A New Form Of Wrestling?
Posted by TWV Guest Columnists
on 01/17/2007
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Guest Column By Alex Macmillan
Before I start this, there's something everyone should know. I absolutely love UFC. I really do. This sport has to be one of the most grueling, challenging, and satisfying sports out there. These guys are spending around six hours per day in the gym to perfect their skills and the amount of punishment they take is nothing short of awesome, which brings me to my next point.
Imagine if you combined the fighting style of UFC with the story telling of wrestling. Now some of you may be thinking how bad an idea that is and I agree it has a chance of flopping, but look at the success of MMA as opposed to wrestling. Wrestling has dropped so far down in quality since the Monday Night War ended that it's become a joke. On the other hand, MMA has witnessed a humongous surge in popularity since UFC's re-debut under Zuffa and their cross promotion with Spike TV. Now I'm sure it wouldn't be completely impossible to find a way to bring the two together, you could start with an introduction of a new match type and see how fans react. If it's liked enough, it could grow until maybe even it becomes its own style. I'm not saying for WWE or TNA to invest huge amounts of money in this, but I think they could at least give it a shot. Both companies have excellent ways to pull it off. TNA's show leads right into UFC unleashed and could seriously help them get the attention they so badly need. Not only that but Spike has pretty much become UFC's best friend with regards to the publicity they've gotten them and having both shows under the same network cuts through a lot of red tape. WWE, on the other hand, has been in talks recently of doing some cross promotion with the MMA organization PRIDE. For those not familiar (all eight of you out there), PRIDE is the leading MMA organization and is bigger than even the UFC everywhere outside of North America. Now if these talks come true, then they could even go so far as to have some of the fighters in PRIDE do some appearances at WWE events and start up a potential storyline. This could create a perfect excuse to introduce the MMA rules match and see where it goes. If it flops well they tried, but if it succeeds, then we will all see a very original and entertaining show put on for us. One could even go so far as to say you keep the fighting in these real, but build storylines around them. Most of you might say "Pfft! That won't work. It'll get too repetitive," but hold on a second before you completely throw out the possibility.
Look at the Ortiz-Shamrock rivalry that dominated the sport for so long. Those two created more controversy and generated more interest in MMA than anyone before. I can proudly say it's even when I started paying attention to it. And the number of times these two stepped into a ring to actually face off? A grand total of three. That's right folks over something like three years (the actual number escapes me right now but it was a long time, trust me on that one), the two squared off a total of three times and only one of those fights was longer than ten minutes. Not to mention the fact Shamrock didn't even win or perform exceptionally well in any of them. Now think about how many injuries occur because of wrestlers (and yes, I say wrestlers, not superstars or extremists) wanting to really captivate a crowd's attention. A twenty-thirty minute match involving dangerous bumps done countless times throughout a year versus three quick competitions which helped UFC explode in popularity. I can easily see how the major wrestling competitions could do this and rake in the profits. I know for one Vince isn't going to pass up money, God forbid he doesn't make that extra dollar cashing in on a certain someone's death. The beauty of this is you could even potentially bring back kayfabe, something missing from wrestling for a very long time.
The only major problem I could see arising from this would be that fans would become put off from the association of MMA with wrestling. They might possibly begin to believe that not only is wrestling fake, but PRIDE and UFC are fake as well. On this, the only solution I can see that would really solve their problem would be to keep the two organizations separate while maintaining a working relationship. It would be how, for example, Ken Shamrock kept his wrestling life and fighting life separate. When he was in the ring, he was a psychotic madman who broke people left and right. When he was fighting, he was down to earth and focused on his career. Yes, he did both, but the separation of them kept it so even though you knew he wrestled, when he was in UFC you knew he was for real. The WWE/PRIDE formation and the TNA/UFC formation would have to do the same and separate the two when it counts. For example, never
ever, no matter what demonic hell spawn tells you it's a good decision, let your wrestlers run in or bring their characters and storylines to an MMA event. I cannot stress enough how much of a bad move that would be and how much damage that would cause. For example, imagine hearing Joe Rogan comment on the recently aired Liddell-Ortiz fight, only to stop and scream, "But look at this! Abyss is running in to help out Ortiz! He's smashing Liddell with a chair!" Think about that for ten seconds and come back when you're brain stops bleeding. That would put so many people off and damage both companies’ reputations so much that it might never be fixed.
Basically, you have two major forms of entertainment both with similar premises, fighters competing to win. Is it really so hard to imagine in one form or another, that the two join to make some magic? Personally I don't think so.
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