The Thursday Throwdown 08.10.06: MMA and Pro Wrestling Not So Different
Posted by Jon Hartley on 08.10.2006
This week on The Thursday Throwdown, 411's Jon Hartley examines the similarities between MMA and pro wrestling! Plus, thoughts and analysis on a big news week, including Sakuraba's controversial win in K-1 and Tito Ortiz and Ken Shamrock going it at...again?!?!
Visit any popular MMA forum and tell them you're a wrestling fan or better yet, that MMA should be more like pro wrestling. Excitedly talk about Brock Lesnar's intent to begin fighting professionally, or ask people what they think of pro wrestlers using MMA techniques and submissions such as The Undertaker's frequent use (abuse?) of the triangle choke. The reaction you receive, to put it nicely, will not be favorable.
Why is this? Why do MMA fans bristle at the notion of the sport being compared in any way to pro wrestling? Many fans have expressed that they don't want MMA to be confused with a "fake" sport like wrestling...but how would that happen? Surely any rational individual can see that the competition in the UFC, Pride Fighting Championships, or hundreds of other organizations is real and not scripted. Some fans are militant enough about their wrestling hatred that they don't want any kind of cross-promotion between MMA and pro wrestling, nor do they even want pro wrestling fans getting into the sport...as if a few wrestling fans are enough to taint the MMA fan pool completely.
There is no question that there is a large crossover between MMA fans and pro wrestling fans, and one could argue that both MMA and pro wrestling as a whole have benefited from that. Organizations like the UFC have benefited from tie-ins on cable television with wrestling programs and increased name recognition for fighters like Ken Shamrock, while pro wrestling has embraced more realistic ring tactics that have revitalized the in ring portion of "sports entertainment". (In all fairness, in Japan they have embraced a stiffer, more realistic style of wrestling for quite some time) At the same time, though...MMA fans by and large want nothing to do with pro wrestling in any way, shape or form. Why is that? Maybe it's because the similarities between the two are less few-and-far-between than most would imagine.
Similarity: Faces and Heels
Pro wrestling is and has always been based upon fans cheering the faces and jeering the heels. That's the basic foundation of the entire show, it's what makes the matches matter, it's what get the fans in the door. If pro wrestling was accounting, faces and heels would be the debits and credits. Whether by design or not, many MMA promotions (especially the UFC) seems to have capitalized on a similar mentality.
One needs to look no further than the Tito Ortiz-Forrest Griffin fight to see that there are faces and heels in mixed martial arts. Ortiz, the hated former champion who famously "ducked" former #1 contender (and current champ) Chuck Liddell, was the heavy favorite. Griffin, the winner of the opening installment of The Ultimate Fighter reality show, has connected with fans like few other fighters with his down to earth demeanor and self-deprecating humor. The fight played out perfectly, with Ortiz dominating the first round and badly bloodying Griffin, only for Griffin to make a miraculous comeback of sorts, stopping nearly every Ortiz takedown attempts in the second and third rounds while holding his own in the standup department. The split decision went to Ortiz, much to the dismay of nearly everyone in attendance. Ortiz then played the role of the cowardly heel to near perfection, making excuses (after a win, no less!) for his performance by citing a laundry list of injuries.
Ortiz is far from being the UFC's only bad guy. Former UFC fighter Wes Sims decided early in his first fight with former heavyweight champ Frank Mir to just grab the cage and start stomping on Mir as he laid on the ground, clearly a violation of the rules in the United States. Ironically, Sims would gain somewhat of a following due to his "fight anyone" mentality, playing face in a fight against Mike Kyle, in which Kyle allegedly bit Sims on the chest as Sims attempted to submit him! (Kyle, by MMA standards is an uber-heel, most recently under fire for kicking a downed opponent in World Extreme Cagefighting, which is illegal, then continuing to punch him as the ref attempted to stop the fight) Other heels have included Phil Baroni, the self-proclaimed "New York Badass" who once struck at referee Larry Landless after what Baroni thought was an early stoppage, and who channeled heel Owen Hart rather well in yelling "I'm the best EVA!" after KO'ing also-rans in the UFC's middleweight division before ultimately leaving for Pride.
Perhaps the UFC doesn't intend to seperate the fighters into such categories, and the fighters simply do so themselves. That is quite possibly true, and evidenced as fans decide to cheer (or boo) for fighters based upon their own traits and personalities: Chuck Liddell, the soft-spoken fighter who inside the ring fears no one, Hall of Famer Randy Couture, the against-the-odds success story who in his early forties cleaned out the light heavyweight division, or Diego Sanchez, whose cockiness and penchant for saying incredibly strange things after fights has earned him his share of haters as well as fans. So, is the UFC attempting to boost interest in its fighters by portraying them as faces and heels or does that happen somewhat naturally? The truth probably lies somewhere in between.
