What’s the story?
According to a story on wrestlezone.com, Tito Ortiz was seen at Smackdown! Live tonight in the crowd.
In case you didn’t know...
Tito Ortiz actually has a history in professional wrestling, making sporadic appearances for TNA Wrestling in 2005 and 2013. He was a special guest referee for several matches in 2005, serving in the role for two Jeff Jarrett NWA World Championship defences, both of which he lost.
In 2013, Ortiz returned to TNA as he revealed himself as the man responsible for the #August1Warning Youtube videos and tweets before he stared The Main Event Mafia and Aces and Eights down. Ortiz would end up turning on The Main Event Mafia and align himself with Aces & Eights.
On the No Surrender pay-per-view, it was announced that Bellator MMA had pulled him from TNA programming due to his upcoming pay-per-view fight with Quentin “Rampage” Jackson.
Ortiz announced that his fight against fellow former UFC star, Chael Sonnen, at Bellator 170 in January 2017, would be his last MMA fight. Tito won in the first round via submission.
The heart of the matter
Twitter user @dosleprechauns posted a picture to his Twitter account of Tito Ortiz in the crowd at Smackdown! Live tonight.
What’s next?
It’s not entirely certain what is next in this situation, as it’s unknown at this point if Tito Ortiz has had any discussions with WWE, or if he was just in attendance as a fan of the product.
Sportskeeda’s Take
If Tito Ortiz was in the audience specifically to watch with his family, we hope he enjoyed the show. If you’re watching the show and you are trying to see him in the crowd, he and his family are located behind the commentary table. Smackdown! Live was filmed in Anaheim, California tonight, which is very close to Tito’s hometown of Huntington Beach.
However, if Tito Ortiz was there as a guest of Vince or Shane, that’s an intriguing possibility. Tito Ortiz turned forty-two years old this year, but age hasn’t stopped WWE from pushing talents before. After all, Bill Goldberg just turned fifty years old and he’s likely to be in the main event of WrestleMania this year. Tito is a legitimate athlete who has a fighting background, and if Vince is aware of who he is, he might be interested.
We doubt that Tito was in attendance as anything other than a fan, but stranger things have happened.
