When Shawne Merriman was sacking quarterbacks 39.5 times in his first three NFL seasons, he carried himself with the style of a professional wrestler much of the time.
That brashness and theatricality stopped being useful as Merriman’s career ground to a halt in San Diego and it wasn’t any more useful when he went to Buffalo, where he played 15 forgettable games in 2011 and 2012. Merriman had retirement pretty much thrust upon him after that and he has also moved on to a new endeavor.
It’s one where he should be able to make use of those wrestling stylings once again. WWE employees Michael Cole and John Layfield said, via Testudo Times, on their podcast this week that Merriman, who was part of WWE’s broadcast team for Wrestlemania last weekend, will be “joining the WWE family.” They also said that Merriman is training at the organization’s facility. It’s not Merriman’s first dalliance with the wrestling organization, but it appears things are going better this time around.
There’s no word on what role the man known as “Lights Out” will play in the wrestling world, although WWE wrestler Rey Misterio Jr. tagged him as a “future WWE superstar” on an Instagram photo of the two of them together at Wrestlemania. Plenty of wrestling stars, from Wahoo McDaniel to The Rock with many in between, have football backgrounds and, as mentioned, Merriman always had the personality for the job so the second act could be a successful one.