Serious question: Are you guys tired of hearing about CM Punk already? The former WWE superstar (known to his momma as Phil Brooks) has a long road of training ahead of him before he makes his UFC debut sometime next year, but he’s been keeping his name in the streets with some media appearances here and there. Yesterday, he visited the ESPN studios to cut promos — or “interviews,” whatever — for SportsCenter and MMA Live. Some notable quotes from the SC spot…
– “Am I ready [to fight] today? I mean, probably not, but I’d fight anybody right now. Whether that’s a smart decision or not remains to be seen…I used to not be able to walk or swim, and I’m not saying it’s going to be easy, but I’m gonna get there, and I’m excited to climb that mountain.”
– “I’m comfortable on the ground. Whether I get taken down and I’m on my back, I’m confident in my ability to stand back up, I’m confident in my jiu-jitsu, and it’s only gonna get better from now until the day I fight.”
– In response to Matt Brown’s recent criticism of his UFC signing: “There’s probably a lot of fighters that are…they’re just upset. And I can understand that, and more power to you, I understand your point of view. My job is to do what’s good for me and my family, and along the way if I change your mind, Matt Brown, awesome.”
– On Vince McMahon and Dana White: “They’re both driven, they’re both set in their ways, they both have an idea of what is best for their company, and everything like that, and I think that’s how they’re the same. How they’re different, I think, is the difference in the generation. Vince is very old-school, Dana is more open-minded, there’s more of a warmth on the UFC side that I’m experiencing. And Dana’s more open-minded, obviously — he hired me.”
– “Listen, there’s always people throughout my entire life who have told me that I can’t do something. Nobody ever thought I would make it to the WWE, nobody ever thought I’d be the champion. And nobody ever thought I’d be in the UFC…and I very much use the negativity that comes my way to fuel me, to prove people wrong.”
Serious question: Are you guys tired of hearing about CM Punk already? The former WWE superstar (known to his momma as Phil Brooks) has a long road of training ahead of him before he makes his UFC debut sometime next year, but he’s been keeping his name in the streets with some media appearances here and there. Yesterday, he visited the ESPN studios to cut promos — or “interviews,” whatever — for SportsCenter and MMA Live. Some notable quotes from the SC spot…
– “Am I ready [to fight] today? I mean, probably not, but I’d fight anybody right now. Whether that’s a smart decision or not remains to be seen…I used to not be able to walk or swim, and I’m not saying it’s going to be easy, but I’m gonna get there, and I’m excited to climb that mountain.”
– “I’m comfortable on the ground. Whether I get taken down and I’m on my back, I’m confident in my ability to stand back up, I’m confident in my jiu-jitsu, and it’s only gonna get better from now until the day I fight.”
– In response to Matt Brown’s recent criticism of his UFC signing: “There’s probably a lot of fighters that are…they’re just upset. And I can understand that, and more power to you, I understand your point of view. My job is to do what’s good for me and my family, and along the way if I change your mind, Matt Brown, awesome.”
– On Vince McMahon and Dana White: “They’re both driven, they’re both set in their ways, they both have an idea of what is best for their company, and everything like that, and I think that’s how they’re the same. How they’re different, I think, is the difference in the generation. Vince is very old-school, Dana is more open-minded, there’s more of a warmth on the UFC side that I’m experiencing. And Dana’s more open-minded, obviously — he hired me.”
– “Listen, there’s always people throughout my entire life who have told me that I can’t do something. Nobody ever thought I would make it to the WWE, nobody ever thought I’d be the champion. And nobody ever thought I’d be in the UFC…and I very much use the negativity that comes my way to fuel me, to prove people wrong.”
The MMA Live video is after the jump.
– On the timing of his UFC debut: “We’re saying 2015, which is very vague, but that’s kind of how we want to keep it right now. It’s 100% up to me when I feel like I’m as ready as I’m gonna get, without pushing it to 2016. So it’ll probably be at the earliest fall, at the latest sometime around this time next year.”
– On Brock Lesnar: “Brock’s a lot like me in the respect that he doesn’t care what people think of him…the whole attitude of, ‘Yeah, I get it, you’re mad that I’m here, you’re upset, I haven’t earned the UFC fight yet,” but my goal is to prove everybody wrong, and I think that was Brock’s mentality too.”
