Cain Velasquez showed up on Friday's debut episode of Friday Night SmackDown and shocked everyone. Even more shocking is that, according to some reports, he may not be signed to WWE yet.

It seems crazy to imagine WWE would put Velasquez in the main event of their debut episode on Friday Night SmackDown without the UFC fighter being under contract, but reports are surfacing that might, in fact, be what WWE just did.

Even stranger would be the fact that they ran a piece on WWE.com about how much it means that Velasquez is in WWE and then conducted a backstage interview after the show where the man who beat Lesnar in MMA is coming for Lesnar in the world of professional wrestling.

Sounds like the signs of someone who is signed... doesn't it?

Yet, ESPN is saying the spoke to Velasquez himself and he said he hasn't signed.

WWE wants him, of that there is no doubt. UFC also gave him the go-ahead for him to run the angle on SmackDown. But, make no mistake, he’s not retired from the UFC.

The story for WWE gets stranger in that ESPN is reporting Velasquez told them he's still negotiating with WWE, AEW and New Japan Pro Wrestling. He's farthest along with WWE and the likelihood is he'll sign there, but nothing is official... yet.

[EMBED_TWITTER]https://twitter.com/WWE/status/1180331382742159360?s=20[/EMBED_TWITTER]

What If Velasquez Isn't Signed?

No doubt, WWE wanted to make a statement with their first show on FOX. Logically, Fox is probably also happy to have such a huge crossover star appear on their first show, setting the stage for big surprises like this an upping potential future ratings, while at the same time making WWE more a of "sport". This works out great for Velasquez too.

But, if he's not under contract yet, all of this goes one of two ways. He's either going to cost WWE a lot of money to keep. Or, the company just put an unsigned guy in the main event, build two angles on Raw and SmackDown around his appearance and took the WWE Championship off a talented guy in Kofi Kingston in under four seconds. It's a lot to risk for a guy you may not have confirmation is staying.

Next: UFC Star Joins WWE After Shocking Close to WWE SmackDown