Pro Wrestling jumping on the MMA bandwagon

Jenkins83 · 10-29-2006, 01:24 AM

sub's right. Being a pro-wrestler has got to be the most physically painful job on the planet. Choreographed with pre-planned outcomes or not, as sub said - the laws of physics are always real and can never be faked. You can't fake a 15 foot fall from the top of a steel cage or a ladder onto the wooden canvas, a table, or sometimes even the concrete outside the ring. It doesn't matter if it was planned for the guy to fall or not, the fall itself is still real. For anyone that says it wouldn't hurt, I'd like to see you go do it.

MTKrav911 · 10-30-2006, 12:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nimmy

i have been a fan of WWF(or as its now called WWE) wrestling for most of my life, through childhood and now as an adult, i watch this for several reasons, as a child i was your rougish kid who used to practice my moves on my cousins, until he actually set up a fight club to bring people in to fight me.
back in the day i thought that the undertaker, hulk hogan, macho man and ultimate warrior were the toughest guys on the planet and the clothesline the most deadly "move" ever invented, until i found out of course that it is fake.

now my passion is MMA and martial arts in general as it is of course the real deal, i do however still keep up to date with WWE, and watch it more for an entertainment value.

now having a knowledge of MMA and Pro Wrestling i notice subtle changes.

changes such as the undertaker being refered to as the greatest "striker" in the WWE, or his new passion for applying the triangle choke. Bobby lashley being touted as an MMA star turned WWE superstar, or even before the boom shamrock trying his hand at the action, i have also noticed the change in applied moves such as the traditional sleeper hold being replaced with a rear naked choke, with full hooks applied to the legs, something lost in the pro wrestling before the MMA boom.

now here is the issue, with Dana White openly slating the WWE formula and wanting no "open" association to pro wrestling at all, the WWE seem to have the reverse attitude, with comentators reffering to commonly associated MMA material or phrases.

in my opinion wrestling took a negative yet understandable step out of its traditions with its raunchy outlook of sex and violence as opposed to a "good" wreslting match, this good wreslting has been replaced with "hardcore" blood thirsty boubts wth steel chairs and tables, feuling th average fans thirst for blood and gore, not to mention endless abundeance of women in panty matches. Now im a red bloodied male and love the ass shot as much as the average joe, but i found i now see less good qualtiy wrestling and more diva search antics. so i move my "real as it gets" side to the MMA scene.

but heres the problem, the MMA scene of should i say UFC have delivered us the endless WWE sagas, octogon ring girl competitions, staged rivalries, off the wall commentators and aptly named events. hel they even have Ortiz vs Shamrock which everyone knows have backgrounds in pro wreslting and the silver screen.

hell whats next an octogon hell in a cell match in the WWE, or will we get posters of our favourite MMA "superstars" appearing in the audience, fuelled up with the phoney rivalries and pre match interview sagas?

so with so much different, isnt it a little strange that these to have so much in common?

and above all do we like to see it?

WHat's wrong with Octagon girl searches.

See the problem with some MMA audiences, is they think they can entertain by showing the fights only. That is a falsehood if you want to rake in real $$$.

Pride is learning this inconvenient fact right now. Their american debut tanked and they lost $$$... It's not solely about the fighters. IT's also about entertainment. Face it, many MMA fighgts are not entertaining. Unless you like to watch two guys roll around endlessly on the mat with no real action. Fights are always going to be about blood and guts. I mean yes, I can watch two guys roll endlessly on the ground, but not the average person.

I know this will hurt some to realize. But Fighting on its own doesent sell tickets. The side-shows do. I'm not talking going down the ridiculous routes like WWE, but you do have to have some side-entertainment to keep the audiences intrigued.

MMA fighters are not the most marketable people on the planet, so every little help they can get, whether it be Octagon girls, gorillas riding bicycles, etc. is a necessary evil in the entertainment business.

subgenius · 10-30-2006, 01:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MTKrav911

WHat's wrong with Octagon girl searches.

