Ken Shamrock Teases Involvement In WWE Extreme Rules Match

With the surprise announcement on "Raw" that Matt Riddle will face Seth Rollins in the third ever Fight Pit match at the upcoming Extreme Rules premium live event on October 8 at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, WWE alumnus Ken Shamrock took to Twitter to respond to a tweet suggesting he be the special referee for the match. The tweet, showing Shamrock in his special referee attire for the WrestleMania 13 submission match between Bret "The Hitman" Hart and "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, was quote tweeted by 'The World's Most Dangerous Man', who said "Couldn't agree more!"

Shamrock, who competed in Lions Den matches against the late Owen Hart and "The Lethal Weapon" Steve Blackman at SummerSlam 1998 and 1999, respectively, was last seen in the WWE on the September 21, 1999 episode of "SmackDown," where he lost to Chris Jericho in a First Blood Match. In his time away from WWE, Shamrock stayed involved in combat sports, having a trilogy against Tito Ortiz in the UFC as well as becoming the NWA Champion on the debut pay-per-view of NWA Total Nonstop Action on June 19, 2002. Shamrock was inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame as part of the Pioneer Wing in 2003 and into the IMPACT Wrestling Hall of Fame in 2020.

The upcoming Fight Pit match between Riddle and Rollins will mark the first time the match will be seen outside of the "NXT" brand. Riddle competed in the first Fight Pit match, which was his swan song from "NXT," against Timothy Thatcher on the May 27, 2020 episode of "NXT" and the match was officiated by WWE Hall of Famer Kurt Angle. Thatcher would compete in (and win) another Fight Pit match, this time against Tomasso Ciampa, on the January 20, 2021 episode of "NXT."