If there’s one well-known fact about Vince McMahon, it’s that he likes big guys.
No, not in that way, at least I don’t think so.
What I mean is that Vince’s WWE is the Land of the Giants. Forget about smaller guys and average guys – to make it in WWE, you’ve got to stand out from the crowd and even today, when a lot of the newer talent doesn’t look as steroid-enhanced as it did back in the 80’s and 90’s, size still matters.
The problem with such a focus on bigger wrestlers though is the question, where do you find them? The talent pool for people 6’5” or taller and over 200lbs isn’t exactly a deep one when you’re competing with other sports that maybe have more respect due to their legitimacy.
There are however plenty of big guys in the UFC. Large, intimidating Heavyweights that could rival anyone in WWE in terms of size, ability, and marketability.
We’ve seen Brock Lesnar cross the stream from WWE to the UFC and then back again to monstrous success, and before that Ken Shamrock moved from the UFC to WWE and had a lot of success too.
Right now I can’t imagine that any UFC Heavyweight – save for Josh Barnett, who already does pro-wrestling in Japan and doesn’t have the look that Vince covets – wanting to move over, but that doesn’t mean Vince wouldn’t take them with open arms given the chance.
Here are five UFC Heavyweights that Vince would probably give his right arm to get into the WWE Universe.
#1 Alistair Overeem
Okay, so there’s no point beating around the bush. Overeem isn’t quite as ‘Uber’ anymore, not since the incident in 2012 that saw him popped for elevated testosterone levels.
Ignoring that, though, you can bet your bottom dollar that if given the chance, Vinny Mac would bring him into WWE without a second thought.
For one, WWE’s Wellness Policy isn’t nearly as strict as the UFC’s USADA-headed testing program. That means that if he were allowed to do so, Overeem could get back onto the vitamin regime that saw him blow up to 260lbs with a Herculean physique back in 2009-11.
Back then, Overeem was perhaps the most intimidating man in all of MMA. That run ended with his dominant win over Brock Lesnar, a one-sided fight that saw the Reem stop Lesnar midway through the first round with a barrage of knees to the body and finally a kick to the liver.
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The win over Lesnar alone would make him a huge acquisition for WWE – can you imagine them being able to promote Brock against the last man to beat him in MMA? Assuming Overeem could get back to the size he was back then, the staredown alone would draw money.
Throw in the fact that Overeem carries himself like a Superstar, draws legions of fans from Europe, and can also talk extremely well on the mic without slipping up, and you’ve got a possible megastar for WWE.
Vince would absolutely love to get this guy aboard I’m sure.
#2 Andrei Arlovski
Arlovski is now very much past his MMA prime. An improbable comeback in 2014-15 was derailed last January by Stipe Miocic and he’s since lost a further three in a row.
That wouldn’t matter at all to Vince, though.
Regardless of his losses, Arlovski remains, visually, one of the scariest fighters in all of MMA. He’s a huge guy – 6’3”, almost 250lbs – and walks around in tremendous shape, but it’s his general image that makes him intimidating.
With his shaggy hair, thick beard and fanged mouthpiece, Arlovski is the closest thing to a real-life werewolf that you’ll ever see in professional sports. Back in his original UFC run of the early 2000’s, he walked to the cage to the sound of a thrash metal track called ‘Onward to Victory’.
It was genuinely terrifying.
With his size, natural charisma, and an already-established and recognisable image, Arlovski is practically custom-made for WWE. And although he’s more known for his striking these days, his sambo background means he could probably pick up some mat work pretty quickly.
The one drawback for Andrei would be his shaky mic skills, but WWE could place him on a team or put a mouthpiece with him, and I think they’d have success. Maybe Vince could team him with Rusev, two Eastern European powerhouses working together.
At 38, Arlovski’s MMA career is winding down, but if Vince could get hold of him you can bet his WWE career would skyrocket.
#3 Francis Ngannou
There’s a lot of fanfare around French-Cameroonian fighter Francis Ngannou right now. Many people, myself included, consider him the very best Heavyweight prospect in the UFC if not all of MMA.
He’s currently 5-0 in the UFC and is closing in quickly on the upper echelon of the division. He may well find himself holding the UFC Heavyweight title at some point in the future.
To look at the guy, he’s also got everything that Vince McMahon craves.
