UFC vs. WWE

Came across this interesting article, what's your thoughts on it from a UFC perspective?

10 Things Dana White Could Learn from Vince McMahon

Whether UFC President Dana White wants to admit it or not, he and WWE Chairman Vince McMahon compete for a lot of the same audience with their UFC and WWE products. And there is actually quite a bit that White could learn from McMahon.

Now MMA fans, don’t get too irritated before you even begin to read. I’m not trying to say that they are the same thing. Of course they aren’t. The UFC is legitimate competition between two highly trained athletes, while the WWE is simulated competition between two, also highly trained athletes.

But the similarity is that while one comes right out and says it and the other doesn’t, they are both forms of entertainment, generally for a male audience between the ages of 18-35.

For the past few decades, one company has been the king of this demographic. Sure, there may be other sports which have a wider fanbase, but no company has caught the attention of and latched onto this important demographic quite like the WWE has.

Though we recently found out that, according to McMahon, the WWE and UFC are not working together to purchase a television network; there is still a lot that the UFC President could learn from his WWE counterpart.

10. Elaborate Entrances

Do you remember the "fun" days of the UFC? Back when Tito Ortiz used to walk to the cage with "Break Stuff" by Limp Bizkit blaring in the background while fireworks lit up the building?

What happened?

Maybe someone higher-up decided that it was time to get rid of the theatrics in an attempt to dismiss the stigma that the UFC was nothing but human cockfighting. Maybe they wanted to present it as the true sport that it is. I get it. It was probably a business decision.

But isn't it time to have fun again?

The talent would love it and the fans would love it. It just makes sense.

9. Controversy Creates Cash

The pro wrestling world learned this one decades ago with the whole Andy Kaufman vs. Jerry Lawler feud in Memphis. Unfortunately, MMA organizations have had to fend off the legal battles surrounding their sport while simultaneously contain any potential bad press.

Doing this has done wonders for the advancement of the sport, but it neglects the point that fans ultimately love to see the gritty, behind-the-scenes controversy.

The WWE has the benefit of being able to fake their controversy, but that doesn't mean that the UFC can't lear from them. Take the Michael Bisping spitting incident from UFC 127 for example. Aside from internet stories about the situation, the UFC largely downplayed the whole story.

But a wiser financial decision may have been to play up the incident and try to use it almost in an effort to turn Bisping into a "bad guy" who fans can tune in to cheer against.

Maybe Dana doesn't want to turn his biggest overseas cash cow into that, but there is little doubt that doing so could be financially beneficial for the company in the long-run.

8. Stick to What You’re Good at

Fans of the WWE have seen the company’s chairman get himself involved with numerous different, mostly failed, projects.

Whether it’s the shortly-lived minor league hockey team McMahon owned in the early 80’s, the World Bodybuilding Federation in the early 90’s or the colossal flop that was the XFL in the early 2000’s; those who have followed McMahon’s non-wrestling businesses know how unsuccessful they have been.

There is one thing that McMahon does better than anyone, and that thing is pro wrestling. There’s not even a debate about it. He has the most successful, widest-reaching product ever created and even in its low points, he has always found a way to keep the company generating revenue.

As Zuffa grows, it is certain to find itself with opportunities to venture into other areas. Sure, they may be smarter overall businesspeople than McMahon, but why mess with a good thing? If they stick to the fighting world, they are sure to continue developing the kind of dominant monopoly in MMA that McMahon has created in the pro wrestling world.

7. Fan Interaction

Some sports teams do a better job than others of getting their players to interact with their fans, but as a league, no league has done it better—for longer—than the WWE.

Of course, it’s much easier when your “sport” is a form of entertainment versus legitimate competition, but the WWE has always played to its fanbase, both inside the ring and out.

CM Punk recently brought this to light with a storyline where he used his internet stardom to essentially play the fans against one another in his feud with John Cena and the WWE as a whole. It’s a story, but it just helps the fans feel more involved.

