Junior dos Santos receives criticism ahead of professional wrestling debut – He can’t work

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Former UFC heavyweight champions are no strangers to professional wrestling. In somewhat astonishing statistic, 10 of the 17 former heavyweight champions have appeared in at least one professional wrestling match. And Junior dos Santos is set to become 11th.

Dos Santos, who was released by the UFC in March, recently featured in All Elite Wrestling with former champion Andrei Arlovski as part of Dan Lamberts’ American Top Team. He got physically involved last week for the first time, jumping into the ring to beat team members Chris Jerichos Inner Circle (which includes Bellator heavyweight Jake Hager). And he will make his official debut this Friday on AEW Rampage in a six-a-side tag team game.

Last week he told ESPN how excited he was about stepping into a new world:

I love it. It’s very different from MMA, but just as exciting. The reactions from the fans are incredible. I’m having a lot of fun and can’t wait to kick Jericho and Hagers ass next week.

His beating of The Inner Circle on last week’s episode of Dynamite wasn’t universally appreciated, however. Wrestling personality Jim Cornette, who has spent 40 years in the industry and regularly gives heated or controversial opinions during the process, was not a fan of JDS’s work. He gave his take on things on his podcast (transcribed by Sportskeeda):

The problem is, Junior Dos Santos is one of the big names in mixed martial arts, as long as he doesn’t do anything physical. People have in mind that he is a badass on a global level, but since he cannot work he walked in here and gave Sammy (Guevara) false ground and pounding for no reason. Then you exposed that Junior Dos Santos can’t work but tries, which means he’s a fake. … people think he’s real until they see him doing fake shit. They saw him do fake shit here because he can’t work.

Again, Cornette frequently critiques things just to draw attention to himself. And it’s hard to judge a man’s potential based on a break-in and a few working punches. But hey, just see how it goes on Friday, when Dos Santos joins Scorpio Sky and Ethan Page to take on Guevara, Jericho and Hager on TNT.

Oh, and another big MMA element – Jorge Gambred Masvidal will be in the Dos Santos corner for the game.

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