– On where he’d like to train: “I want to train with the best. I need a comfortable, but not comfortable environment, if that makes any sense to anybody out there. Staying close to home is also important, but I’m also willing to uproot everything and move, too. So again, vague answer. Up in the air.”
– On his UFC debut: “I think the pressure will be monumental, but it’s nothing I haven’t experienced before…I think those jitters will be there, but they will be substantially less than somebody who’s never performed in front of almost 90,000 people at one time. I’ll be able to handle and manage the crowd better than most people making their UFC debut.
Former WWE heavyweight champion CM Punk recently went off on his former boss, WWE Chairman/CEO Vince McMahon, claiming that he would not allow him to walk Chael Sonnen down to the Octagon since MMA is too “barbaric” and somebody could “die.”
Speaking o…
Former WWE heavyweight champion CM Punk recently went off on his former boss, WWE Chairman/CEO Vince McMahon, claiming that he would not allow him to walk ChaelSonnen down to the Octagon since MMA is too “barbaric” and somebody could “die.”
Speaking on semi-retired pro wrestler Colt Cabana’s podcast(h/t MMA Fighting) on Wednesday, Punk—whose real name is Phil Brooks—discussed why McMahon never allowed him to walk his friend Sonnen out to his UFC on FOX 2 bout with Michael Bisping in his hometown of Chicago:
Oh my God, Phil. No, we can’t do that. That’s barbaric. Somebody is going to die. Then I had to remind him, “I don’t know if you remember Owen Hart or not, because he sort of died in your ring.”
“Tomorrow is the Royal Rumble so it’ll get some last-minute buys and whether Chael wins or loses, no offense to Chael, nobody is going to be talking about him. They’re going to be talking about the WWE champion walking him to the Octagon.”
Hart died in the WWE ring back in 1999 due to a tragic equipment accident as he was entering the ring from an elevated harness grapple line. It malfunctioned as he was in mid-air.
In the same interview, Punk claims that the UFC gave him the green light to accompany Sonnen to the cage, adding that the WWE delivered his pink slip in the mail. He received it on his wedding day in June.
The 36-year-old, who hasn’t appeared on WWE programming since January, is a Brazilian jiu-jitsu blue belt under Rener Gracie. He also noted on Cabana’s podcast that his termination contract had a one-year no-compete clause that would prevent him from signing with the UFC.
Given Punk’s lack of combat sports experience, though, he would more than likely have to work his way up the regional MMA circuit before the UFC brass would take him seriously as a professional fighter.
Sonnen, who recently said on his podcast (h/t MMA Fighting) that he turned down a $5 million contract from the WWE, won the January bout with Bisping via a close decision.
John Heinis is a featured columnist for Bleacher Report. He is also the MMA editor for eDraft.com.
The inevitable has finally occurred: TMZ is reporting that Spike TV has cancelled TNA Impact Wrestling after nine less than spectacular years. It is unclear when the final edition of Impact will air, but TMZ says that TNA’s deal with Spike runs through October. Neither Spike TV nor TNA have released official statements at this time.
So why are we covering the death of a minor-league professional wrestling outfit that did everything it possibly could to run itself out of business on CagePotato.com? Because this is the same promotion that partnered with Bellator to bring us King Mo’s (unintentionally hilarious) wrestling career and Tito Ortiz slugging Rampage Jackson with a hammer. It goes without saying that the Bellator/TNA partnership is about to dissolve, but what can we expect Spike TV to replace TNA Impact with? Will this bring more MMA to Spike TV, or will Spike just find another indie wrestling organization to fill in TNA’s shoes? Your guess is as good as anyone’s at this point, so let’s recklessly speculate for a while.
Isn’t it a little premature to write that TNA Impact Wrestling has been cancelled, considering that TNA could still renew with Spike TV/find a different network?
Sure, Spike TV could still renew TNA Impact, just like someone hypothetically could hold the UFC flyweight and heavyweight titles simultaneously. Not that it matters, but rumor has it that Spike TV executives cancelled Impact because they learned that TNA president Dixie Carter hired Vince Russo as a consultant, even though Spike specifically told her not to give him a job. If that’s true, that’s an oddly appropriate note for a company so hellbent on running itself into the ground to go out on.
