Oklahoma suspends all "combat sports," including pro wrestling [UPDATED]

The Oklahoma State Athletic Commission has suspended all licensing for combat sport events scheduled after March 12, 2012. This suspension essentially blocks any and all boxing, MMA, and pro wrestling events in the state.

The decision is supposedly based on a lack of funding. However, funding has not been cut, only threatened by an UFC lawsuit stemming from the pay-per-view tax Oklahoma has been charging since 2004. The tax, which accounts for close to 70 percent of the commission's funding, costs UFC approximately $80 thousand a year and may be repealed by the Oklahoma legislature to prevent the lawsuit, effectively bankrupting the commission. You can read a full report, including comments from the director of the commission and a copy of the letter sent to promoters at http://mmavalor.com/2012/03/09/oklahoma-state-athletic-commission-halts-combat-sports/.

Shore's Slant: The machinations of government and businesses never fail to amaze me. It should be noted that WWE did have a Raw scheduled for Oklahoma on October 1. Tickets have not yet gone on sale for that event, and no announcement concerning changing the date have been made. Also, no word on whether JR will leave his beloved home state in protest.

UPDATE: Dot Net reader Parker emailed to say that WWE has in fact sold some tickets through a pre-sale promotion announced to the live audience when WWE was there is February. WWE still has not announced what they will do about the news, but my guess would be that they take JR's advice from Twitter and adopt a "wait and see" mentality as this will probably be cleared up long before October 1.