Tito Ortiz Had A Pretty Embarrassing Return To Pro Wrestling On Last Night’s Impact

If there are two thing TNA Impact Wrestling loves, they’re:

1. Unnecessary mysteries
2. Past-their-expiration-date MMA guys

Yesterday it was announced that UFC legend Tito Ortiz would be coming out of retirement to face Quinton “Rampage” Jackson at Bellator’s first pay-per-view event. Bellator’s TV show is “sister shows” with pro wrestling also-ran Impact Wrestling. When Rampage signed with Bellator he was on Impact within the week, so it makes sense that Tito would be announced for a fight and also show up there. Thank goodness Impact had just begun running a story about a mysterious bald man threatening to beat up wrestlers from the shadows!

Yes, the August 1 Warnings mystery man who’d been threatening the wrestling organization for weeks turned out to be Tito Ortiz, and if the crowd reaction to Ortiz’s appearance is any indication, it was well worth the money. And by “well worth the money” I mean “thank goodness they fired the pregnant lady and all the injured wrestlers to make cap room for an old MMA guy who hasn’t fought since 2011 and only won one out of his last nine fights.” Awkward and embarrassing all around.

Here’s the clip.

If TNA’s gonna be nothing but MMA guys, Bellator should be nothing but pro wrestlers. Like, King Mo gets hurt and the Bellator announcers don’t know who’s gonna take his place in the tournament but WAIT A MINUTE FANS WHAT IS COWBOY JAMES STORM DOING IN THE BELLATOR ZONE

Of course, longtime TNA fans will remember that this isn’t Tito’s first go-round in the world of pro wrestling. Here’s The Huntington Beach Bad Boy reffing an AJ Styles/Jeff Jarrett match back in 2006, when he was still relevant. Jump to 5:22 in the video for Tito.

And hey, don’t forget the time Tito’s wife showed up on Raw.

https://dailymotion.com/video/xynun0

(Okay, forget about that.)