I’ve been tooling around with this idea about how Viacom and Spike have potentially one of the best possible combat sports feuds in a long time between their fingers, but will no doubt never pull the trigger, to mix some metaphors. Now, with Rampage Jackson supposedly boxing Roy Jones Jr. at the end of the year in some sort of PPV extravaganza, it seems like as good of a time as any to discuss this fictional scenario that will likely never come to be.
The idea is simple, and it manifested itself when Spike announced they had scooped up the broadcasting rights to Glory. Now, with Bellator and TNA, they kind of had this weird, combat sport market cornered into a trifecta of possible awesomeness. With the signing of Rampage Jackson they have all of the parts necessary to build a monolithic monster of a feud with King Mo, as long as Rampage Jackson and King Mo decided they wanted to go through with this kooky idea floating around in my brain.
This is how it will go down (fiction warning):
It starts with the age-old wrestling run in: either Mo or Rampage will be working the mic in the TNA ring, when one interrupts the other with a steel chair to the back. Let’s say it’s Mo who nails Rampage, because Rampage has better mic skills right now. So Page is working the mic, humping one of the announcers or whatever he wants to do, when King Mo slides into the ring and knocks him out like I described above. Maybe Page would even blade and make it awesome but I doubt it. So then Mo throws down the steel chair and challenges Page to a fight, and not this fake wrestling stuff either: “I want a match in Bellator!” Mo screams.
The next week Rampage walks out in the TNA ring, and he agrees that it’s time for a fight: “Hey, Mo: I don’t want to beat your chair-swinging ass just once… No, no, no. I want to kick your ass three times, so you can see who’s really king.” Mo is blown away, and Rampage continues: “Match number one will be in the Bellator cage.” The camera lands on Mo getting more and more pissed, then back to Rampage. “Match number two… Match number two, bitch, will take place right here in the squared circle of the TNA ring.” The crowd roars. “And the third match, not like we’ll need it after I kick your ass twice, but I’ll let you and the people out there know anyway; the third match will be a kickboxing match, Glory style, so that way you can’t do your little wrestle**** game if you actually do win one.” The camera stays on Mo, his crown gleaming in the lights of TNA. He brings the mic to his lips “I’m not afraid of a has-been like you. Let’s do it.” The crowd goes wild, Twitter blows up, and headlines are made.
The usual fight promotion song and dance graces our airwaves for a month or so until King Mo and Rampage meet on Spike in a deep Bellator card with at least a title fight or two, thus guaranteeing massive ratings. Naturally, the fight will play out however it plays out. King Mo or Rampage will win the fight, and for the sake of the article, let’s say Mo wins the Bellator fight (because that’s what would probably happen). No matter what this alone is a huge fight, and will get big ratings for Spike but just wait. This will naturally set up the TNA match a month or two later, in which Rampage will get his revenge and defeat King Mo in the TNA ring on Spike. The TNA fight can even still put over both dudes, but Page should win cleanly. WIth this, the war would be tied a battle apiece at 1-1. The finals would be a stand up fight in Glory on Spike, and the ratings would be massive, garnering a huge amount of ratings from the casual fans and crossover fans alike.
Who knows who would win the final kickboxing match, but very few kicks would likely be thrown, that’s for sure. We would probably get 3 x 3 minute rounds of an entertaining close to a trilogy of fights the likes no one has ever seen before. Unless you look at Ken Shamrock vs. Steve Blackman. If Page wants to stand up and bang — let him. I bet Mo would be happy to oblige and it would make for a feud no one has ever seen. MMA, wrestling and kickboxing. Putting over Bellator, TNA and Glory with a cool crossover storyline rarely seen outside of comic books.
But most importantly: we wouldn’t be seeing Rampage possibly lose to Roy Jones Jr. in what is ultimately a meaningless fight.
Or I could be nuts.