Certainly the UFC can’t do that, but they can continue to promote their fighters’ interactivity with fans, as they have done with their Twitter campaign.
One thing that the UFC did seem to pull from the WWE was their “Fight for the Troops” cards which nearly directly mirrored the WWE’s concept, “Tribute to the Troops” which they have been doing for quite awhile now. This idea has helped bring smiles to the faces of America’s toughest workers and really promotes the organizations as being thoughtful contributors to the country’s entertainment.

6. Competition Can Be a Good Thing

Sometimes you have to learn from mistakes, and I think it’s safe to say that the WWE has had to learn from many mistakes over their days. Perhaps none greater than their acquisition of their largest, longest-lasting major competitor, World Championship Wrestling.

It’s not that the WWE didn’t “win” by buying WCW. It did.

But it also marked the last time that WWE was legitimately pushed by a competitor to put out a better product to its fans. It also meant that the stars they used to be able to acquire from that competitor were no longer being created.

How many wrestlers from TNA have come to the WWE and been superstars? Practically none. And how many WCW stars came to WWF and became huge stars? Countless.

The bottom line is that, although it can be difficult to admit sometimes, competition pushes businesses to be better.

The UFC has seen its share of competitors from Pride to Strikeforce, both of which they now own. No new promotion has shown itself as being the next major competitor to the Zuffa empire and it may be awhile before anyone does. This is great for the UFC’s bottom line at the moment, but down the road, it could end up being something that keeps them from re-inventing their business to cater to the always changing market.

5. Women Are Athletes, Too

UFC President Dana White has been quoted countless times as saying that he essentially does not care one bit about women’s mixed martial arts and doesn’t believe that it is something that can be a money-maker.

Strikeforce began testing that theory when they first promoted Gina Carano vs. Cristiane “Cyborg” Santos as the first women’s main event of a major MMA promotion back in August 2009 when their title fight main evented a card named “Strikeforce: Carano vs. Cyborg.” The event was successful, but it was also the last time that the world’s biggest female MMA star, Carano, has fought.

That alone has been enough to keep women’s MMA from growing even with the success of Cyborg and new champion Miesha Tate.

But while things seem to be slowly dying in women’s MMA, the WWE has been a promoter of women’s wrestling for decades. Even their most dainty, attractive-looking female workers have stepped into the ring and many have even become champion. The female division has never been much more than a sideshow, but it has been something that helps to break up the men’s action.

No one is trying to say that Dana White should continue promoting a women’s MMA fight as a main event like Strikeforce did before its Zuffa purchase, but would it kill him to at least let there be an occasional women’s fight on the card?

4. Accept That Personality Clashes Happen

Sometimes people just don’t get along.

We have seen that for years with Dana White and former UFC light heavyweight champion Tito Ortiz. Ortiz and White actually used to be very close, with White being Ortiz’s manager for years, but they eventually grew apart when White became more of a voice with the UFC product.

Their bitterness toward one another has been an awkward source of entertainment, but Ortiz has been able to keep his job despite the feud. Unfortunately, other fighters haven’t had the same luck.

Guys like Josh Barnett, Frank Shamrock and Paul Daley have been kicked out and kept out of the promotion after individual incidents or a series of incidences... And Dana White has been the biggest voice that has kept them out of the organization.

Vince McMahon and the WWE have also dealt with their fair share of personalities. Guys like Hulk Hogan and Bret Hart were among the biggest stars in the sport’s history, but had falling outs with Vince McMahon. Still, later, they were able to come back together in order to make money together.

Dana White has one of the strongest personalities in all of sports, but he may benefit from just a little bit more understanding when it comes to his talent if it means a big time fight happening.

3. Keep the Fans Wanting More

One thing that WWE has always done a great job of is keeping the fans wanting more by promoting their future main events. This has been done, historically, by setting up storylines to keep fans interested in or spark new a new feud in the main event scene.

Obviously the UFC doesn’t have the benefit of being able to create matches from thin air by picking and choosing the winners of fights, but the concept of story building can still exist in real sports.