Similarity: Evil Promoters and Officials
The WWE made a ton of money in the late 90's (and has used as a booking tactic ever since) with the "evil boss" angle, having Vince McMahon become a character in his own right as he manipulated his company however he saw fit in his on-screen role with the company. In essence, this is a smart tactic: wrestlers may come and go, but rest assured McMahon himself will never be seen joining another wrestling organization. The UFC appears to be doing a similar thing with UFC president Dana White.
When The Ultimate Fighter debuted, White was part of the cast and appeared early-on to just be part of it to provide his own analysis and opinions here and there, as well as conducting certain portions of the show (the drafting of fighters to teams, for example) as a host of sorts. However, midway through the first season, it was clear that White was not resigned to being a mere supporting character on the show, as he launched into the first of many "Do you want to be a bleep-ing fighter" speeches. From that point on, White has openly endorsed some fighters while proclaiming others to be "pussies" due to an unwillingness to fight, or in season three participant Noah Inhofer's case, due to a desire to leave the show and smooth problems over with a girlfriend. White has also made it clear that he doesn't get along with certain fighters, such as Tito Ortiz, who he had contract troubles with in recent years. White and Ortiz will even have a much-talked about "sparring match" behind closed doors at some point, apparently as specified in Ortiz' very contract. Hmmm...the promoter and one of his top stars settling a beef with fisticuffs? Sounds familiar.
Recent events have caused many to second-guess their initial belief that White's "bad ass promoter" act was an act after all. None other than UFC legend Pat Miletich said in a sworn statement as part of a court case between the UFC and the International Fight League that White threatened that "anyone associated with the IFL would not be associated with the UFC", which Miletich took as a threat to the livelihood of the fighters he trains, many of whom compete or have competed in the UFC. White even allegedly said that it "wasn't his fucking job to be liked" when Miletich told him that many in the MMA world don't agree with the way he does business. To top it off, rival CEO Jeremy Lappen of the World Fighting Association was kicked out of UFC 61 for no apparent reason, even though he had a valid ticket. No one's sure whether the order to have Lappen removed came down from White himself, but would it be hard to imagine, given what else has come to light regarding the UFC's president?
No pro wrestling event would be complete without dishonest referees, and MMA apparently is no exception. In recent months the MMA world has seen the introduction of another pro wrestling parallel: evil referees! That is not to say that the motives of referees can be proven or that there are any bad motives at all, but don't tell the fans that. The fan backlash towards UFC referee Herb Dean, for instance, could still be heard at the WFA pay-per-view, where he was soundly booed by those in attendance...presumably for his "early" stoppage during the Ken Shamrock-Tito Ortiz fight at UFC 61. Or how about the recent Kazushi Sakuraba fight in K-1, where Sakuraba was allowed to take a horrendous beating as the referee seemed to be hoping he'd recover and win...which he actually did after Kestutis Smirnovas finally tired from beating on Sakuraba non-stop for three minutes. How about the recent Pride bout between Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipovic and Japanese fan favorite Hidehiko Yoshida where the referee essentially allowed Yoshida a couple of standing eight counts as Yoshida laid on the ground, unable to stand after several vicious Cro Cop leg kicks? In the same event, the referee of the Fujita-Silva fight frantically kept looking into the audience as Wanderlei was laying a beating on Fujita, as if he was looking for permission to stop the fight. When the fight was stopped, the bell actually rang before the ref gave any order for the fight to stop. Hmmm....
I should also mention that Pride is the same organization that allows referees to give yellow (and sometimes green) cards to fighters during periods of "inactivity", thereby subtracting ten percent of that fighter's salary for the fight.
Similarity: Promote the Organization, Not the Fighters
As I eluded to earlier, pro wrestling organizations realized long ago that wrestlers come and go, and to survive and/or flourish they must market their promotion effectively regardless of who is wrestling for them. Much has been made of WWE's attempts to build strong brands in recent years, and the UFC in particular has successfully followed the same blueprint.
Need proof? Ask someone what they think of mixed martial arts, then ask them what they think of "ultimate fighting". Undoubtedly, the term "ultimate fighting", though not an official term in the least for the sport, will garner a more familiar reaction. The UFC succeeds at least partially based on the fact that casual fans or those who are not knowledgeable about the sport thinks that the UFC is MMA. This has allowed the UFC to grow even as more and more top fighters have developed in other promotions or even left the UFC and succeeded elsewhere. It's actually a smart business tactic, as the UFC needs to know they can succeed even as the Randy Coutures, Chuck Liddells and Vitor Belforts of the world retire or go elsewhere in search of greener pastures. Through The Ultimate Fighter and a plethora of free events on Spike TV, they have developed a farm system of sorts to keep new fighters coming up the ranks and grabbing fans' attention. At the same time, they have successfully promoted the UFC as the center of U.S. MMA, and even developed president Dana White as a personality in his own right.
