Strikeforce Nashville Brawl: Is MMA Becoming Professional Wrestling?

Jake Shields defeated Dan Henderson in a successful title defense of the Strikeforce middleweight belt. After the victory, Jason "Mayhem" Miller came out to greet Shields in what seemed like a gentleman-like request to have a rematch with the champ Shields.

What happened from there onward was simply embarrassing.

Strikeforce lightweight champion Gilbert Melendez and Shields decided to shove Miller, which progressed to an all-out brawl that included Shields’s training partners Nate and Nick Diaz, as well as everyone else in the cage. Even though Shields "didn’t think it was that big a deal," the post-fight conversations in MMA have been increasing in cheesy antics reminiscent of WWE.

These types of confrontational post-fight approaches have been around for a while now, the most salient one being between Rashad Evans and Quinton "Rampage" Jackson.

Despite both men being very talented fighters, their showdown after UFC 96 crossed the hype-buffer and dove full on into WWE territory. How many more times could we have heard, "I’m gonna get my belt back" and remained sane?

Immediately after his victory over Frank Mir at UFC 100, Brock Lesnar had what appeared to be a whole WWE meltdown that no UFC fan will ever forget. He eloquently said, "I’m gonna go home and drink a Coors Lite—that’s Coors Light—because Bud Light won’t pay me nothing," and followed it up with, "Hell, I might even go home and get on top of my wife tonight."

Some fighters still show respect for their opponents, such as Georges St. Pierre greeting Dan Hardy as a respectable opponent after Hardy’s win over Mike Swick at UFC 105.

However, with the likes of Brock Lesnar and Bobby Lashley, the presence of professional wrestling is undoubtedly in MMA. However, even MMA fighters that have never been associated with WWE are giving way to such attention-seeking behavior.

After Strikeforce Nashville ended, "Mayhem" lived up to his name, although he really isn’t to blame. Perhaps his timing was off, but can you blame Miller for wanting to offer a rematch to the champ Shields on live television? MMA is a lot about hype, and grudge matches typically make for better ratings.

Nevertheless, the display seen at the end of the Shields/Hendo match should never have happened. Perhaps it isn’t directly a result of the growing presence of WWE fans and fighters in MMA, but one can’t help but notice the direction that MMA appears to be heading.

Despite the fact that state athletic commissions don’t allow MMA fighters to fight in capes and masks, MMA is slowly growing into a more hype-based form of entertainment rather than skill-level assessment.

It’s not quite to the level of WWE showdowns, but if MMA fighters soon decide to grab the mic and yell "Oooh, yeeeah!" or "Brother, you don’t know what’s coming your way!" then it may be time for MMA to hang up its gloves and admit it’s no longer about martial arts at all.