The easiest way to do this is to truly promote “number one contendership” fights. Lately, the UFC has had too many vague contendership fights that may or may not mean much of anything in the grand scheme of things. This is particularly important in divisions with cloudy title pictures such as the light heavyweight and lightweight divisions.

With all the talent floating around in those divisions, it’s hard to tell who really is next in line. Sure, we now know that Rashad Evans is the number one contender after he defeated Tito Ortiz, but what would have happened if Tito Ortiz won that fight? Talk about throwing a wrench into the plans.

By just announcing Ortiz vs. Evans as an official No. 1 contendership fight, there is instantly added intrigue. Even if Ortiz wins the fight unconvincingly and shouldn’t realistically be given the next title shot, the fans would be interested in seeing him get the next shot because he won the opportunity by defeating the existing No. 1 contender while taking the fight on short notice.

Giving the fans something to look forward to and a storyline to follow with fights, particularly main events, is a great way to guarantee pay-per-view buys right now and in the future.

2. 24/7 Content

One of the coolest things that WWE has done in recent years is their WWE 24/7 channel, now known as Classics On Demand.

This service allows the hardcore fan the relive some of the most memorable moments in their childhood as well as their adult lives as fans of the WWE. The concept seems simple, but it also makes a lot of sense. People love nostalgia, and that’s all that this whole thing is.

The UFC doesn’t have the same type of rich history that the WWE does with weekly television programming for the past few decades in a row, but it does still have plenty of excellent content. Not only do they have their own video library, but they now also own Pride and Strikeforce’s video libraries.

Wouldn’t it be great to be able to pay a monthly fee to have access to practically any UFC fight in history? Not only would it be cool to relive some of the early days of the sport, but it might even be useful for some of the fighters themselves as they look back at previous fights which featured their upcoming opponent.

1. WrestleMania

Whether wrestling is in a boom or a recession, one event has never struggled—WrestleMania.

There’s just something different about WrestleMania. The competitors are the same, but the atmosphere is just so much different. No matter the year, every worker just seems to rise to the occasion when they are in the big spotlight at the “Grandaddy of them all.”

The UFC has never had anything like this, and there really doesn’t seem to be a logical reason as to why. It’s not like they get roughly the same amount of buys for every pay-per-view regardless of the competitors. In fact, their buys vary drastically, much more than the WWE’s do, depending on who is fighting on the card.

If the UFC put on a huge pay-per-view event like WrestleMania, they could double or even triple their profits by increasing pay-per-view sales while also raising the price of the event both for tickets as well as on television.

Sure, paying numerous top stars to be on the same card would be expensive, but the amount of media coverage would be astronomical and would only serve to help grow the sport at an even quicker pace than before.

In fact, they came close to doing this for UFC 129: St-Pierre vs. Shields when they promoted one of the most stacked cards in the organization’s history. The pay-per-view numbers went through the roof, the fanfare was insane and the success of the event was monumental.

If they added just one more big fight, they could have easily promoted it as the biggest fight card in the promotion’s history. Then everyone would have been on board with buying it. They could have even sold it for double the cost of a normal “numbered” UFC event.

Making money is the name of the game for the UFC and a huge event like WWE’s WrestleMania would do wonders for the organization.
Taken from bleacherreport - Click Here

Hey Y I Man Thanks for the article man much appreciated. I have just finished reading it and as an MMA fan who stopped watching WWE about I'd say 6/7 years ago now I do agree with the points made about both organisations going after the same fan base. Generally males between the ages of 18-35 my reactions on the article are:

Elaborate Entrances: I love the simple entrances of the UFC. Back in UFC 1 Joe Son walked out carrying a giant cross, apparently to help spread the word of Jesus... Now the only two problems with that was 1, it made him look like a massive d*ck and 2, it saps precious energy before a fight. The UFC doesn’t want to confuse its audience by blurring the lines between the UFC and WWE. The music starts, the fighter walks out, gets in the cage, job done. Perfect. Bigger more elaborate entrances should stick with in the WWE it just makes more sense there - I can’t even stand the ridiculous entrances they are performing now at boxing matches.

