Sonnen says he and Wand to meet with WWE
Wanderlei Silva: “I got a million dollar offer from WWE, and I’m thinking how only the MMA fighters get paid little money. They presented me numbers.”
Brock Lesnar has gone back and forth between the WWE and the UFC, so there would be some precedent for it working in reverse. There are conflicting reports that not one but two former UFC stars may be heading for the The Squared Circle.
Chael Sonnen and Wanderlei Silva each ran afoul of PED tests, and are suspended for two years, and indefinitely, respectively. The WWE does not appear to mind PED use, and both fighters connect with fans in powerful and unique ways, so it might be a natural fit.
The Gangster from Oregon appeared recently on Michael Landsberg’s ‘On the Record’ and said that the WWE had invited he and Wand to Wrestlemania 31 on Mar. 29 to meet with company officials.
“That’s fact,” said Sonnen, as transcribed by David St. Martin for MMAfighting. “Look, I got a call from the WWE. They said, ‘Look, we’ve got Wrestlemania, we’ve got a Hall of Fame show coming up in March. If you want to come out, come on out. We want to talk to you about some stuff.’
“They’re buying me a plane ticket there, giving me a great seat to the show. I do enjoy that product. I don’t know what we are talking about, but I will give you a scoop. Wanderlei Silva was also invited. I don’t know if he’s accepted and I don’t know if the two are related, but there you go.”
However, when Chael Sonnen says something is a “fact,” you have to look again. What Chael Sonnen says in media is not intended to convey truth, it is intended to further his aims. He’s smart, and he gets it. The media doesn’t care about the truth either, they are just trying to further their aims.
The WWE then claimed Chael’s fact just wasn’t so.
“There has been no invitation from WWE for Chael Sonnen to attend WrestleMania,” read a message from the WWE to WrestlingInc.com.
However, if you read between the lines, there was wiggle room for the WWE, who could worry about legal threats of tortious interference. They could have invited Chael for a meeting, that just happened to be at WrestleMania, and therefore was not an invite specifically to WrestleMania.
Then Wanderlei Silva posted in Facebook that he had in fact been invited to meet with the WWE.
I received a great proposal of WWE and now I’m wondering what you think of the idea!!! Recebi uma proposta milionária do WWE o telequete americano,e estou pensando,como pode somente os lutadores de MMA recebem pouco,apresentaram números q eu nunca vi,o que vcs acham da ideia????
“I got a million dollar offer from WWE, and I’m thinking how only the MMA fighters get paid little money” wrote Wand in Portuguese. “They presented me numbers I have never seen before. What do you think of the idea?”
No one knows more about the combined worlds of pro wrestling and mixed martial arts than Dave Meltzer, so he gets the last word, for now. Via the Wrestling Observer (subscription).
“Okay, so here’s the deal with Chael Sonnen and WrestleMania,” wrote Meltzer. “Sonnen will be attending the Hall of Fame and WrestleMania in San Jose. He’s expected to talk with people in WWE. It is not a formal meeting but it is expected to happen. As far as Wanderlei Silva goes and WWE, I don’t know that there’s anything to that at all. Silva may be doing pro wrestling within a few weeks, but it’s not official at this point, but it wouldn’t be for WWE.”
So there’s the truth.
Or is it?