As for another network picking up TNA Impact? Take it away, Razor…
The inevitable has finally occurred: TMZ is reporting that Spike TV has cancelled TNA Impact Wrestling after nine less than spectacular years. It is unclear when the final edition of Impact will air, but TMZ says that TNA’s deal with Spike runs through October. Neither Spike TV nor TNA have released official statements at this time.
So why are we covering the death of a minor-league professional wrestling outfit that did everything it possibly could to run itself out of business on CagePotato.com? Because this is the same promotion that partnered with Bellator to bring us King Mo’s (unintentionally hilarious) wrestling career and Tito Ortiz slugging Rampage Jackson with a hammer. It goes without saying that the Bellator/TNA partnership is about to dissolve, but what can we expect Spike TV to replace TNA Impact with? Will this bring more MMA to Spike TV, or will Spike just find another indie wrestling organization to fill in TNA’s shoes? Your guess is as good as anyone’s at this point, so let’s recklessly speculate for a while.
Isn’t it a little premature to write that TNA Impact Wrestling has been cancelled, considering that TNA could still renew with Spike TV/find a different network?
Sure, Spike TV could still renew TNA Impact, just like someone hypothetically could hold the UFC flyweight and heavyweight titles simultaneously. Not that it matters, but rumor has it that Spike TV executives cancelled Impact because they learned that TNA president Dixie Carter hired Vince Russo as a consultant, even though Spike specifically told her not to give him a job. If that’s true, that’s an oddly appropriate note for a company so hellbent on running itself into the ground to go out on.
As for another network picking up TNA Impact? Take it away, Razor…
What are the odds that Vince McMahon buys TNA Wrestling?
This may sound crazy, but I doubt Vince McMahon wants to acquire TNA; frankly, he’s far more interested in what the UFC is doing than anything TNA has ever done. TNA has never been any sort of legitimate threat to his business, and without a television contract, buying them out just means buying a few wrestler contracts and a video library filled mostly with guys he doesn’t want in the first place. As awesome as early AJ Styles, Christopher Daniels, and Samoa Joe matches were, there’s no point in making them a part of the WWE video library when none of those guys are ever going to be relevant WWE wrestlers.
Enough wrasslin’ talk, what does this mean for Bellator?
At the very least, it means no more awkward plugs for TNA Impact during Bellator events, and no more Bellator fighters stumbling through cheesy professional wrestling storylines in crossover appearances. That alone is a gigantic plus in my book.
Unfortunately for Bellator, I’m tempted to say not much else. There’s no way that an MMA promotion could pump out enough events to fill in for a professional wrestling show, so let’s not even entertain the idea of Bellator getting a weekly segment on Spike. Even if they could, MMA simply wouldn’t bring in the ratings that professional wrestling brings in; despite being on its deathbed, TNA Impact is averaging more viewers than Bellator’s most-watched event brought in, period. Professional wrestling is cheap content that can bring in decent ratings, even when it’s complete garbage.
So Viacom is going to bring in Ring of Honor/Chikara/Some other indie wrestling promotion, then?
Not necessarily — I wouldn’t be surprised if Viacom was refusing to renew the television deal in order to outright purchase TNA Wrestling. Right now, the Spike TV deal is TNA’s primary source of income. Without that, they’re worth next to nothing (both ECW and WCW were bought out for peanuts when they lost their television deals). As for why Viacom would want to buy the promotion, it’s because the problem with TNA isn’t a lack of talent on the roster, it’s how completely clueless everyone running the company is. In other words, Viacom recognizes that a new, more competent regime would easily lead to better ratings.
Though current bantamweight champion TJ Dillashaw will not be a playable character in EA Sports UFC when it hits the shelves two weeks from now, Bruce Lee will be. Perhaps equally ridiculous is that Bruce Lee isn’t being treated as a novelty addition to the roster, but rather as “the father of Mixed Martial Arts,” something Dana White has also called him. Giving credit to only one person for the creation of MMA is absurd enough, but painting Bruce Lee as that person is just preposterous.