Controversy Creates Cash: Certainly. Grudge matches (Evans vs. Rampage / Kos vs. anyone / Bisping vs. Rivera) have continuously brought in large audiences and high PPV buy rates. The trouble here lies in the fact that these fighters are their own men and will decide if they want to be a good or a bad guy. Now most of them will generally be both and we will witness as we currently do an almost Bi-polar effect from the personality of fighters. Just before a fight when they are cutting weight and got the butterflies going around they are generally going to be more miserable then after the fight especially if they win then you get the happiest person in the world to speak to. In something like WWE where you can script the personality of the wrestler then you can keep them as a face or heel for lot longer periods and build a story / grudge up over time. You can also switch their personalities too. In the UFC the guys can be heels one minute and faces the next and it is completely up to the fighter what personality they choose that day and when they want to switch it, and to build a card around that is impossible. Fights are based on getting two people with similar talent levels rather than personalities.

Fan Interaction: I'm sorry but this point is nonsense. The WWE for many many years ignored completely the internet fans opinion of their sport and took it in whatever direction they thought were best, now only recently are they starting to listen. The UFC on the other hand since the Zuffer take over does everything it can to speak with and listen to the fans and that is exactly the reason why the product has succeeded. The UFC puts on the best fights against the best people as there is 1 simple reason for it. It’s because that is what the fans have said they want. The WWE and many other sports could learn a lot from the UFC when it comes to Fan Interaction.

Competition Can Be a Good Thing - Some good points raised in this. The monopoly that the UFC is aiming to acquire although good for the bottom line could stop them from being able to change and evolve with an every changing and evolving market. Also fighters need to get paid and if there is only one MMA promotion then you will create the haves and have not’s and I don’t like that.

Women Are Athletes, Too - Again some nonsense here I feel. Saying that Dana White has been quoted countless times as saying that he essentially does not care one bit about women’s mixed martial arts and doesn’t believe that it is something that can be a money-maker. I have never heard him say this. I have heard him say many many times that there aren’t enough good female fighters to create a whole division which is why Zuffer never created a female division. Also the idea that the WWE treats its females friendly is laughable. They are pretty much forced to wrestle in just underwear, they have to perform story lines that are all drenched in sexual innuendo, encouraged to pose for playboy and basically treated as eye candy. That’s not women are athletes too... That’s sex sells and therefore we need to get some hot women. The MMA all those above points are irrelevant and in MMA women are most certainly athletes too. You become a great female MMA by beating the best, not how nice you look which is how I feel success is brought by females in the WWE

Accept That Personality Clashes Happen - Good points here, Dana has rules for one guy and completely different rules for others, and he comes across as very good at holding a grudge against certain individuals (Dayle). Thankfully though if he likes you ala Chael Sonnen then you can do what you want and still keep your job. I don’t think anyone can argue when it comes to some of the hypocrisies of Dana White (just for the record I think Chael Sonnen is the funniest guy in MMA buy a mile so I am super glad Dana likes him as well)

Keep the Fans Wanting More - Nonsense. Plain and simple. Fights are booked on the basis that the best face the best, not what’s the best story. Taking the example you used, if you make the Evans vs. Ortiz fight a number 1 contender fight irrespective of who wins it then you screw over the chances of better fighters out there that will deserve the shot at the belt more if say Ortiz was to win.

24/7 Content - Awesome idea! Bring it on!!!!

WrestleMania - Again a good idea in principal but the WWE have the distinct advantage of having wrestlers being able to wrestle even when they are not 100% in wrestling you can get guys fighting each other when they are only at 10% let alone 100%. In the UFC fighters will pull out of fights when they become injured so cards are subject to change even up to the day of the fight. To have one card guaranteed to have the biggest fights at one point every year you just can’t guarantee it

@Gibbo

I think you made some really good points there, I was surprised that an article like this was written, comparing MMA/UFC to predetermined, scripted pantomime wrestling & saying could UFC learn something? Personally I think not, they seem to be doing very well as it is & getting bigger & richer. As you say MMA/UFC is real & doesn't need bogus hype to sell it, seems to just sell itself.

