Daniel Cormier On WWE Contacting Him For Commentary Tryout, If He Would Rather Wrestle In WWE
Current UFC Heavyweight and Light Heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier made wrestling news last month during what was supposed to be an interview about his upcoming fight at UFC 230. Cormier revealed that he had a planned tryout to be a WWE commentator, but it was postponed due to his UFC schedule.
Cormier, who called out Brock Lesnar after defeating Derrick Lewis at UFC 230 last night, talked more about the still-in-the-works tryout and why he's so interested in working with WWE.
"They called me. They reached out to my assistant. It was WWE, not Fox. They called me about going to Orlando, Florida," Cormier told Busted Open Radio. "I had a tentative date, but then I couldn't make that date. Afterward, they asked me to go back but they were on tour or something for a month, and I was like, I want to do it with the entire commentary team. I don't want to do it with one guy here and one guy there because I wanted to see who I can mesh with, and they were like, okay let's schedule it in November.
"But then I took this [UFC 230] fight and then it got pushed back again. We will revisit this. I am going to Orlando to the Performance Center to do my gig to see how it works out. I am very passionate about pro wrestling. I have watched it my whole life. You can YouTube my reaction to when Seth Rollins won the World Championship at WrestleMania 31. I am very passionate. It is what I like to do. Since I was a kid I liked watching wrestling and is a dream to be able to do something with them in the future."
Many may not realize that Cormier is an accomplished wrestler in his own right. He was a two-time JUCO national champion and was an All-American at Oklahoma State University. He then made two Olympic teams in freestyle wrestling before pursuing a career in MMA.
But Cormier doesn't have interest in being a pro wrestler due to his age. However, he wouldn't rule out having a couple of matches here and there.
"I will be 40 years old come March of 2019. [In response to Undertaker and Triple H being over 40 and wrestling] Again, they did this when they were younger, I don't know the game, or take bumps and learned to do all of that. Am I saying that it is out of the realm of possibilities to do a one-off here and there? I would be into it, but I'd be more of a protector of the announce table going forward," stated Cormier.
"I think people misunderstand how tough it is to do the job. They misunderstand the amount of damage your bodies take on a day-to-day basis. They see you on Mondays or Sundays once a month, but they don't see the Tuesday house shows, the Thursday house show or Saturday house show, the travel. I don't think people understand the true toughness of a WWE superstar."
If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit Busted Open Radio with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.
Source: Busted Open Radio
Peter Bahi contributed to this article.