Then again, it really isn’t hard to understand why Zuffa would want to make someone like Bruce Lee an ambassador for our sport. Lee was — and still is — an instantly recognizable celebrity. His body was ripped and athletic. He knew how to wrestle, sure, but also understood that most people would rather watch him throw flashy kicks. His affirmations were deep enough to look good on playing cards and posters, but not too profound for the bros curling in the squat rack to comprehend. In other words, he appeals to a much larger audience than Edward William Barton-Wright and Tommy Tanaka do.
Even with all that in mind, there are figures in combat sports history who not only did more to mold modern MMA than Bruce Lee, but can also be worked into the charmingly revisionist Zuffa account of history just as well. The following list will focus on the accomplishments of these individuals, as well as the arguments for why they should be repackaged as the fathers of MMA. Let’s start with the oldest candidate, and work our way towards the modern era…
Though current bantamweight champion TJ Dillashaw will not be a playable character in EA Sports UFC when it hits the shelves two weeks from now, Bruce Lee will be. Perhaps equally ridiculous is that Bruce Lee isn’t being treated as a novelty addition to the roster, but rather as “the father of Mixed Martial Arts,” something Dana White has also called him. Giving credit to only one person for the creation of MMA is absurd enough, but painting Bruce Lee as that person is just preposterous.
Then again, it really isn’t hard to understand why Zuffa would want to make someone like Bruce Lee an ambassador for our sport. Lee was — and still is — an instantly recognizable celebrity. His body was ripped and athletic. He knew how to wrestle, sure, but also understood that most people would rather watch him throw flashy kicks. His affirmations were deep enough to look good on playing cards and posters, but not too profound for the bros curling in the squat rack to comprehend. In other words, he appeals to a much larger audience than Edward William Barton-Wright and Tommy Tanaka do.
Even with all that in mind, there are figures in combat sports history who not only did more to mold modern MMA than Bruce Lee, but can also be worked into the charmingly revisionist Zuffa account of history just as well. The following list will focus on the accomplishments of these individuals, as well as the arguments for why they should be repackaged as the fathers of MMA. Let’s start with the oldest candidate, and work our way towards the modern era…
Dioxippus
(Not Dioxippus, but I know how much you all love this thing…)
Martial Art:Pankration, an Ancient Greek combat sport that allowed punches, kicks, takedowns, joint locks and chokeholds (sound familiar?). Notable Achievements: Dioxippus of Athens was not only the toughest fighter in Ancient Greece, but arguably the toughest fighter to ever live. In his prime, he was so famous for taking out all challengers that he won an Olympic championship by default (akoniti) because nobody was willing to fight him; he’s the only person to ever win an Olympic wreath in pankration this way. He famously defeated one of Alexander the Great’s best soldiers, Coragus, despite the fact that Coragus wore full armor and had several weapons to use against the naked Dioxippus; you read that correctly, he showed up naked to a fight against a guy in full body armor and won. After the bout, Dioxippus was framed for theft, and chose to take his own life rather than be punished for a crime he did not commit. Why It Makes Sense: Dana White and Joe Rogan like to remind us that “fighting is in our DNA.” Dioxippus is proof of this.
Bill “The Butcher” Poole
(Again, not Bill “The Butcher” Poole, but rather a character he inspired: Bill “The Butcher” Cutting from Gangs of New York.)
Martial Arts: Bare-knuckle Boxing, Rough & Tumble (aka “Gouging”) Notable Achievements: Let’s be perfectly clear: Bill “The Butcher” Poole was not an honorable man. The leader of both The Bowery Boys and the Know Nothing political movement, Poole terrorized the streets of New York City while spreading anti-Irish, anti-Catholic hate-speech throughout the mid-nineteenth century. He took part in Rough & Tumble — more accurately called “gouging” due to the fact that eye-gouging was not only allowed, but encouraged — contests as well as bare-knuckle boxing matches. Poole beat up heavyweight boxing champion John Morrissey so badly that The New York Daily Times wrote “[Morrissey] presented a shocking spectacle, and scarcely could any of his friends recognize him.” Though Morrissey’s men would shoot Poole in the chest over the incident, “The Butcher” lived for fourteen days with a bullet lodged in his heart. According to legend, his final words were “Good-bye, boys, I die a true American.” Why It Makes Sense: Was Bill “The Butcher” Poole a total scumbag? Yes — and that’s the entire point. Since Zuffa history depicts MMA as something that only the most vile, deplorable people took part in until Dana White invented rules (obviously not true, but history is written by the winners), painting Poole as the original MMA fighter actually makes sense.