@YI Man

As you can probably tell I wasn't to impressed with the article you found but it makes for some interesting debate, so full marks for posting. With regards to hyping the fight & having the 'villain' & background story controversy I'm against it. Its a serious sport contested by serious martial artists & as gibbo says the fights sell themselves, everybody is going to want to see a hot prospect rising through the ranks like boxing have his acid test, likewise potential matchups either at a catchweight (though not everybody likes them) or a proven champ a la GSP moving up to fight Silva is gonna sell, as is any of the old guard against Jones at LHW. Though I'd post what I considered to be tacky, staged attempts at this by UCMMA & others concerning the Reid vs Barret, something I think is in bad taste & potentially damaging to MMA, its pretty disliked by a lot of people already without this nonsense:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jlw5fasvunk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6GVSn4vTeao&NR=1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yg7_gYZuRE8&feature=related

You really want to see more of this sort of thing? As for the audiance they are targeting, the age group maybe similar but there are many martial artists & fighters at whatever level watching MMA who have zero interest in WWE etc, they want to see proper decent well matched fights.

@Sohotnot - I like your point with the ring entrances and pre-fight nonsense at the recent UCMMA Reid vs. Barret card. This one card by this 2nd rate promotions shows exactly the reason why blurring the lines between professional wrestling and MMA should always be avoided. Wrestling fans won’t like it because it’s not wrestling and MMA fans won’t like it because it’s not MMA. It’s a Frankenstein monster of the two that I see serves no purpose and there is no market for it.

gibbo104 wrote:@Sohotnot - I like your point with the ring entrances and pre-fight nonsense at the recent UCMMA Reid vs. Barret card. This one card by this 2nd rate promotions shows exactly the reason why blurring the lines between professional wrestling and MMA should always be avoided. Wrestling fans won’t like it because it’s not wrestling and MMA fans won’t like it because it’s not MMA. It’s a Frankenstein monster of the two that I see serves no purpose and there is no market for it.

Gibbo I found it cringeworthy, embarrassing & in bad taste aswell as being unnessesary & potentially doing more harm than good for UK MMA. It was just over the top, lowest common denominator chav nonsense where neandathals are baying for blood with very little knowledge of combat sports or martial arts & as for most of them ever taking something like it up forget about! More like a visual backdrop for a night of beer n charlie. Call me old fashioned but I always liked Mike Tysons ringwalk

I've not been able to find a link anywhere for the fight, more interested because of some allegations of a fixed/faked fight, obviously I cant have an opinion but seeing a promo for the fight featuring both fighters who appeared to beat the same guy both ko's looked staged to me, Barrets headkicks didn't look that good & the guys reactions looked fake, also reids knee didn't seem to have that much behind it.

I watched the whole UCMMA card (got a free stream, thanks again Hobo, Primetime and 606v2 ) and although I respect Tom "Kong" Watson very much but I don’t agree that this main event fight was fixed. Barret came out swinging for the fences at the start of this fight and although lacked basic technique if one of them had landed it could have easily of hurt or KO'ed Reid. Also the triangle choke that Reid locked in for the finish was definitely a legit triangle and Barret fought it for a while before he was forced to tap. A fixed fight? I don’t think so. A sloppy fight with no real show of technique or class? Absolutely.

In regards to that kick that Barret delivered to Mark Carling, I think the history of that fight is just funny. Mark wasn’t a fighter and that was his MMA debut (and his only fight I understand), he was a journalist that didn’t like Barret and so they made the fight. Barret just about beat an amateur. I suppose it makes sense, after his fight with Reid, Barret is now 3-7 (Reid is of course now up to the dizzying heights of 9-9-1-(1))

gibbo104 wrote:I watched the whole UCMMA card (got a free stream, thanks again Hobo, Primetime and 606v2 ) and although I respect Tom "Kong" Watson very much but I don’t agree that this main event fight was fixed. Barret came out swinging for the fences at the start of this fight and although lacked basic technique if one of them had landed it could have easily of hurt or KO'ed Reid. Also the triangle choke that Reid locked in for the finish was definitely a legit triangle and Barret fought it for a while before he was forced to tap. A fixed fight? I don’t think so. A sloppy fight with no real show of technique or class? Absolutely.