Ngannou is 6’4”, 256lbs of pure muscle. He looks like he’s been sculpted from granite, a real life superhuman, and when he had his longer braided hairstyle, he was somehow even more intimidating. Like a real-life Predator, almost, living up to his nickname.
What would serve Ngannou well in WWE – and make him more attractive to Vince – is his freakish strength and athleticism. In December, Ngannou fought another huge man in Anthony Hamilton and practically threw him into a kimura like he was a child.
A standing kimura that throws someone to the ground at Heavyweight isn’t just rare – to my knowledge it’d never happened before that fight.
Can you imagine Ngannou throwing some of the smaller wrestlers in WWE around like that? It could look something like Brock Lesnar’s early days when he tossed the likes of Spike Dudley and the Hardy Boyz around with ease.
Judging by his recent interviews, Ngannou is a soft-spoken killer and that could hold him back in the WWE. But give him a gimmick of a silent savage complete with a mouthpiece, and you can bet your life he’d get over as a big deal.
Vinny Mac would love it.
#4 Travis Browne
Browne doesn’t look as intimidating as any of the previous three entries, although that’s not to say that he’s in bad shape at all – he just doesn’t have the aura of Overeem, the muscularity of Ngannou or, well, the fangs of Arlovski.
He does bring something else though that would be coveted by Vince, and that’s his relationship with Ronda Rousey.
Despite her slide in the past year, Ronda is still one of the biggest names in MMA – and a guaranteed box office draw. We already know that Vince has tried to bring her aboard before – for a possible match at Wrestlemania 32, for starters – but it’s never come off except for her one-off appearance at WrestleMania 31.
Bringing her other half Browne aboard though would be a different thing altogether.
If they came as a couple then I’m sure Vince would be seeing nothing but dollar signs. Even by himself, Browne could be a solid acquisition. He’s big enough for WWE, standing at 6’7” and weighing around 240lbs. He’s a tremendous athlete, too, even if he’s struggled in the UFC recently.
More than that, though, he gives off some of the best heel vibes that I’ve ever seen inside the Octagon.
Something about him just screams “unlikeable”. Whether it’s his relationship with Ronda and her notorious trainer Edmond Tarverdyan, his history of domestic violence, or simply the fact that he comes off as arrogant, people want to boo Travis.
If he came into the WWE with a similar attitude, complete with his links to Rousey – and especially if she could follow him for the odd guest appearance every now and then – Travis Browne would practically be a licence for WWE to print money.
And as we all know, Vince loves money!
#5 Todd Duffee
Everything that I said about Francis Ngannou could’ve applied to Todd Duffee just a handful of years ago.
When he broke into the UFC, he did so with the biggest possible bang – by setting a record for the fastest Heavyweight knockout in UFC history, switching Tim Hague’s lights out in just seven seconds.
Duffee looked like a Greek god; like a man who’d just stepped out of a WWE ring, in fact. And apparently, he hit very, very hard too. The sky seemed to be the limit for him.
Unfortunately, it hasn’t all been smooth sailing for Todd since. He’s picked up two further UFC wins and suffered two further losses, but the major story of his career has been injuries.
He’s spent more time on the shelf than in the cage, and at this point – he hasn’t fought since July 2015 and recently withdrew from another fight – you have to wonder if he’ll ever reach his potential.
In WWE though? Todd Duffee could easily be a Superstar. While he’s a little on the short side at 6’2”, he also weighs in at around 250lbs and is built like a tank. With a clean-cut look reminiscent of a star quarterback in college, Duffee looks exactly what you’d imagine the type of guy Vince McMahon would want to push to look like.
Similarly to wrestling legend Lex Luger, you could easily see Duffee working well as an arrogant heel or an all-American babyface. And although the film wasn’t a success, Todd did star in Never Back Down II which at least suggests that he might be able to play a character.
If he could stay healthy – and that’s a big if, given his history with injuries – Duffee would be tailor made for WWE. When he fought Alistair Overeem in 2010, many fans pointed out that Vince McMahon would’ve loved to promote that fight, simply due to how both men looked.
I’m sure that idea hasn’t changed at all, and he’d probably love to promote someone like Duffee today.
Any other Heavyweights you think Vince McMahon would love to get his hands on? Let us know.
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