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[Cromm]

WWE Plan MMA Break In
Date submitted: 08 November 2006
Submitted by: WhaleDog.com

Zach Arnold reports that the WWE is seriously considering promoting MMA events.

Vince McMahon and the WWE ought to be very wary about getting into MMA since they have failed miserably when they have tried to promote anything other than professional wrestling. Most people probably remember the WWE's failure with the XFL, but many may not recall that McMahon also bombed with a professional body building association in the early 90's. Plus, the WWE's experiment with the "Brawl for it All" (real fights with toughman style boxing and take downs) did not go over too well with wrestling fans.

However, MMA promotion is not too different than professional wrestling (definitely closer to professional wrestling than football or body building). While I would put the WWE's chances of being able to dethrone the UFC at less than than 50%, it would definitely be a force to reckon with - one that the MMA promoters could not easily ignore.

Zach goes into great detail about how this will affect Pride, but I think another interesting question is how it will affect the UFC. If the WWE gets into MMA it not only gives the UFC a new formidable competitor, it also puts the UFC in a funny position.

The UFC has been spending its time and energy promoting itself like a professional wrestling promotion without pre-determiined outcomes, but its natural spin would be that the WWE is a pro-wrstling promotion trying to put on "phony" shows without pre-determined outcomes. You have wonder whether the UFC would counter the WWE by increasing its theatrics, or by treating MMA more like a serious sport.

In any event, regardless whether the WWE entering MMA would be good for the sport (it would not be in my opinion), this is certainly an interesting development."

I dont know.... I dont think this is all that legit as per there are no sources quoted, may just be a possibility reported as news.
Vince could not do worse for MMA then Dana, and he would invest more money to attain better fighters, however I dont like the idea of possible worked fights, being potrayed as legit. And that would be the only way Vince could control the "story"

[iced]

i disagree. i think that vince is a complete clown. dana is just a stingy prick.

this would be a blow to mma imo.

they need to keep their crap as far away from mma as possible

[aaronm_rand]

If this means we will see MMA more often on cable TV, YAY!

WWE is probably more popular in the USA then the UFC, I could be wrong, but I don't think so. If the WWE had an MMA league, I think it could definately be succesful. A lot of those WWE fans would watch it. It would probably produce more MMA fans. I think it'd actually be good for the UFC and PRIDE as well since some of those WWE fans would get into MMA, and watch these events as well as the WWE MMA league events.

How much talent would a WWE MMA league have? Who knows. I don't see too many great MMA fighters jumping ship. The ones most likely to are probably the ones who had some success in UFC or PRIDE but then lossed a few matches and is searching for a new path.

[kowarrior]

Originally Posted by aaronm_rand

If this means we will see MMA more often on cable TV, YAY!

WWE is probably more popular in the USA then the UFC, I could be wrong, but I don't think so. If the WWE had an MMA league, I think it could definately be succesful. A lot of those WWE fans would watch it. It would probably produce more MMA fans. I think it'd actually be good for the UFC and PRIDE as well since some of those WWE fans would get into MMA, and watch these events as well as the WWE MMA league events.

How much talent would a WWE MMA league have? Who knows. I don't see too many great MMA fighters jumping ship. The ones most likely to are probably the ones who had some success in UFC or PRIDE but then lossed a few matches and is searching for a new path.

Money talks, bullsh*t walks. If the money is good, expect even the great Chuck Liddell to jump ship. MMA fighters are treated like whores anyway. Nobody gives two sh*ts about greatness, it's about being paid what you feel your worth. And everybody damn well knows that guys like Matt Hughes, Rich Franklin, Arlovski, etc aren't brimming with good feelings toward the UFC when looking at their paycheques. At the end of the day, they need to feed themselves and their families.
I wouldn't put it past McMahon to try his own MMA brand and steal alot of the established fighters out there, just like Ted Turner did to him in the 90s.
I could see McMahon locking alot of these guys in. Some of his wrestlers like The Big Show Paul Wight signed a 10 year contract of $1 million per year. I'm pretty sure Vince is going to pounce on the MMA enigma soon enough, if the UFC keeps drawing the kind of numbers they are.

[iced]

mcmahon's a douche. he won't succeed outside of fake ass circus wrestling.

example,.......the xfl(extreme football leauge). lol. look how long that lasted!

[kowarrior]

Originally Posted by iced

mcmahon's a douche. he won't succeed outside of fake ass circus wretling.

example,.......the xfl(extreme football leauge). lol. look how long that lasted!

True, but the UFC is alot closer to WWE. Same kind of fanbase, same kind of show overall. Only difference being that one is orchestrated and the other one isn't. XFL was a stupid idea to begin with.

[liddell316]

This idea would just be money down the drain for Vince.

[Frasedog]

I hope the WWE stays away, but if they dont, I hope they promote it differently. There needs to be a distinct line between staged fights and real fights. I talk to people all the time that are so ignorant that they dont believe the UFC is real. They associate it with pro wrestling which is fake as we all know. WWE would hurt the credibility of MMA.

[Dork8503]

vince has the money to make a great mma promotion, he has the money to steal all the ufc and pride fighters, all he would need to do is get someone that knows how to run it, to run it he just sticks his name on it throws out huge sums of money to lure fighters and he has the biggest mma promotion out there, but vince is to stubbrin to let someone else run it for him, and would he try making it fake by paying someone to loose for better ratings, because if he did, it would ruin mma, im sure if zuffa needed help vince would slap his face all over it to help pay the fighters more money but its doubt full, plus ufc has the money to pay them huge amounts of money but they choose not to, they make a few million at the gates and then a shit load on ppv buys and there totaly pay outs are from 3-600,000 yeah there just greedy, plus prides pay wasnt all that great either, they paid fedor what 65,000 and ufc champs and big names get over 100 or 200,000 unless your name is rich franklin

[BigBanda]

The only way this would be a good thing is if Vince kept the sport of MMA legit and didnt make it into a theatrical thing with fixed fights. If he used his deep pockets to by top fighters then that'd be enough in its own. He wouldnt need to make it theatrical and fix fights but knowing Vince he probabaly would.