IYAOYAS

Evidently Vince McMahon offered Goldberg a huge bonus if he would have no showed Ultimate Fight Night leaving the UFC high and dry without an announcer. Here's the link.

http://www.mmaweekly.com/absolutenm/...=852&zoneid=13

Seems to me Vince is a little more scared of the UFC than the UFC is of WWE. Hopfully the "competition" will lead to better UFC cards unlike UFC 55. Any thoughts? As a former WWE fan I personally would love to see the UFC kick Vince down a few rungs.

LuvMyCRX®

Im an ex-WWEer myself. Vince sees the light at the end of the tunnel, and he knows its the UFC express. Soon, Dana and Co, will put butts in seats like the WWE does. Hell, I watched a little TNA wrestling last monday, and its better than the WWE. Could you imagine if Kane had always trained MMA instead? The future is looking bright, despite Danas attempts to sabotage.

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mortyx

Pretty shallow of Vince to do that. Is this for real tho?

Thrash13

Well, I'm still a WWE fan, but it's probably for real. Vince has always been as cut-throat as they come. That's how he got to where he is right now.

I honestly wish the UFC would put on specials on Saturday night or something else. I think they are messing up by putting events on Monday nights. Many have tried to knock Vince off his high horse, and everyone has failed so far. The WWE is set in stone and will be as long as Vince wants it to be.

I think this was pretty tasteless, but the UFC would have been just fine if Goldberg didn't show up. They could have just gotten Franklin, Liddell, or someone else to join Rogan. It isn't too big a deal honestly, but I'm glad Goldberg will be sticking around. He is good at what he does.

The more and more I watch UFC and Pride, the less I love the WWE. I'll always be a fan though, but I like the real stuff better these days.

LuvMyCRX®

That is how I made the switch, and I think alot more people will, too. There was no competition for the WWE that did things for real, now that there is, Vince is shaking in his Bruno Maglis. No stupid irish whip reversals, finishing moves that require your opponent to help, or other blatant fakeness. The guys who watch the WWE for the blood will see that the UFC gets it from actual punches meant to hurt the other guy. I bet there will be alot of cage and hell in the cell matches on RAW until the WWE fizzles out. Shoot, even then, TNA does pro wrestling way more hardcore.

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Thrash13

There is only one thing that worries me about the UFC and Dana White. I just really hope he don't start "staging" fights and outcomes to make some fighters look better.

I was kinda suspicious about this after TUF, but it helped a lot seeing Koscheck lose after dominated the entire fight. That made me realize I was looking into it too much.

But with some of the stuff Dana has pulled out lately, it wouldn't surprise me any if it happened some "under the table."

That would kill UFC for me. The "realism" is what tickles my fancy so-to-speak.

Unknown

I stoped being a WWE fan when I was old enought to realize it was fake. But that is also what pushed me into MMA. I needed something else to make my parents buy. I think that the UFC will eventualy over take the WWE in ratings. Especialy with free live showes being showed on Spike. I think that that homecomming that the WWE had didn't get as the ratings that they were hoping for. Every week there are probably WWE fans that make the switch to the UFC. And there are vary few(if any) that go the other way.

[Danny]

The only wrestling I watch is NOAH and NJPW over in Japan because it's actually like hard hitting and crap. They actually train and have decent "catch" wrestling skills. Plus, Jushin Lyger is like coolest eva. But, I'm not a huge pro-wrestling fan.

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Grave

Your missing the big picture- being that UFC is not trying to compete with WWE.At least i don't think they are.

Honestly, why bother? WWE sucks anyway. It used to be good eons ago when WCW was still alive and WWE had competition and a reason to try to be worth a crap.

Ever since 2001 the WWE "product" has been stale and dissapointing as all hell. Oy....i miss the good old days around the monday night wars era but when wrestling actually used to be good. Those times are long gone,with vince the only game in town and wallowing in mediocreity alone.

angryjonny

Because you don't like WWE doesn't mean that everyone else in the world doesn't. WWE is huge. They continue to make ridiculous amounts of money each year. They have owned the age demographic, that UFC is trying to obtain, for many years. UFC is directly competing with WWE for ratings. That was why UFN 2 was on a Monday night. That is why WWE countered with that show they did where they brought back many of those old school fighters or something like that. Because they knew that UFC was trying to take people away from "their" time.

Grave

Meh if you insist. And no WWE is not huge,not anymore anyway.It has sucked too hard for too long, they could never EVER pull in the kinda rateings and fan interest they used to get around the late 90's. For the past few years WWE has been like watching a rashad & Tom match for two hours each monday-- tottally mediocre, forgettable fluff.