Evan “Strangler” Lewis
Martial Art:Catch Wrestling Notable Achievements: Back when professional wrestling was actually a legitimate competition, Evan “Strangler” Lewis was one of the most feared men to lace up the boots. “Strangler” ran through his competition with frightening ease, masterfully utilizing the stranglehold — a technique you more than likely recognize as the rear-naked choke — to secure victory. His win over Ernest Roeber in a best-of-five match on March 2, 1893 made him the first American to become a world champion wrestler. Lewis would defend the title for two years before losing it to Martin “Farmer” Burns, and was inducted into The Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame in 2009. That he wasn’t exactly known for his sportsmanship is another story for another time, as is the way that many wrestling fans confuse him with Ed “Strangler” Lewis. Why It Makes Sense: He was the blueprint for every freakishly athletic wrestler to ever fight inside the Octagon, from Ken Shamrock to Cain Velasquez and all points in between.
Hit that “Next Page” button for a trio of fighters whose battles against each other made them all legends of the pre-Zuffa era.
So then why am I writing yet another article about what a company that sells choreographed “fights” experiencing some of its lowest viewership numbers can teach the UFC? Because the WWE’s idea of “terrible numbers” involves only averaging 3.53 million viewers. To put that into perspective, the TUF 18 Finale main card drew 1.129 million viewers. That’s right, the WWE is in panic mode because their weekly Monday night show only attracted three times as many viewers as a UFC event.
Don’t worry, I’m not about to suggest that the UFC resort to ridiculous storylines, assigning character gimmicks to fighters, forcing celebrity guests into shows, forming an ill-advised partnership with a dying pro-wrestling promotion, or any of the other things that would make most MMA fans roll their eyes. Nor am I going to ignorantly blame the UFC for less than spectacular fights, controversial finishes, and other things that a legitimate sports league cannot possibly be expected to control. On the contrary, my first suggestion is something that the UFC actually used to do better than the WWE…
(On second thought, make that seven things. Photo via With Leather.)
So then why am I writing yet another article about what a company that sells choreographed “fights” experiencing some of its lowest viewership numbers can teach the UFC? Because the WWE’s idea of “terrible numbers” involves only averaging 3.53 million viewers. To put that into perspective, the TUF 18 Finale main card drew 1.129 million viewers. That’s right, the WWE is in panic mode because their weekly Monday night show only attracted three times as many viewers as a UFC event.
Don’t worry, I’m not about to suggest that the UFC resort to ridiculous storylines, assigning character gimmicks to fighters, forcing celebrity guests into shows, forming an ill-advised partnership with a dying pro-wrestling promotion, or any of the other things that would make most MMA fans roll their eyes. Nor am I going to ignorantly blame the UFC for less than spectacular fights, controversial finishes, and other things that a legitimate sports league cannot possibly be expected to control. On the contrary, my first suggestion is something that the UFC actually used to do better than the WWE…
Put Over Your Talent Instead of Expecting it to Just Happen
There was a time not too long ago when I would have told you with a straight face that the UFC was better at creating stars out of its roster than the WWE could ever dream of being, simply because they could turn even the most boring personalities like Georges St. Pierre and Matt Hughes into intriguing fighters. Yet these days, I honestly wouldn’t be able to pick Hyun Gyu Lim out of a line-up, despite the facts that he holds two brutal knockout victories in the organization and is about to headline an upcoming card. The UFC’s new formula for getting fans to invest themselves into a fighter is basically “let’s hope everyone magically decides to follow a winning fighter’s career,” despite how poorly that strategy has been working.
No matter how hard we try to pretend we’re above valuing emotional investment in a fighter’s personality over said fighter’s actual accomplishments, the numbers that Jon Jones, Renan Barao, Benson Henderson and Demetrious Johnson bring in don’t lie; you can’t just say “these guys are good fighters” and expect most fans to care. I’m in no way suggesting that the gimmicks that Vince McMahon uses to promote his wrestlers should be used by an MMA organization, but is it too much to ask for a little more than “these two are about to fight, try to remember who wins three months from now”? Get back to demonstrating why fans should be so excited about a debuting fighter, and give them a few details about his/her life outside of the cage that they might find interesting. If the UFC gets back to treating the new athletes like people the fans should care about, then who knows, maybe the fans will react accordingly.
