the MMA industry and has been pushing others in WWE to branch into that direction.
Vince McMahon addressed the possibility of a WWE-branded MMA product at the WWE stockholders meeting this May. McMahon said that the company had looked into it but itâs tough to build an intellectual property and noted that it is a real sport. McMahon explained to stockholders that once you build a guy up and he gets knocked out, youâre left with nothing. He also said that he felt like MMA would burnout and doubted that it would have a long-running legacy like boxing.
