WWE Pulls Plug On CM Punk Walking Out With Chael Sonnen At UFC On Fox 2

WWE Champion CM Punk will no longer walk out with Chael Sonnen for his fight with Mark Munoz at UFC On Fox 2.

In early-January, news broke that longtime MMA fan Punk (Phil Brooks) would walk out with the former pro wrestling prospect and top middleweight contender Sonnen in Punk's hometown of Chicago, IL. Punk had previously received permission from WWE to skip a house show on Saturday, January 28 to be at the UFC event.

From Ariel Helwani's piece on MMA Fighting:

Punk confirmed with MMAFighting.com that WWE chairman Vince McMahon decided against allowing him to walk out to the cage with Sonnen later this month. MMA reporter FrontRowBrian first reported the news Friday afternoon.

The original story garnered nearly 300 comments here and set off the usual firestorm of pro wrestling vs. MMA debates including this video done by BE co-founders/editors Luke Thomas and Kid Nate. McMahon's decision to put the kibosh on the arrangement (which Brian accurately opined could have been influenced by his son-in-law Paul "Triple H" Levesque) shows a short sighted view of the crossover appeal and a bad business move by WWE to not grab the attention from a major event on Fox.