WWE and UFC are two tottally different kind of shows anyhow.

angryjonny

Again, that is all your opinion. Okay I'll break it down for you. On Oct. 3 the same night as UFN 2, the WWE Raw show came out with a 4.4 rating which wasn't surprising because like I said they had that big show to counter UFC. But a single national household ratings point represents 1%, or 1,096,000 households. How is that not huge? Just to show how much competition the UFC has to deal with in WWE. The UFC pulled in a 1.6 rating. Which is actually pretty good compared to the competition they did have in WWE in Monday Night Football. And just because they are different shows doesn't mean they aren't competing because they are going for the same age group like I said already.

Unknown

You have to remember that it was 'the highest rated raw in over 4 years' so Grave might have a point too. Also professional wrestling as a whole has been on a decline since the three big organizations became one. Are they still big? Yes are they as big as they used to be? No. Are they on a decline? I’d have to say yes. You have to remember that the WWE pulled out all the stops on that night while Ultimate Fight Night Live only had a ‘good’ card and the UFC still put out a respectable showing. I haven’t seen the numbers myself but 4.4 and 1.6 sound about right so I’ll take your word for it. And I think that that is very impressive.
So in conclusion
UFC=smaller but growing
WWE=larger but shrinking.

angryjonny

On Oct. 10th the WWE show was 4.0. Not really that much of a difference of the highest rated Raw. I think they average around the high 3's and low 4's. They have also had a 4.4 rating before. I don't think there is any decline whatsoever. They have held consistent ratings throughout the whole time UFC has attempted to go mainstream.

Unknown

I don't think that the UFC attempt to go mainstream has much to do with their decline. For as much as I rather have it the opposite the UFC has probably had little negative effect on the WWE. From the time the UFC tried to go mainstream to recently the WWE and the UFC have actually supported one another with the shows being so close to each other. It more that the professional wrestling industry itself is on a decline. Years of wrestlers coming out and admitting that it is fake hasn’t helped it at all.

angryjonny

Another thing I want to mention is that I am not trying to say that the UFC has no chance at success by competing with WWE. I'm just saying it is not something that should be taken lightly by any of the fans, or Zuffa even, just because they think WWE sucks or whatev. And I do agree with Grave that the ratings back in the 98-02 ratings were skyhigh, that is not the point. The point is that in comparison to UFC and WWE now, they (UFC) have a lot of work to do to capture the age demographic they are going for. Because while there was a decline in ratings for WWE from late '02 on, they bounced back because they know how to get people interested again.

Thrash13

You damn right they are trying to compete with them. I think that is very obvious.

And as a lifelong WWE fan, I can tell you that wrestling has its up and down periods. The ratings were this low or lower in the early-to-mid 90s. Then some star comes along, ala Hogan or Stone Cold, and the ratings shoot through the roof. I can guarantee the WWE ratings will reach the 6 and 7 areas in the next few years. It's all a roller coaster ride with the WWE, and it has been that way for all the years I've been watching. (And that is since 1985 or so)

My point was the WWE isn't going anywhere, no matter what the UFC does. So it's better for the UFC to do things on different nights than Monday or Friday.

angryjonny

I know I missed this one earlier but had to comment. You must not know McMahon very well. He is a pretty brutal cutthroat in the industry. He will backstab anyone so he can come out on top, and he is pretty dang good at it too obviously.

mortyx

In the article it says they're firing Jim Ross cuz of his balls palszy, or whatever his illness is called. But that's not the case, he's just assuming a different position within the company. So I mean if they got that part wrong, it could mean the rest isn't real.

Then again, Vince has done some pretty underhanded things in the past. Pro-wrestling is a pretty shady industry. With the wars between WWE and WCW, and now WWE and TNA, they do whatever it takes to win viewers. I guess he wanted to try to hurt UFC before it started to grow in popularity. He has nothing to worry about for the next while, but in the near future it could happen that UFC could get so big that WWE will get really hurt by it.

angryjonny

Ross has bells palsy which is basically paralysis to the facial nerves and is supposedly not permanent but Jim has had it for quite some time. Also it was reported that Ross is assuming another role in WWE but it is off camera of course because they basically don't want him on screen anymore. But yeah Vince is scum, but he is very very rich scum. He is very smart too. He definitely knows the shady business of Pro Wrestling and how to make it interesting.