What has been the biggest impact MMA has had on professional wrestling?

[DarksideEric]

I believe perhaps the biggest impact, and lasting change/legacy Mixed Martial Arts has had on wrestling is "tap out" submission finishes.

It makes, in my view, submission finishes far more exciting (when tied with good selling of course) than when "tapping out" wasn't much of a thing, if it was even present, in wrestling. I certainly find it far more entertaining to watch a wrestler fight themselves from tapping out than to see the submission applied and then a few seconds later the ref calls for the bell because the person said they quit.

What are your thoughts? What other things from MMA have impacted wrestling?

 

[Reflection]

According to me, the biggest impact MMA has had, is that wrestlers consider it an alternative to their wrestling profession, and a better alternative too. If they are well built, fit, fast, and learnt martial arts moves, they may feel that they should leave wrestling and take that road instead... Brock Lesnar, Bobby Lashley, Batista too right? I'm sure some others are considering it as well. If talented people keep dumping wrestling for MMA, then thats not a good thing for wrestling.

 

[Ubermensch]

The biggest impact MMA has had on Wrestling was when UFC first came out in the early 90s. The two things that ruined any sort of realism held by fans for wrestling was the beginning of the UFC, and when that documentary came out at the height of the Monday Night Wars where the masked wrestler revealed everything from signals wrestlers get from the commentator table, to how they talk in the ring, to the structure of the ring.

UFC showed what real fights look like with trained practitioners from various backgrounds. Wrestling has as times, tried to capitalize on this by signing guys like Shamrock and Tank Abbott who were synonymous with early MMA and having them compete in wrestling to appear legitimate.