5 Top WWE Superstars who were successful in MMA

Over the years, WWE has grown to become a household name. In WWE, Superstars come from different backgrounds from around the world. There are some whose character is purely Sports Entertainment, but there are also those whose fighting skills inside the ring are extremely legitimate.

Some Superstars have had a career in MMA before or after their careers in WWE. These Superstars used their abilities inside the Octagon and competed in a professional capacity in MMA.

While some of these Superstars had fully-fledged careers in UFC, some of them competed in other promotions as well.

In this article, we will be outlining only the top WWE Superstars to have competed in, and achieved some sort of success, in MMA. So, no CM Punk, despite him having competed in the UFC. He is yet to get a win, so he remains an honorable mention on this list.

#5 Alberto Del Rio

Although this may surprise some WWE fans, Alberto Del Rio has legitimate credentials next to his name. The controversial former WWE Champion has had an extensive amateur wrestling and professional MMA career to his name.

With a record of 9-5, Alberto Del Rio has achieved a lot during his time in MMA. During that time, he has fought in Deep, Pride, MMA Xtreme, and Cage of Combat.

On 11th October, 2016, he was named the President of Combate Americas, the MMA promotion. It was a decorative title, and he stepped back from the role in 2017.

It has been announced that Alberto Del Rio will be re-entering the MMA Octagon at a Combate Americas event, the date of which is yet to be announced, although it was confirmed that it would take place in the fall. It will be his biggest MMA fight yet, against UFC legend and Hall of Famer, Tito Ortiz.

#4 Ken Shamrock

If there is one MMA fighter who is easily recognizable in WWE, it's Ken Shamrock. The former MMA fighter and UFC Hall of Famer is a legend both in Mixed Martial Arts and MMA circles.

He was successful as a fighter and has a whole list of accomplishments next to his name. Other than being in the UFC Hall of Fame, he was the inaugural UFC Superfight Champion. He also had the longest fight in the history of UFC against yet another UFC and MMA legend, Royce Gracie. The fight took place at UFC 5, and the two of them went at each other for 36 minutes.

In WWE, Ken Shamrock was famous during his time as the world's 'most dangerous man'. His MMA background was used in wrestling to make his persona appear more dangerous and he used his legitimate skills inside the ring to make his wrestling style appear even more dangerous.

He had an incredible record of 28-15-2 during his career.

#3 Bobby Lashley

Bobby Lashley might be a top WWE Superstar at the moment (although he is out injured at the moment), but he has a legitimate background in MMA.

He was extremely talented as an amateur wrestler and during his time in wrestling, was able to win the NAIA National Wrestling Champion, as well as winning several medals in the CISM Military World Championships.

He has a record of 17-2 in MMA and fought and won all of his fights for Bellator MMA. He defeated Josh Burns, Josh Appelt, James Thompson among others. He also fought in Super Fight League, Strikeforce, and Titan FC.

He won most of his fights via submission with the Rear Naked Choke being his go-to move of choice.

#2 Brock Lesnar

If there is one WWE Superstar who has achieved enormous success in every sphere of his wrestling and MMA career, it's the "Beast Incarnate" Brock Lesnar.

Lesnar started his career as an amateur wrestler. He achieved enormous success in that field and soon was signed by WWE. After a brief stint in OVW, he made the jump to the main roster very soon, using his impressive physique to assault and dominate each opponent that he came face to face with.

The fighter would dominate WWE for a while, before leaving to pursue a career in American Football. When that did not work out, he signed with Hero's. There he fought and defeated Min-Soo Kim. Soon after, he was signed by UFC. He lost his debut fight to Frank Mir but would bounce back with a win. He went on to defeat Randy Couture to become the UFC Heavyweight Champion, and the defeated Frank Mir and Shane Carwin to defend the title.

He eventually lost it to Cain Velasquez.

After this, he would fight Alistair Overeem to lose yet again. This would mark the end of this stint in UFC as he returned to WWE.

However, he did go back in 2016, and although he defeated Mark Hunt, the win was overturned after he had a positive drug test. Dana White announced that Lesnar had told him he was retiring from UFC in 2019.

He had a record of 5-3.

Bonus: Dave Batista

Before heading into the final name on this list, we can't leave out Dave Batista.

Although it is not known, Batista had an MMA career with one win on his record. He had one fight which saw him utterly decimate his opponent and grab a win. He is better known for his run in WWE, where he was part of Evolution and went on to have an amazing singles career.

He faced Vince Lucero in an MMA fight. Batista was not particularly brilliant in the Octagon, but he was able to get a technical KO in a sloppy showing. Nevertheless, Batista fought in and remained undefeated in MMA.

Currently, he has an extremely successful career as an actor.

#1 Dan 'The Beast' Severn

Although Dan Severn was part of WWE for only a short time, he was, and before that, he had a career in NWA and other wrestling promotions for a long time.

Severn is recognized due to his amazing amateur wrestling credentials. He used this to his advantage as he went on to fight in 127 professional MMA fights in his career. He is a UFC Hall of Famer.

He had an exceptionally high finishing rate, finishing more than 50% of his opponents, as he knocked out 17 of his opponents, while he made 60 of them submit in the Octagon.

Dan 'The Beast' Severn fought well into his 50s and won several championships and accomplishments in his career on a variety of promotions.

He is the first and only UFC Triple Crown Champion, as he won the UFC Superfight Championship, a world title, as well as a tournament.