TNA and MMA Uncensored Erroneously Claim King Mo Is The First to Do MMA/Pro Wrestling at the Same Time

I was watching this TNA video hyping the debut of King Mo. It was of TNA President Dixie Carter and Bellator fighter King Mo on the show MMA Uncensored Live.

The host of MMA Uncensored Live ridiculously and erroneously states that "...it's never happened before where a fighter decided to do both (pro wrestling and MMA) at the same time."

Apparently, everyone seems to have conveniently forgotten that Bobby Lashley competed for Strikeforce, Maximum Fighting Championship, and Prize Fight MMA all while Lashley was under contract with TNA Wrestling from April 2009-February 2010. Bobby Lashley fought Mike Cook, Bob Sapp, and Wes Sims while he was under contract with TNA Wrestling. He also had scheduled fights against UFC/WWE legend Ken Shamrock and Strikeforce Champion (at the time) Shane Del Rosario while he was with TNA, but both fights were scrapped (Shamrock tested positive for steroids while nobody really knows why his fight with Strikeforce Champ Shane Del Rosario was scrapped). So King Mo is certainly not the first person to do both at the same time. The saddest part about this is that Lashley did this just a couple of years ago (2009-2010). It's not like Lashley did it back in the 1990's and everyone just forgot about it.

Some people will erroneously state that Ken Shamrock did both MMA and Pro Wrestling at the same time, but this is actually quite false. He didn't do MMA fights at the same time that he was doing Pro Wrestling. He just coached MMA fighters from his Lion's Den training facility while he was wrestling. He never actually fought MMA fights while he was an active pro wrestler. In 2002, Shamrock had two MMA fights and worked for TNA Wrestling; however, Shamrock went to TNA Wrestling about four months after his first MMA fight that year and had already left TNA Wrestling three months before his second fight that year. So even then, he didn't do both at the same time.

Some also erroneously claim Tank Abbott successfully did both MMA and Pro Wrestling at the same time but that is also false as Tank Abbott left MMA in 1998, joined WCW from 1999-2000 before returning to MMA in 2003. Tank Abbott never did both at the same time.

However, even Bobby Lashley is not the first fighter to do both Pro Wrestling and MMA at the same time. Dan "The Beast" Severn is the first fighter to do both MMA and Pro Wrestling simultaneously going all the way back to 1995. Severn also is the first and still the only person to hold an MMA and Pro Wrestling championship at the SAME TIME. Dan Severn in 1995 won the UFC Superfight Championship (later re-named the UFC Heavyweight Championship) and the NWA World Heavyweight Championship. Dan Severn is the only known person to successfully do both MMA and Pro Wrestling at the same time and for a long period of time. Severn was the NWA champion for 4 years while simultaneously doing MMA the entire time. Severn was wrestling for both the NWA and WWF (now WWE) while fighting for UFC and other MMA promotions at the same time. For example, Dan Severn submitted Sam Adkins at the International Fighting Championships 8 event on June 20, 1998 and eight days later wrestled The Rock at WWF King of the Ring 1998 while still holding the NWA World Title.

So, to proclaim King Mo the first man to do both Pro Wrestling and MMA at the same time is a slight to both Bobby Lashley and especially Dan Severn. Dan Severn was the Bo Jackson of the fighting world. Trying to say that King Mo is the first man to do both Pro Wrestling and MMA at the same time is as silly as saying Miguel Cabrera is the first man to win the Triple Crown in baseball or that Drew Brees is the first quarterback to surpass 5,000 yards passing. I understand you have to try to hype the media machine, but please don't do it at the expense of the legacy of Dan Severn and the accomplishments of Bobby Lashley.