See the problem with some MMA audiences, is they think they can entertain by showing the fights only. That is a falsehood if you want to rake in real $$$.

Pride is learning this inconvenient fact right now. Their american debut tanked and they lost $$$... It's not solely about the fighters. IT's also about entertainment. Face it, many MMA fighgts are not entertaining. Unless you like to watch two guys roll around endlessly on the mat with no real action. Fights are always going to be about blood and guts. I mean yes, I can watch two guys roll endlessly on the ground, but not the average person.

I know this will hurt some to realize. But Fighting on its own doesent sell tickets. The side-shows do. I'm not talking going down the ridiculous routes like WWE, but you do have to have some side-entertainment to keep the audiences intrigued.

MMA fighters are not the most marketable people on the planet, so every little help they can get, whether it be Octagon girls, gorillas riding bicycles, etc. is a necessary evil in the entertainment business.

I think that you made some great points. MMA has a hard selling point that has been the promotional side of an MMA promotion rather than the pure product side of it (the actual fights). MMA tries to stay as far away from being percieved as a pro-wrestling promotion as MMA can get; interviews tend to be bland and flat. They don't have fighters attacking each other. These interviews (pre- and post- match) tend to be more along the lines of a sportsmanship fest.

Pro-wrestling long ago made the promos aspect of what pro-wrestlers do in their careers as a major selling point for the promotion. Making a promo or interview segment has been a huge part of the job. They make them as entertaining as they possibly can be in a short segment. They also have sneak attacks happen during those segments, which will tend to seem like a circus atmosphere. That works for pro-wrestling, but not for MMA.

Your point about the marketing value or ability of individual fighters brings up a lot of interesting issues. Most MMA fighters seem to be lacking in public speaking or articulate verbal skills. Some have been polishing those skills, like with Ortiz and Shamrock promo segments. I think most people get nervous when the cameras and lights are in their faces. People like Frank Trigg don't get too bothered by that.

The Tito Ortiz and Ken Shamrock trilogy of matches have been a perfect example of a classic pro-wrestling feud that has popped up in MMA. This is made stronger by the way that the series of matches went 3-0 for Ortiz, yet a lot of people watched all three matches. A typical interesting MMA feud will go 1-1 with a deciding rubber match. Look at AA-Sylvia, and that seems to be a feud that will go beyond the rubber match. I wonder if such feuds will become more and more common and what that will do to MMA.

Nimmy · 10-30-2006, 07:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MTKrav911

WHat's wrong with Octagon girl searches.

See the problem with some MMA audiences, is they think they can entertain by showing the fights only. That is a falsehood if you want to rake in real $$$.

Pride is learning this inconvenient fact right now. Their american debut tanked and they lost $$$... It's not solely about the fighters. IT's also about entertainment. Face it, many MMA fighgts are not entertaining. Unless you like to watch two guys roll around endlessly on the mat with no real action. Fights are always going to be about blood and guts. I mean yes, I can watch two guys roll endlessly on the ground, but not the average person.

I know this will hurt some to realize. But Fighting on its own doesent sell tickets. The side-shows do. I'm not talking going down the ridiculous routes like WWE, but you do have to have some side-entertainment to keep the audiences intrigued.

MMA fighters are not the most marketable people on the planet, so every little help they can get, whether it be Octagon girls, gorillas riding bicycles, etc. is a necessary evil in the entertainment business.

i think that the sport will loose credablity with things like octogon girl searches, i am one of the gusy that you say will watch it for the fights, hell i watch as many MMA events i can get hold of just for the fight. i think the more WWE like it gets the less action goes to the fighters.

why not use the money spent to bring in good fighters, Rampage and machida have been passed up to fund endless TUF episodes and octogon girl searches. now i appreciate that without the revenue from TUF and the girl search the UFC might not recieve as much publicity and new fans but i can see it goign to far and having celebrity matches with guys like kevin federline starring in it.

when is enough, enough?