That doesn't bode well for UK MMA but made me laugh!

In regards to that kick that Barret delivered to Mark Carling, I think the history of that fight is just funny. Mark wasn’t a fighter and that was his MMA debut (and his only fight I understand), he was a journalist that didn’t like Barret and so they made the fight. Barret just about beat an amateur. I suppose it makes sense, after his fight with Reid, Barret is now 3-7 (Reid is of course now up to the dizzying heights of 9-9-1-(1))

Unbelievable! LOL. A genuine grudge match then, Carling saw sense after that then but fair play to him for having ago. Kind of another nail in the coffin for UK MMA for me but never mind, again it gave me a laugh.

Sorry Y I but I dont agree with what your said. MMA is a SPORT not entertainment

I haven't read all the posts but i'm pretty sure White has said he's learnt an awful lot from WWE in hyping, getting the crowd going but you can say that for a lot of sports i.e. look at how darts has changed with there big venues, individual walk on music etc.

MMA is a pre sport whilst WWE is just pure entertainment where people occasionally get injured. They're as different as a real ware and a war movie.

Soldier_Of_Fortune wrote:Sorry Y I but I dont agree with what your said. MMA is a SPORT not entertainment

I didn't write the article, its from another source.

Y I Man wrote:

Soldier_Of_Fortune wrote:Sorry Y I but I dont agree with what your said. MMA is a SPORT not entertainment

I didn't write the article, its from another source.

Ok mate

I personally think that the UFC doesn't compare with the WWE in terms of how it's run as a business. Yes, the WWE is 'sports entertainment' but let us not get all ignorant about how it works and how other sports and promotions can learn.

The first point is that the WWE involves fans in the company on many levels. They even have a PPV whereby fans can decide the matches - called 'Cyber Sunday'. They have numerous fan events whereby fans can meet their heroes and feel a part of the company.

I think MMA in general has a huge amount to learn in many ways. Whereas Vince McMahon in pure business terms has a huge amount of clout, he stays in the background when dealing with issues and has a strong team which are professional and concise. In contrast, I think Dana White is far too involved in issues which don't concern him. He only has a share of 9% of Zuffa and yet he goes around acting like some sort of demi-God. I'd go as far to say that he may potentially lead the UFC into some murky waters if he isn't careful...

SB wrote: I'd go as far to say that he may potentially lead the UFC into some murky waters if he isn't careful...

What like landing the UFC a seven year deal with FOX? MMA is Americas fastest growing sport and with this deal the UFC is now on Americas biggest channel. I don't know about murky waters, more like a swimming pool full of money.

The UFC had massive kudos before it nearly went bankrupt before Gibbo. The truth is that, especially in terms of rewarding it's athletes, MMA is way behind the pace. Surely that makes the UFC as the leading MMA promotion look even worse?

Even if you compare it to Boxing, David Haye earned roughly £5.5 million in his losing fight to Wladimir Klitschko. The equivalent in MMA? From a brief bit of research it says that George St. Pierre made $900,000 (roughly £546,000 or so).

So, maybe MMA is the fastest-growing stateside sport - but it has yet to show in the pay packet. And to make it relevant with the Vince McMahon element, one of the top wrestlers (Triple H) made $2,013,000 as a yearly salary - for 2006!

Maybe some of the top guys should follow Ken Shamrock's lead and maybe spend some time in sports entertainment, as at least you'd benefit financially if nothing else.

Right lets break this down...

