There is no one in sports or on TV for that matter who is funnier unscripted than Rampage. So at the very least, he can be a B-list reality star. He is WAY more entertaining than all those idiots like Flava Flav, the singer from Poison, Jon and Kate, the Kardashian sisters, and so on… even if he does B movies, he is ahead.

Personally, I think Cung Le has a better chance in movies and a better chance at returning to mma. Let’s face it, as much talent as Rampage has, he could never beat Machida. Griffin beat him, and though that was controversial, Griffin was destroyed by Anderson Silva, and Evans was destroyed by Machida. They are now far and away the best two LHW’s, and Silva mainly competes at MW. However, Rampage is going to be on TV for a long, long time. The general population will know him. They have no idea who Machida is. Heck, they don’t even know who Silva is.

I think The Rock and Rampage situations are pretty similar actually, Angry Mike, and I’ll be interested to see what happens. As for laughing with vs. laughing at, well… money and fame don’t always care about the difference. Someone is still letting Robin Williams make movies and oh yeah, I think I saw Chuck Liddel in copious amounts of shiny material trying to do the Venetian Waltz on national television Monday night!

The Rock got *very* lucky with The Scorpion King- big budget action flick that was already part of a franchise. Yes, it was smart of him to take that role but no one would remember The Rock now if he left the WWE to go make indie romcoms. That kind of mainstream crossover success is very rare- just ask Stone Cold Cold (who has made a total of three movies post WWE peak that no one saw), Chyna (who took off her clothes- people cared for like three seconds; next seen on Celebrity Rehab), and The Big Show (who was reduced to doing WWE storylines with Kevin Federline in 2006). These were all The Rock’s contemporaries at the time as well as some guy named Brock Lesner…

Rampage is in the A-Team which is going to have a lot of nostalgia going for it, and he’s playing a role originated by Mr. T AND they somehow got Liam Neeson attached to the project. He’d be an idiot NOT to take this and milk it for all it is worth. When Rampage has to do press for the movie in 17 countries I’m sure he will provide the best soundbites. We really have no idea if The Rock left on good terms or not- surely his fans were disappointing and surely Vince would have liked to have him stay in the WWE and make him a ton more money. All of the WWE’s public storylines are crafted on purpose, and not messily played out on Dana White’s Twitter in a flurry of bad grammar and short bald man rage. If there were bad feelings between Vince and Rocky we may never know.

The TLDR: This is Rampage’s “Rock” moment. Rampage isn’t an idiot, he just likes to play one… on the big screen, with international distribution, and for a shit ton of money.

Now when it comes to him wanting to fight Machida and Dana having him fight Rashad first I have a huge problem. If he is even remotely telling the truth than I completely understand him being disgusted with Dana. If the UFC came out and said that they wanted to have him and Rashad fight each other for any reason I wouldve been fine with it, but if they made Rampage say he didnt think he was ready for Machida yet than I say fuck em. We all know you wanted the big money fight with Rashad and Rampage. The UFC is really starting to tread down a bumpy road. Hopefully they can right the ship before mma goes the way of boxing.

I think he just brought the storm he may have been trying to anticipate in that case.

I’m relatively new to UFC and pro-MMA in general and never heard of Tito Ortiz except to know he is having kids by Jenna Jameson. I came in during Dana’s blacklisting and blacking out of all things Tito- absent from highlight reels, UFC retrospectives, Hall of Fame hype, etc. How did I not know Dana aired a masturbatory hour long special of him training to fight Tito in the cage? Hilarious! No fan of Schadenfreude should ever not be able to see that! With the role he’s played in the UFC I *should* have heard of Tito, but it was like he didn’t exist as a relevant figure because of Dana refusing to acknowledge him. I found out for myself eventually sure, but Rampage is not totally unwarranted to want to leave his legacy in the hands of a larger public- not just UFC associates.

Moreover, Rampage should do very very well on the big screen. He’s kooky, can be sly or bombastic, and his charisma is evident all over TUF 10 and his acting out with Rashad, Kimbo and the other fighters. As someone up-thread mentioned, he is now going to be the token black guy in shitty movies. Agreed, but do you know how much even bit players get paid? Rampage can show up, flex his muscles, throw out some quips, get eaten by space monsters in the first five minutes and the DVD residuals alone would still put any current and future children of his though college. He’s still home in time for dinner and made in five days what would have taken him months to earn in the octagon.

Randy Couture is a brilliant fighter and a gift to MMA. But that will never translate to movies: his time on screen in the Scorpion King? Awfulsauce. Rampage could go the way of The Rock who manages to work steady despite being unable to act just though the sheer force of his personality. And Dana White is very close to jumping the shark with his bullying tactics. That shark is named Vince McMahon, and Dana has been chumming the waters for years with his rampant ego mania and hunger for absolute control.

I disagree that he has done more for them than they have done for him as they gave him top tier competition constantly and he became a superstar in the U.S. almost overnight. Sure the fans boo’d him origionally but that’s the way it goes when you de-throne a legend. It wasn’t all bad beating Chuck Liddell was it?

And everyone knew he was the undisputed LHW champ. They mentioned it about 45328795787 times during the PPV when hyping the fight that the winner would be.

Dana probly put fuel on the fire by speaking to the media so openly about the situation, but I still think he had to say SOMETHING. Everyone was freaking out about this movie role so he had to chime in. Did he go above and beyond? Tough call. Dana has a part to play with his job. And I definately agree that once Dana has brought the UFC to where it wants to be, things will change. He can’t be speaking the way he is because the bad may start to outweigh the good with him.

Maybe Rampage feels he is in a position of power and wants to show the UFC how valuable he is to them. This is most likely what is going on. I don’t see Quinton Jackson becoming the next Denzel Washington.

Stay tuned for the ensuing soap opera.

Madmax