Establish An Official Minor League
The UFC faces an interesting dilemma: On one hand, they’re supposed to be the premier MMA organization, reserved for only the absolute best fighters. On the other hand, they’re also expanding internationally, and need warm bodies to fill all of the upcoming fight cards, regardless of whether or not these fighters even have Wikipedia pages. So far, the solution to this problem has been to make Fight Night cards the proverbial “one-fight cards” that Dana White said he’d never promote, and viewership has tanked to the point where a strong-ish World Series of Fighting show can outdraw a UFC Fight Night.
So if UFC Fight Night cards are already essentially minor league cards, then why not give the program the full WWE NXT treatment and designate Fight Night as the promotion’s official minor league? It can be the UFC’s way to continue its international expansion while also giving the locals being signed to fill the cards some extra time to develop their skills, the same way that the WWE makes even respected indie veterans like El Generico andSamuray del Sol prove themselves in NXT before getting a shot on the WWE’s main programs.
Sure, Fight Night will continue to draw relatively weak ratings – the same way that TNA Impact! Wrestling can actually compete against NXT – but is it really worth weakening the drawing power of the UFC brand just to continue to pretend these Fight Night cards feature UFC caliber fighters? It wasn’t too long ago when all I needed to do to convince my friends that a fight card was worth caring about was tell them that it was a UFC event. Those days are long gone, and that’s largely due to how weak these Fight Night events have become.
Pull the Plug on The Ultimate Fighter
When Tough Enough both lost the fans’ interest and failed to keep finding wrestlers the WWE could actually use, Vince McMahon pulled the plug. So, um, what exactly are you waiting for, guys?
Give PPVs a Proper Build-Up
The biggest gripe that my professional wrestling friends have against watching the UFC is that there is never any logical correlation between events. One day, they’ll catch a commercial for a heavyweight fight, then the next day it’s flyweights, and then the next day they’re being asked to pay for a rematch between Anderson Silva and Chris Weidman, with no explanation for how these fights are related except for the fact that they’re all UFC fights. Tempting as it may be to dismiss this as professional wrestling fanboy talk, all of them are NFL fans, because the season logically progresses to them: Sixteen games to determine which teams make the tournament for the championship, followed by said tournament and championship game.
What if the UFC instead booked shows so that the main events would have a clear featured weight class each month, with the monthly PPV featuring the title fight? Instead of booking Machida, Kennedy, and Belfort as the build-up for a fight between Georges St. Pierre and Johny Hendricks, why not book them as the build-up for Weidman vs. Silva II? Even the dimmest fans can then see how the free cards built up to the PPV: You’d have two free cards where Kennedy and Machida establish themselves in the middleweight division currently controlled by Chris Weidman – who will be defending his title on PPV against Anderson Silva, and it will be awesome – a free card featuring top middleweight Vitor Belfort keeping active while waiting for the Chris Weidman to defend his title on PPV against Anderson Silva, which will be awesome, and then the actual fight that pretty much everything that happened this month built up to.
Granted, injuries make this all but impossible to stick with, but when all goes according to plan, it’ll be easier to get the casual fans excited about dropping sixty bucks on a pay-per-view card. Of course…
One-Fight Cards – No Matter How Strong the Build-Up – Are Not Worth Paying For
I probably just launched one thousand “BUT THE FIGHTS ARE STILL GOOD JUST BECAUSE YOU DON’T KNOW WHO THE FIGHTERS ARE SO WHY DOES IT MATTER?!” rants in the comments section – as well as another “Don’t say it sucks until after the event” rant from Dana White – but there is no way I’m wasting both my money and my Saturday on a card featuring one fight that I care about.