The UFC has massive kudos before it nearly went broke? What time frame are you talking about here? If you are talking about the Pre Zuffer era then well no it didn’t. The UFC before the Zuffer takeover was completely underground and as for saying it had kudos I don’t know about that. It had enemies and powerful ones at that. Politicians wanted to ban it not regulate it, and anyone who wasn’t a fan of the sport was watching guys fight with one boxing glove and guys carrying down life size crucifixes to the cage... Kudos... no... Silliness... yes.
If you are talking about post Zuffer around 2005 then yes, the UFC had kudos (this is after the unified rules of MMA had come about) and was nearly bankrupt but as it has been said many times the Stephen Bonner vs. Forest Griffin TUF 1 finals changed all of that.

MMA was and still is a new sport and like anything new went through difficult times before the market established itself and an organisation could become profitable (much like the WWWF, before it become the WWF).

So in terms of rewarding its fighters back then when the company was going bankrupt, well Griffin and Bonner were both issued 6 figure contacts with the UFC and since then it has been going onwards and upwards .

Now let’s talk wages. You mention that boxers like David Haye earned roughly 5.5million from his losing fight to Wlad, no one in MMA earns this money and there is nothing I can say that will change that fact. Triple H made $2 million in one year in his salary... That is more than most MMA fighters yes, but is it more than the biggest stars in the UFC? I don’t know. Brock Lesner, GSP and Andison Silver are probably the highest paid fighters in the organisation but although the UFC post fight purse numbers it does not tell of locker room bonuses or things like sponsorship money that can often be a substantial amount of the fighter’s purse. I would say that the $900,000 figure you quoted for GSP is either for just one fight and certainly doesn’t include any of his sponsorship and bonuses money. My main point here though is even if it does and even if it is proven that WWE stars get paid more than MMA stars in relation to their positions with-in the company that those trends are changing, and changing quickly they are to. The WWE is on a downwards spiral both in terms of money generated through things like PPV numbers and audience figures, while the UFC is on an upwards spiral and killing the WWE in both of these factors.

The WWE may be more widely know today but tomorrow it will be a laughing stock and be seen for what it is, A joke.

I just wanted to add the top PPV figures of 2010:

Top 10 PPV buy rates, 2010


1. Boxing: Floyd Mayweather vs. Shane Mosley, May 1, 1.4 million buys


2. Boxing: Manny Pacquiao vs. Antonio Margarito, Nov. 13, 1,150,000 buys


3. UFC 116: Brock Lesnar vs. Shane Carwin, July 3, 1,100,000 buys


4. UFC 114: Quinton Jackson vs. Rashad Evans, May 29, 1,050,000 buys


5. UFC 121: Lesnar vs. Cain Velasquez, Oct. 23, 1,000,000 buys


6. UFC 124: Georges St. Pierre vs. Josh Koscheck, Dec. 11, 785,000 buys


7. UFC 111: St. Pierre vs. Dan Hardy, March 27, 770,000 buys


8. Boxing: Manny Pacquiao vs. Joshua Clottey, March 13, 700,000 buys


9. UFC 107: Anderson Silva vs. Chael Sonnen, Aug. 7, 600,000 buys


10. UFC 118: Frank Edgar vs. B.J. Penn/Randy Couture vs. James Toney, 535,000 buys


I can’t see not even 1 WWE PPV on this list... You would have thought that the Royal Rumble or Wrestlmania would have been in the top 10 but obviously not. The WWE is a dinosaur and MMA with the UFC is the new dog in town.

Before I reply, I'll just say that I'm into my BJJ and Boxing so I'm not trying to steadfastly defend something that I don't care for. But I do think that the WWF/WWE can give us lessons.

And in those figures of PPV purchases without a Wrestling event in the top ten merely justifies my position in how poorly UFC athletes are paid in relation to what income they make.

Also, the wrestling promotions also have weekly coverage through their weekly flagship programmes which can average between 3/4 million viewers in the USA alone. So, along with the international viewers which is beamed in over 150 countries, there are huge commercial streams which are exploited.

And I wouldn't say that the WWE is a dinosaur by any means. We still can't find out financial records for Zuffa as they are a private enterprise but to refer to the WWE's revenue for the second quarter of 2011 ($142.6 million) as a dinosaur is a bit strange.

