Alistair Overeem has always been outspoken about professional wrestling, but almost set foot into the ring for the first time in 2022.
For years, he had ran down the sport of pro-wrestling, criticising it as “fake”, compared to the mixed-martial arts fights that helped make him a legend.
In a 2021 interview, he called wrestling “lame and stupid”, noting that it was just “bad acting”. He also noted that he never watched Brock Lesnar or CM Punk‘s (former WWE Champions) fights in the UFC.
“It’s lame, it’s stupid. It’s not even a sport. It’s just lame. It’s bad acting. It’s just lame. Sorry for all the fans of WWE, but I’m just being honest. I’m just giving my opinion. Free country, right?
“I think it’s lame, and because I hadn’t seen it for 20 years. I never watched Brock fight. I never watched CM Punk fight. I knew they were from WWE.”
However, he seemed to have a change of heart, when a match between Alistair Overeem and Braun Strowman was scheduled for June 2022.
Alistair Overeem Wrestling Debut
Alistair Overeem’s first match in wrestling was supposed to take place on the June 4th, 2022 event run by Wrestling Entertainment Series.
WES was the promotion created by Akam and Rezar, AKA The Authors of Pain, who had recently been released by the WWE.
The main event of the show was booked to pit Alistair Overeem against the recently released Adam “The Titan” Scherr, who was better known in the WWE as Braun Strowman.
The match was the biggest on the show, which also included Kalisto vs Lince Dorado and Nia Jax vs Lana (allegedly).
However, the show never took place.
The Authors of Pain made the brilliant decision to book the show in Nottingham, on the same weekend as The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee.
Up and down the country, millions tuned in to watch the variety of celebrations and concerts, and attending Jubilee-specific events, like street parties and carnivals.
This made it a horrible weekend to book a wrestling show, which they noticed in the days prior and postponed their show for another month.
With the move to July, Alistair Overeem was forced to pull out of his wrestling debut, and to this day still has not made his debut in the squared circle.
The postponed show never ended up taking place, as the show only sold 350 tickets for the 10,000 seater Nottingham Arena, a pathetic turnout.
They cancelled the show, blaming the wrestlers for cancelling, and to this day have not run another Wrestling Entertainment Series show.
You can read the full story about how the WES scammed all its fans by clicking the link down below.
