Wrestling Vs MMA — What’s the deal?
I will be straight up and honest with you. I’m not a UFC aficionado. Far from it. I’ve only ever seen one full UFC Pay Per View all the way through and that was because I wanted to see the main fight.
Here’s an interesting fact though, the reason I purchased that show was not because I wanted to see some MMA, I bought it because I was flicking channels and saw a 30 minute pre fight show detailing the issues between the two fighters in the main bout. These two guys were Tito Ortiz and Chuck Liddell and after watching this I simply had to buy the show. You know why? Because there was a story to it. I will only watch a UFC fight if there’s a story, something to get my teeth into because, honestly, watching two guys roll around in the octagon can bore me, very easily.
I don’t know about shoot fighting, neither do I really want to, I want to see a fight, a story being told and this show was giving it to me. And it didn’t disappoint! Liddell pummelled Tito into next week and I had a good time. I’ve come back to watch the odd fight now and then, Couture/Liddell and Gracie/Hughes, but I’ve never been a big follower of MMA. Simple reason is, it’s just not that entertaining to me and I really can’t be bothered to learn about all the fighting styles and such. Not that I don’t respect the fighters, it’s just not my cup of tea. I’m a wrestling fan and that’s my poison but in today’s wrestling climate one thing would really get me excited, Wrestling Vs MMA.
In Japan, this is nothing new. Indeed a lot of wrestlers have made the jump to shoot fighter and vice versa. Indeed some fighters, like Takada moonlighted as both and did a great job. Other examples are Yoshihiro Takayama, Don Frye, Dan Severn and Koji Kitao. If UFC and WWE did some cross promoting, with WWE guys going to UFC to do shoots and UFC guys coming to WWE to do worked shoots, it could be huge. Who wouldn’t want to see Undertaker get his butt handed to him in a real UFC environment? How about the prospect of Chris Benoit and Chuck Liddell taking each other on in a worked shoot? This would provide some variety and freshness to what has become a very stagnant American wrestling scene in recent years. It has worked in the past too, with PRIDE and K-1 doing massive numbers having wrestlers take parts in shoots. And look no further than the NJPW Vs UWFi feud from the mid nineties to see that worked shoots can also draw a lot of money.
Of course there are a lot of differences between the Japanese and American wrestling scenes. Where as companies in Japan are sometimes prepared to work with competitors, such as the NOAH V NJPW series in 2002, we all know that Vince McMahon and Dana White are deeply distrustful of working with other companies, plus, you have to take into consideration that White detests wrestling and fears that even associating his company with any form of wrestling company would destroy UFC’s integrity. It’s time to shoot that down right now. For a start UFC gets just as much negative press anyway so working with a wrestling company would do little harm and secondly I think a lot of MMA fans like wrestling and vice versa. To assume that people would turn away from the UFC because it did business with WWE is nothing short of ridiculous in my opinion. Of course you have to take into account other matters.
For a start these shoot fighters have their reputations to protect. Do you honestly picture Matt Hughes being pleased about losing a worked shoot to someone like Batista, who most fans know would probably be slaughtered in a real fight. Indeed the UFC guys would no doubt feel annoyed that their “legitimate” fighting skills would be called into question because they job in a worked fight. Now this has always bugged me and will for the rest of my life. Why is it that because something is “real” it’s infinitely better. Why do people turn their nose up at wrestling because it’s not “real”? Sure wrestlers aren’t really going out to beat their opponent but, and this may shock some people reading this, Sylvester Stallone isn’t really John Rambo destroying 10 policeman single handily in a forest. Just thought I’d inform you of that. Wrestling has always had legit sports stars taking part, footballers, hockey players and yes shoot fighters. I think that UFC guys losing to a WWE guy in a WWE ring wouldn’t harm them at all, in fact it would make them bigger draws. Just look at Ken Shamrock, he was still getting huge PPV numbers right up to his retirement, the wrestling exposure clearly helped.
I don’t ever think this will happen for the main reason that McMahon and White are stubborn and unable to see what they could gain from this sort of storyline. It could be that this is just the jumpstart that WWE needs to begin the next boom period in wrestling. And anyway, what’s the harm in trying?
And there’s always a possibility that WWE’s meeting with PRIDE could lead to something, although I think it could do more with WWE guys fighting in HUSTLE. Still, you never know
Feedback is appreciated, as always