But still, that fight between Georges St Pierre and Dan Hardy was a belter...

MMA is a real sport. WWE is an emulated sport that is deliberately exaggerated and over the top. In short WWE is pure entertainment. Now I don't say that derogatorily. I love the 'theatre' of wrestling when its done well. But I don't think professional fighters need to go around acting like wrestlers. One of the refreshing things about MMA is that, like boxers, they have training camps and the fights still mean something. It is much easier to create a real marque fight on a UFC PPV then in WWE. HHH/Taker at Mania 27 was the last big marque match the WWE had left. Cena/Rock that is set for Mania 28 will be the next. MITB had the biggest fight feel about it most recently. If anything to regain that big fight feel again I think the WWE could learn something from the UFC.

Titles actually mean something in MMA - they are genuinely won by the best fighters. There is no match fixing, those who win titles are bonafide champions. Fighters have to earn their title shots and rematches are very rare. Unlike wrestling where it is common place to put the belt on the guy who earns the most in merchandise sales or who can sell movies or magazines.

However I love the gimmicks that wrestling uses - ladder matches, cage matches, hardcore matches iron man matches etc it produces great drama when two wrestlers who know how to sell a match and work the crowd wrestle each other. When you have wrestlers who can do that and you can suspend reality then wrestling is really entertaining as a spectacle. But you can't replicate that in the Octagon. It is too pure as a sport. And I wouldn't want that to change.

WWE isn't a dinosaur but it's glory days are definitely behind it. Gone are the days of the Monday night wars; gone are the days of massive ratings and buyrates. This is the UFC's time. Now how that translates into fighters salaries and fight winnings I don't know; yes it seems fair that fighters are paid more, especially if the PPV buyrates justify it. But just because fighters may not earn as much money per year or for individual fights doesn't necessarily mean it is better to be a wrestler. The schedule of the WWE is unforgiving. They have to wrestle every single week of the year, at great cost to their health. The amount of wrestlers that have died early as a result of the consequences of their professional lifestyle is alarming. Professional fighters may only fight a few times a year maximum but ultimately their long term health is protected.

You've summed that up very well indeed

for me there are 3 things that create a 'big fight' atmosphere around a proposed fight:

1. The records of the two fighters
2. The training camps
3. Media hype

1. The records: If you book two successful fighters to compete against each other then this goes along way to creating that marque feel. Take the pending JDS/Valesquez heavyweight title fight or GSP v Diaz fight. The records of each fighter speaks for itself - these are talented fighters who have some big wins under their belts. They have beaten significant opponents. They are respected fighters who have proven their potential and are in an elitist category of athletes.

2. The training camps: This is crucial to creating that big fight feel - two fighters analysing each other's strengths and weaknesses and formulating a strategy to win but being kept apart for the majority of time in order to create that sense of heightened anticipation at their eventual confrontation. There has to be a winner and there has to be a loser. It is a very simple question yet one of the most profound questions you can ask in sport - who will win? or who will lose? It generates discussion, debate and speculation.

3. Media Hype: this is perhaps the most obvious ingredient for a big fight feel to a card but is dependent on the previous two. The media feeds off of fans enthusiasm and rather than lighting the fire merely serves to fan it into a bigger flame.

Now when you use this criteria with the WWE it comes up short more often than not. I would argue it can only really achieve 1/3 of the criteria - media hype. It is very hard to convince fans that wrestlers' records are legitimate because who wins is usually a decision made in a business sense rather than in the spirit of sportsmanship. Wrestlers don't have training camps as they wrestle week in week out and wrestling tends to suffer from an over familiarity amongst the wrestlers, who can sometimes end up wrestling each other dozens of times over the course of a year. It is very hard to keep rivalries fresh and interesting. Lastly what WWE does best is hype up the product. Storylines, vignettes, promos and interviews all serve to sell a match or a PPV.

So as I said in my previous post, UFC and WWE are very different animals but if anything WWE could learn something from UFC!