Even today, fans get excited at the prospect of an excellent amateur wrestler training to become a mixed martial artist. And that's nothing compared to the 2000s, when a former NCAA champion transitioning to fighting would make headlines on MMA websites and stir up considerable hype. There was the implicit assumption that any good amateur wrestler would dominate, or at least have considerable success.
I always found this to be silly, because contrary to the narrative most people believe, wrestlers never had automatic success, not even in the 1990's. Don't get me wrong; wrestling was and still is the single most important skill in MMA, as well as the best base from which to build.