As with anything else, if all I want is “good,” then I’ll gladly accept the cheaper alternative. If I only want to watch a “good” football game, I’ll buy tickets to The New Orleans Bowl instead of The New Orleans Saints. If all I want is “good” food, I’ll buy fast food instead of fine dining. And if all I want to watch are “good” fights, I’ll spend twenty bucks on tickets to a local amateur MMA event, where I’ll get plenty of “good” fights between guys I vaguely recognize from local gyms. Vince McMahon understands that he can’t charge money for Brock Lesnar vs. John Cena if his supporting cast is Zach Ryder, Tensai, The Brooklyn Brawler, andDyn-O-mite, because there are enough “good” matches coming from indie wrestling organizations to give his viewers worthy alternatives. It’s time for the UFC to acknowledge that my second-best option no longer involves driving thirty miles to rent a bootlegged King of the Cage DVD that I’ve already seen four times.
Make Your Subscription Based Digital Networks Actually Worth Owning
So, can we talk about that hilarious “UFC Digital Network” for a minute? Because I’d like to formally ask if anyone on the planet is dumb enough to buy that thing. I’m not sure how much the UFC thinks I’m willing to pay for “Not even basic cable worthy” UFC cards, but anything over $0.00 is pushing the limits of reality for me.
– Every single episode of Raw, Smackdown, and every pay-per-view the company ever recorded.
– Every future pay-per-view except for future Wrestlemania events.
– However, as a reward for purchasing a six month subscription, Wrestlemania 30 will be included as well.
There aren’t enough TUF outtakes, NSFW-ish ring girl videos, and Mean Gene Helwani interviews in existence to make the UFC network comparable to the WWE network, and the WWE network isn’t making you flip between two separate apps in order to access it.
Al Bundy, your reaction please:
If you’re going to charge money for a service, make sure you’re providing more than what I can already legally get for free from your rivals. Asking me to pay for the caliber of fighters I can easily find in Bellator and World Series of Fighting for free? Don’t care, not happening.
Coincidentally, it was at this point in the history of professional wrestling – once the novelty started wearing off and the casual fans lost interest – that promoters decided to drift away from legitimate competition. The UFC doesn’t have to follow directly in professional wrestling’s footsteps in order to learn from its history. Vince McMahon may promote an entirely different product, but that doesn’t mean he has nothing to offer our sport.
MMA history contains many compelling “what ifs” that could’ve changed the fate of the sport. If one path is taken, disaster. If another path is taken, absolution.
Some “what ifs” are more compelling than others. Not much changes if Floyd Sword or Rudyard Moncayo decides to never step into the cage. The timeline remains intact if Anderson Silva doesn’t get a DQ loss against Yushin Okami at Rumble on the Rock. But there are scenarios where the entire sport can change — where the timeline can split like in Back to the Future Part II.
This is the start of a series at CagePotato where we examine such scenarios, using historical fact to help create realistic historical fiction. Here is our first historical conundrum:
What if Vince McMahon Purchased the UFC in 2001?
In 2001, Vince McMahon’s WWE (then WWF) purchased the decaying WCW and the fledgling, bankrupt ECW. That year, McMahon’s XFL hosted its first (and only) season. It was quite a year for Vinny Mac. He destroyed his two rivals and expanded into a new sport.
2001 was also the year that Zuffa purchased the UFC from the company’s original owners, SEG. SEG was cash-strapped and could no longer carry the burden of running an MMA promotion in a country that was, at the time, hostile to MMA. The Fertitta Brothers bailed out Bob Meyrowitz and SEG, and the rest is history.
But what if, for one reason or another, The Fertitta brothers didn’t buy the UFC and give it to Dana White like they were tossing their kid the keys to the Ferrari? What if Vince McMahon decided to add another three letters to his shopping list…U, F, and C?
(McMahon poses with legendary WWE manager Paul Bearer (RIP). / Photo via Getty)
MMA history contains many compelling “what ifs” that could’ve changed the fate of the sport. If one path is taken, disaster. If another path is taken, absolution.
Some “what ifs” are more compelling than others. Not much changes if Floyd Sword or Rudyard Moncayo decides to never step into the cage. The timeline remains intact if Anderson Silva doesn’t get a DQ loss against Yushin Okami at Rumble on the Rock. But there are scenarios where the entire sport can change — where the timeline can split like in Back to the Future Part II.
This is the start of a series at CagePotato where we examine such scenarios, using historical fact to help create realistic historical fiction. Here is our first historical conundrum:
What if Vince McMahon Purchased the UFC in 2001?
