After refereeing the Fight Pit match between Matt Riddle and Seth Rollins at Extreme Rules, UFC commentator and former two-division champion Daniel Cormier says he’s open to doing more work with WWE.
He just needs to hit the gym first.
Cormier described his Extreme Rules experience as “the time of my life” in an interview with ESPN MMA. Interestingly, the UFC Hall of Famer said he was more nervous wearing the stripes than he ever was stepping into the cage for one of his own fights (h/t to Wrestling Observer for the transcription).
“I started forgetting the match,” Cormier said. “I was, like, ‘Oh my goodness I forgot the end.’ So, I kept having to ask questions. I was so nervous, but once I walked out there, it was so fun.
“The energy of the crowd is like second to none. I fought in front of bigger crowds than I was in front of last weekend but ultimately that’s — it’s a shoot, right? — I’m going to just fight, it is going to be what it is going to be. But to remember all the points of what you’re supposed to do in the match, dude, it was amazing.”
Cormier also talked about how his respect for the athleticism of WWE wrestlers grew even more after seeing them perform up close. He singled out Drew McIntyre and Karrion Kross, who competed in a Strap match earlier in the show, saying “the things that they do at their size, it’s crazy.”
The question now is whether Cormier would be open to trying those things himself. A popular theory is that fans will eventually see him have a WWE match against Brock Lesnar, as the two men teased a UFC fight in 2018 (that WWE even promoted) that never came together.
While Cormier didn’t mention Lesnar by name, he did sound like this might not be his only WWE appearance. But if he has a match in his future, he knows he’ll need to do some training ahead of it.
“They were talking to me about doing future things in the WWE and I go, ‘I’ll do things, but I got to get in shape first,’” Cormier said. “Like, give your boy some time to get some of this baggage of this luggage.”
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Daniel Cormier on doing more with WWE after referee gig: ‘I got to get in shape first’
