WWE did 5,442,000 PPV world wide buys for the 16 pay-per-views the company promoted in 2006. By comparison, [COLOR=blue ! important][FONT=Tahoma,Arial,Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif][COLOR=blue ! important][FONT=Tahoma,Arial,Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif]UFC[/FONT][/FONT][/COLOR][/COLOR] did 5,225,000 domestic PPV buys for the ten shows the MMA group produced. (The early projections for UFC 67 have the PPV doing between 350,000 to 400,000 buys). Not bad for a ppv but not what people were expecting.
It was a piece of crap card, I'm not surprised. All they did was introduce CroCop and Jackson to the U.S fans by giving them easy tune up fights. The card sucked. The upcoming card this saturday for UFC 68 is weak as well. They're trying to sell it based on Couture's name. Nobody gives a crud about Tim Sylvia. Also have Hughes and Franklin returning with some handpicked tune ups. The UFC 69 card in April is possibly the weakest sh*t I've seen in years with GSP vs Serra. That's a Spike Tv special at best.
The problem with WWE is that they're just throwing out any old sh*t on PPV and charging $35 for it. They have no ability to sell storylines or good old fashioned wrestling anymore, and they have very few stars. The guys they're trying to push just aren't good wrestlers, like that no talent joke John Cena. F*ckin' crap! It was so much better when WCW was in contention, we had the Monday Night Wars and both companies were forced to put out their best sh*t in order to win the ratings, and the PPVs were stacked with good quality stuff and good storylines. The Attitude era wasn't bad at all, that revived wrestling bigtime in the late 90s/early 00. Back then they had Stone Cold, The Rock, Mick Foley, etc at their best while WCW had NWO, Hogan, Sting, Goldberg, etc. It was fun being a wrestling fan back then and combined, the Monday night shows were ratings monsters!
you know your shit when it comes to wrestling, hanz. My brother is very knowledegable too and seems to have your same view of the business. I know WWE has been living on tradition/name alone, and the fact that they're a semi-monopoly, and I hope TNA brings back that competitive edge to take some shine away fron WWE. UFC to me is a mix netween boxing and wrestling. You got the storylines, the weekly show and the well priced ppvs. and it seems that nobody cares about undefeated fighters, they're(the fans) just pleased to watch great fights.
True. Also they say that wrestling's success works in cycles where sometimes they're up and down and right now we're in a down period. But it just seems to me that the WWE has been in a down period ever since they lost their case to keep the 'WWF' name, not to mention the end of Turner's WCW, the monopoly the WWE has on the industry in North America, the ultimate end that became of their biggest stars in Austin, Rock, Foley, etc. Seems like ever since HHH got together with Vince's daughter and became a partial influence on the direction of the company, it's mainly gone to sh*t. But after having read and heard interviews from many wrestlers who worked in the wrestling biz, they say it's entirely made up of backstabbing, lies, and money. Some people are held down, while other people have influence and can get what they want because of who they know. I remember a story Jericho once told when some years ago, he was enroute to becoming a big star in the WWE and winning the world titles but that motherf*cker Triple H sabotaged Jericho's push because of his influence due to being aligned with the McMahon's through Stephanie. Let's not forget the awful writers they employ. Vince Russo for a time was their top writer when the WWE was putting out their best material. It's been many years since the cycle has been on an up. It's down and it's still sinking further down. I hardly even watch the shows anymore. And I feel at one point I was the biggest WWF fan there ever was.
I still get surprised at UFC PPV numbers, but how in the hell is wrestling doing this well? I know of zero fans, is this a Canadian thing or Indiana just doesn't get into wrestling :nixweiss:
Wrestling always had a loyal fan base. Even though it's lost a very very large chunk of its audience, they do have a decent sized fanbase. Domestic buys for WWE are very low, worldwide though they have a good following. They tour pretty much every part of the world, including....INDIA!!!!! Now that's something! WWE has been everywhere. Naturally they'll have an audience. Their big events tend to do the biggest buys including Wrestlemania, Summerslam and the Royal Rumble. Survivor Series has been lacking lately, and at one time that was my favourite event. But I'm talking back in the days of Macho Man, Hogan, Warrior, Demoliton, Hart Foundation, etc. This year's Royal Rumble was pretty crappy too. I think I only recognized 12 names out of the 30 participants in the battle royal. Alot of those wrestlers are garbage, lucha libre high flyers and non-charismatic types whom I care little for.
UFC's managed to attract the 18-34 male audience which is one of the most difficult demographics to reach. Their TUF series on Spike TV is what really catapulted them. Plus their endless reruns of 'Best KOs', their live Ultimate Fight Night specials, and their old fights from old PPVs. They know how to market their product, that's for sure.
When I was in Vegas to watch UFC 67, the place looked sold out. That's pretty impressive when you consider it wasn't really a good card. There were quite a few serbs there, or whatever the fuck following Crow Crop has :jester:
Well you know, I can say it's still a better event than the Pretty Boy vs Baldomir card we got charged $50 for on ppv. That was a really bad card. The Pride card in Vegas last week was alot better than anything the UFC has put out in the past year or two. That was a very good card. They got alot of praise for it. The card on paper looked weak but the fights themselves were all top flight. KOs galore!!
They were not that good of KO's, could have been better but the refs were all over that shit like they were trying for a take down ghfjdgs Better than it could have been like that prelim where they just stood and postured for 15 minutes issed: The rest were decent, but you are right, on paper it looked mediocre which I was surprised at the turn out.
