Had Dwayne Johnson's movie not taken off, we may very well have seen him inside the Octagon.
We'll never find out if that would have been an enjoyable thing to watch or not. History doesn't really help us draw any conclusions either.
When you think of WWE stars who crossed over to the UFC, two fighters spring to mind.
One WWE star took the sport by storm, rebounded from a loss and became the baddest dude on the planet by claiming the undisputed heavyweight title. Although his return at UFC 200 was marred by a failed drug test, Brock Lesnar's UFC tenure was still undoubtedly an overwhelming success.
The other professional wrestler-turned-MMA fighter that everyone thinks of is CM Punk... and we all know how that disaster turned out.
https://twitter.com/SportsJOEdotie/status/880056984648785920
Dwayne Johnson is a bit different to Phil Brooks though. Firstly, he has been cultivating way more mass for a longer time and he's way more charismatic. We're not really sure how he is at the fighting, but at the very least, his UFC debut would have been certain to draw a lot of eyes.
The Rock's UFC debut came and at 46, it's unlikely to come anytime soon. However, he considered switching to the world's fastest-growing sport a decade ago. He even had an elite coach and a reasonable-ish time frame in mind.
In the end, though, sense prevailed and his jaw remained intact.
https://twitter.com/TheRock/status/889181274249641984
The Fast and the Furious movies make billions of dollars.
We're pretty sure he made the right decision.
