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| King Mo Photo Credit: The Score |
MMA fighter Muhammad "King Mo" Lawal has signed two contracts, one with Bellator Fighting Championships (not surprising since he's a fighter by trade) and another with TNA Wrestling. Lawal, who has expressed interest in a career with WWE in the past, will do both and has expressed enthusiasm for his dual role. He's on the sidelines now, recovering from a knee injury and a staph infection.
More interestingly, according to PW Torch's Twitter, Spike TV President Kevin Kay has made the move with the intention of more fighers/wrestlers to go back and forth between Bellator and TNA, both Spike properties. On one hand, this is interesting because it's legitimately something different for TNA to hang its hat on. It's not the direction I'd go in, and lord knows there is potential for terrible things to happen given that MMA fighters don't necessarily have the training in worked matches like wrestlers do. There's also the potential for Kurt Angle to head into a Bellator main event where he gets submitted in three seconds because he's broken down and egomaniacal as fuck, but that would kinda hilarious. All that aside though, it's intriguing, and while intriguing isn't always good, I think this has way more potential for good programming than, say, having one of the Oompa Loompas from the Jersey Shore come on for a one-off to punk an existing superstar out.
On the other hand, they already tried this gambit with Bobby Lashley, and it kinda failed because of the scheduling. Training for a fight is serious business and takes a long time. How is someone like Lawal going to juggle being in TNA storylines for any amount of time and training for an upcoming fight which might make him more money? Where will his priorities be? Granted, the schedule could be worked out that he works a Roddy Piper/Chris Jericho schedule, which would keep him (and other crossover guys) fresh.
I don't know. This is all very new, and I don't want to come down on it either way because it could end up being one of the next big things in wrestling or flaming out like a lot of TNA's "innovative" ideas do. Either way though, it'll be pretty intriguing to see what King Mo brings to the table.
