Pro Wrestling Chronicle

Matt Hughes destroys Royce Gracie and a UFC 60 review. The Boom has landed!
– Matt Hughes destroyed MMA legend Royce Gracie at UFC 60. If you don’t see a correlation between pro wrestling and mixed martial arts in North America or Japan, I disagree, but I understand. If you just plain don’t like UFC, That’s your thing. But if you don’t believe one affects the other, let’s look at some math.

This weekends big UFC 60 from Lip Stick City is going to do an estimated 425-475 thousand buys. Now, TNA does 12 PPVs a year. A run of the mill show does 30-35,000 buys. If a WCW reject like Sting comes back, that takes it to 45-50,000. That only happens about three times a year, and that’s our cap. I’m gonna be nice and say on average TNA does 40,000 buys per month for the year. That’s 480,000 buys per year. That means they MIGHT beat out UFC’s one month take –maybe.

But TNA doesn’t do that many buys on average. TNA also sells it’s PPV at $29.95. UFC 60 was at $39.95. TNA does there shows in front of 900 fans who get in for free. UFC (And don’t believe Mike Goldberg, the Staples Center was not a sellout) did a gate Saturday night at somewhere between 5 and 6 million dollars conservatively. The UFC also gets a higher income demo. From advertisers, better ratings, and had the Rock and Paris Hilton all over its show Saturday night. In one night they dwarfed the millions lost by TNA every month, year, and soon, half-decade. TNA is not the WWE’s competition. UFC is.

The main event sold this show. The build up and spectacle were awesome. Everyone in the know was aware Hughes would make his name off Gracie, but Gracie and Dana White convinced enough people with their collective mouths that this wasn’t the case, and they talked several hundred thousand into putting there money on it. That’s great for now, and I know you can’t “book” this like Vince McMahon can (It’s amazing in a controlled environment that Vince’s “storytelling” pales in comparison to the UFC’s variable plagued reality theatre), but the next event has to deliver better then this one. Three of the first four fights ended abruptly with first round submissions. In most, the action had not heated up. It’s not that the event was in any way bad, but last night was one of the few times you’ll get about 40-50% casual fan viewing, and they don’t have the appreciation or patience that people like myself do. You knew you had a great, but quick, main event on the table. I know you can’t hold a gun to any fighter’s head and say, “don’t finish him. Toy with him. Let the guy back in and have a strike-fest so the crowd pops.” But you can book guys who are evenly matched together with contrasting styles. Styles make fights. Dean Lister’s fight should have been awesome. Boxing vs. submission. Lister’s opponent, however, was confused once the bell rang. They are lucky the next event coming up is as huge as it is. It should be another big buyrate for Ortiz-Shamrock 2 and Arlovsky-Sylvia 3.

The good was visible from the beginning. Great package to open the show that got me excited and also let us know who was there. I loved the pre-promotes for U.F. on Thursday, the finals on June 24th, a Fight Night on June 28th, and the next PPV July 8th. You have a heavy schedule guys, but at least we know where you are.

A final note. As much as it frustrated me to see Diego Sanchez choking in a fight he needed for credibility (the U.F. microscope is burning this guys back), it was one fun fight. Alessio put on a good showing with the jab, had Sanchez beat, and gave away the third round. It looked like a draw, but I applaud Deigo’s heart for climbing on that guys back for over 3 minutes. Amazingly fun match, and he handled the crowd’s booing with class.