Pride doesn't place as much emphasis on promoting their own brass, but they more than make up for that with the pageantry and excess on display during their events. Immediately upon watching a Pride event, you notice the differences between their shows and American MMA shows, beginning with a huge display of music and lights as each fighter competing is brought out on stage one-by-one, and followed with grand spectacles during the entrances before the fights themselves. Recent Pride events have featured, among other things, a giant rotating fist that turns to reveal the competing fighter, and hydraulic ramps that slowly lower fighters to the walkway leading to the ring.
The recent WFA pay-per-view has shown just how much stock even well-versed fans put into such production efforts, as many of the complaints after the WFA's show related to production values and announcing. Whether fans admit it or not, on a subconscious level at the very least, they are affected by the pricey production levels and showy presentation of promotions like Pride and the UFC. In America, marketing and in particular packaging mean a lot, and right or wrong, it's hard to claim to be one of the top promotions in the world when your show looks like it took place in a half-empty arena and features Bill Goldberg on commentary.
People buy into the hype, and that's why in MMA we will continue to see similarities to pro wrestling. As long as we never see Chuck Liddell run into the cage to hit Tito Ortiz with a chair in Ortiz-Griffin II, that's not such a a bad thing.
Reader E-mail
Gary of "habubu habubu" fame is back with us again! At this point I suspect Gary is going to come after me for co-writer credit. His question:
So here's my big question. Who has more of a chance to win the next fight. Monson over Sylvia or Shamrock over Ortiz (apparently going on TV in October)?
Well, as Shamrock officially has no chance in hell of beating Ortiz, the answer by default would appear to be Jeff Monson. I think the question is whether Monson has the ability to take Sylvia down. I don't necessarily believe Monson would submit Sylvia as easily as many believe, but UFC judges in the past have scored rounds consistently for the guy on top, which would obviously be Monson if the fight were to go to the ground via Monson takedown. That said, Monson still has to win three rounds out of five to take the decision, and I don't see Monson winning via ground-n-pound. I think this fight is won or lost based upon Sylvia's ability to keep the fight standing. In the end, I just don't see Monson getting inside Sylvia's reach to secure said takedowns. But who knows? Anything can happen in a fight. Anything, that is, except Shamrock beating Ortiz.
Quick Thoughts
--As Gary eluded to, Shamrock-Ortiz III is rumored to be taking place on Spike TV in the not-so-distant future. Meanwhile, Royce Gracie said to MMA Weekly that he'd like to fight Matt Hughes again. The question is not so much "why is the UFC even considering these rematches" as it is "why do these guys want rematches?" I just don't understand how someone can be beaten decisively and get a rematch, without winning a few matches in between. Even if you say that Shamrock-Ortiz II was unfairly stopped, Ortiz still dominated Shamrock at UFC 40. Shamrock didn't really do anything of note between UFC 40 and now. So why have a third fight? I think we all know the answer is the almighty dollar, and if I have anything to say regarding that, I can say that at least the UFC is putting the rematch on cable tv instead of pay-per-view. As far as Gracie-Hughes II goes, I really hope that doesn't happen. Hughes only gets to fight 3-4 times per year, and he's still got plenty of guys to fight in his division, including GSP coming up, a rematch with BJ Penn, a fight with the winner of Karo Parisyan and Diego Sanchez, and a contracted fight with the welterweight winner of TUF 4.
--Regarding the controversial Sakuraba-Smirnovas fight in K-1 Hero's this past week, I do agree that the fight very easily could have been stopped. Should have been? That's harder to answer. Sakuraba did come back and win, so that's a compelling argument right there on the side of the fight not being stopped...however the referee's job is to protect fighters from unnecessary beatings, and I don't believe he was doing that during the fight. The part that makes the fight so troubling for many is that K-1 has invested a lot in Sakuraba and they need him to be at least somewhat as good as he was in his prime. A quick TKO loss to Smirnovas would have been pretty devastating for Saku as well as K-1, so there's your motive for some shady refereeing. Even with a little referee help, it's likely that had the fight not been restarted away from the ropes early on during Smirnovas' onslaught (allowing Saku several precious seconds to recover), Saku wouldn't have survived. Regardless of the validity of that fight's outcome, it's clear that Saku is in the waning stages of his career. Hopefully we will continue to see him fight guys that are close to his own weight (unlike his days in Pride) and he will be able to go out the way a legend like him deserves.
Random MMA YouTube Moment
Finally, this week's YouTube moment is the previously alluded-to fight between Sakuraba and Smirnovas in K-1. Watch it and decide for yourself whether it should have been stopped!