In 2001, Vince McMahon’s WWE (then WWF) purchased the decaying WCW and the fledgling, bankrupt ECW. That year, McMahon’s XFL hosted its first (and only) season. It was quite a year for Vinny Mac. He destroyed his two rivals and expanded into a new sport.
2001 was also the year that Zuffa purchased the UFC from the company’s original owners, SEG. SEG was cash-strapped and could no longer carry the burden of running an MMA promotion in a country that was, at the time, hostile to MMA. The Fertitta Brothers bailed out Bob Meyrowitz and SEG, and the rest is history.
But what if, for one reason or another, The Fertitta brothers didn’t buy the UFC and give it to Dana White like they were tossing their kid the keys to the Ferrari? What if Vince McMahon decided to add another three letters to his shopping list…U, F, and C?
“I had my attorneys tell me that I was crazy because I wasn’t buying anything. I was paying $2 million and they were saying ‘What are you getting?’ And I said ‘What you don’t understand is I’m getting the most valuable thing that I could possibly have, which is those three letters: UFC. That is what’s going to make this thing work. Everybody knows that brand, whether they like it or they don’t like it, they react to it.’”
So what if Vince wound up with those letters and the power of the UFC brand?
It would’ve been bad — sport-killing level bad.
Commenters on MMA articles are always quick to point out that the WWE is “fake” and “gay” but what they likely don’t know is that the WWE once experimented with real, unscripted fighting in the form of quasi-mixed martial arts bouts in the late 1990s. It was a “shoot fighting” tournament called Brawl for All. And it sucked.
Actual mat wrestling on a professional wrestling program was a thing of the distant past. Brawl for All wasn’t a plan to bring it back either. Instead, it was busy-work for the WWF’s extra talent, guys kind of milling around in the back that the bookers had no plans for. They didn’t want to let anyone go; after all, their competitor down south could scoop them up and potentially make something out of them. WWF had taken a WCW castoff, “Stunning” Steve Austin, and made him the biggest star in the industry.
There’s also some more to the Brawl for All story. The WWE wanted “Dr. Death” Steve Williams to win the tournament. It was supposed to enhance Williams’ tough-guy street cred en route to booking him in a big-money feud with Steve Austin. The WWE learned why wrestlers started fixing fights in the first place: real fights don’t always end in the most profitable outcome. Williams didn’t win. He was KTFO’d by the eventual tournament winner, Bart Gunn. After Gunn won the tournament, the WWE booked him in a legit fight with famed gimmick boxer Butterbean at WrestleMania. Butterbean smashed Gunn’s brain into atoms. Vince’s experiment in real fighting ended…but not in our alternate reality.
From the way that Vince used “MMA” historically, we can make educated guesses as to how he’d use it in a timeline where he finds himself at the helm of the UFC in 2001. What does he do?
The WWE’s roster was bloated in 2001. They had their own WWE “superstars” and the imports from WCW and ECW. In real history, the WWE begins “brand extension” in an attempt to mitigate this problem. They treated their shows, Raw and Smackdown, as separate brands so as to create “competition” between them. They even had a “draft” where each brand chose different wrestlers.
But in the alternate reality where Vince McMahon owned the UFC, what’s to say that McMahon didn’t set up the UFC as some sort of hybrid MMA-pro wrestling organization, as Pancrase on steroids (figuratively and literally)?
In this reality, the WWE would send its mid and low carders to the UFC for the same reasons they pushed their mid and low carders into Brawl for All: A. They weren’t doing anything with them anyway. B. You could potentially turn one into a star through their abilities at beating up untrained fighters.
Thus, the UFC becomes akin to the old Toughman Contests on FX except with more marketing dollars and glitz behind it. Even if the product caught on, the WWE name would’ve tainted anything that happened in the cage. Who would believe a great comeback was really a great comeback and not a work if the UFC and the WWE were run by the same people?
Questions like this, and the constant shuffling of superstars between the UFC and the WWE, would blur the lines between real and fake, and ultimately lead to MMA and pro wrestling being seen as one in the same.
Meanwhile, legitimate MMA would live on in Japan until Pride’s demise, while in the United States, a slew of King of the Cage-level promotions would unfortunately represent the biggest organizations that true fighters could ply their craft in.
This alternate reality is a sad one for the sport. The UFC becomes a failure akin to the XFL and actual MMA fighters struggle in obscurity.
