Everyone is now pretty much against buying PRIDE. Even Shane McMahon, who is a MMA fan, now has a negative feeling to the idea. Although, WWE does recognize the value of the PRIDE tape library and would be interested in some of the fighters.
Basically, they want the heavyweights who have “the look” and also those they feel are marketable characters, such as Bob Sapp, Tank Abbott and Butterbean. They don’t believe that the lightweight fighters will draw and although they’d use them, they’d never give them a chance to be anything other than what they’d allow pro wrestlers of that size to be.
The only person in the company though with any MMA knowledge though is Shane McMahon, but even he is a big casual fan who thinks he’s an expert as he feels he’s a tough guy and likes to talk to Undertaker backstage about MMA. Shane even used to tell Ken Shamrock when he was in WWE about how he’d be able to do well in UFC because he’s tough and won a few fights as a kid.
