Why Should Strikeforce Sign Dave Bautista?

The debate concerning whether or not Strikeforce should sign former WWE superstar Dave Bautista continues to rage on. The answer to the question is simple in my mind: he'll bring in viewers, if only for the single event he competes on.

Geno Mrosko says that inking Bautista to a deal would essentially be a giant waste of time (HT: Bloody Elbow):

I don't understand why so many people think signing Bautista would be such a big deal for Strikeforce. Being a pro wrestling blog, we here at Cageside know better than anyone what Bautista brings to the table athletically and it's not much. He's an old man, from a sporting perspective, and he gets injured more often than he doesn't. What exactly is he going to bring to the table? He's never going to reach the upper echelon of the heavyweight division and unless he has a huge impact in terms of ratings, the amount of money he wants them to pay him would represent a huge loss.

 I don't think anyone expects Bautista to do much of anything in the sport, so bringing that up as a talking point about why Strikeforce shouldn't sign him is unnecessary. The hype train followed Brock Lesnar because of his collegiate wrestling background. The same can be said somewhat for Bobby Lashley.

Whether or not Strikeforce will take a loss in promoting Bautista won't be known until after it actually takes place, but I'd tend to lean towards the notion that they wouldn't. The promotion's income comes primarily from ticket sales and their partners at Showtime. With the right fighters on a card, Strikeforce can pull in a decent gate just about anywhere. And even though the exact numbers will never be known, it is also common knowledge that monetary support from Showtime likely comes from the number of eyes that flip the channel on for an event. Last weekend's rematch between Nick Diaz and K.J. Noons pulled in approximately 500,000 or so viewers. Pure interest in seeing Bautista step into the cage could easily double that, bringing in more money and new fans for Strikeforce. A win-win situation in my opinion.