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By Wade Keller, Torch Supervising Editor
[The following article was the cover story of the Torch Newsletter five years ago this week.]
HEADLINE: WWE and UFC go to war Oct. 3 with battling four–hour blocks
Fans of WWE, TNA, and UFC will have more than nine hours of programming to watch on Monday night, Oct. 3. WWE and USA Network have gone to war with UFC, TNA, and Spike TV for at least one night.
Originally Spike TV planned to shift UFC programming to Saturday nights once Raw left Monday nights in October, moving back to USA Network. WWE planned the typical two–hour–plus show when it returned on Oct. 3. UFC and Spike TV, eager to capitalize on the habits of viewers tuning in to Spike on Oct. 3 looking for fights, decided to provide it in the form of a two–hour–plus live special featuring a loaded card which Inside Fighting called an “absolutely exquisite… outstanding fight card.” They also kept The Ultimate Fighter on Monday night one extra week before shifting it to its new Slammin’ Saturday Night timeslot, capitalizing on the UFC audience watching the two hour live UFC special.
WWE countered last week by expanding Raw to three hours, hoping that by advertising on their final editions of Raw on Spike that the Oct. 3 Raw would start an hour earlier, it would cause the vast majority of their audience to seek out the show on USA at 8 p.m. ET rather than tuning in to Spike at 9 p.m. ET out of habit when the UFC special started. UFC and Spike TV countered by adding another hour before the live special featuring UFC Unleashed, their “best of” highlight show. WWE countered by requesting that Raw begin on USA Network at 7:55 p.m. instead of 8 p.m. Also, an extra “Best of Raw” hour has been added after the three–hour live show which will run head–to–head with fifth week of The Ultimate Fighter II reality series.
In all, that means WWE will provide USA with three–hours–plus of live programming and a one–hour “Best of” show while UFC will provide Spike TV with a one hour “best of” followed by a two–hour live fight card followed by a one–hour first–run episode off the successful UFC reality series (based closely on the Tough Enough format that WWE dropped after three seasons).
TNA may be a surprise winner in this battle, as that 50 minute gap that had been scheduled between the end of the live Raw and the start of TNA Impact at midnight on Spike has closed entirely. When the “Best of Raw” special on USA ends, TNA Impact will be just getting under way at 12:05 p.m. ET. Between the Raw audience being held over an extra hour and the built–in audience of The Ultimate Fighter which precedes the TNA Impact replay, TNA may do a solid late–night number its first week on Spike.
By Oct. 3, it’s possible either side may raise the stakes again, perhaps going “commercial free” or adding even more programming or celebrities.
UFC does not need to draw a bigger rating than Raw to have Monday night be successful. They just have to prove they can draw a solid cable rating on Monday night up against a loaded “Raw Homecoming” line–up. The chance of UFC drawing even half of Raw's audience, despite the channel switch, is considered remote.
What the game of one–upsmanship has done, though, is energize both USA and Spike TV officials to go beyond “what’s best for business” in the long–run into a war that looks almost as personal as the early Raw–Nitro battle. The only thing missing now is boasting from UFC president Dana White as WCW V.P. Eric Bischoff did in the days leading up to the debut of Nitro. The opposite has happened at this point. Neither UFC nor Spike TV have officially announced the TV special yet for some reason, but it’s being widely reported by MMA websites because the fighters who have been booked for the live special are training for a fight on that date. However, perhaps because not all fight contracts have been signed yet, UFC officials are waiting to offficially announce the entire line–up at once.
Whether UFC falls under the umbrella of the “pro wrestling industry” isn’t as relevant as whether WWE acts as if it does. And they are acting as if it does. UFC captures a similar demographic of customers as traditional worked pro wrestling companies have over the years, but are able to command a much better per–viewer advertising rate because it doesn’t carry the stigma of being “fake” and controversial like WWE. Since ECW and WCW went out of business, there has been an opening for another viable national entity to fill the gap. It wouldn’t have to necessarily resemble the last competitors (WCW and ECW). UFC doesn’t. TNA does. There may be room for both to succeed.
In a Torch Poll this week, 49 percent said they consider themselves fans of UFC in addition to traditional pro wrestling. Of that same group, only 12 percent think UFC should be categorized as part of the “pro wrestling industry.” Most feel it doesn’t qualify because “pro wrestling” is widely considered to mean “simulated fights,” while others say UFC isn’t pro wrestling primarily because it already has its own category—Mixed Martial Arts (with PrideFC being its main competitor). Among the small percentage who believe it should be considered “pro wrestling,” most say it’s because it draws a similar demographic of fans looking for fights, and the “real/simulated” factor doesn’t change that they should be categorized the same.
If the unscientific Torch Poll results are a relatively accurate reflection of WWE’s audience on a whole—and TV ratings for The Ultimate Fighter which follow Raw on Spike TV every Monday indicate it probably is—then WWE should be paying attention. As noted last week, the UFC product by its very nature is unlikely to ever be able to create four hours of first–run highly rated prime time programming each week year round, and probably not even two hours. But it can siphon off PPV buys in the long run. It can also change the way WWE fans look at pro wrestling matches.
In Japan in the ’90s, the two thriving pro wrestling companies New Japan and All Japan along with a number of other smaller groups had to adapt as the strong–style and MMA movement took hold led by UWFI and Pancrase and later taken over by K1 and Pride. The MMA style did drastically change how pro wrestling fans in Japan looked at the traditional worked matches. Eventually there was a crossover among the various styles (which ranged from totally real, sometimes real, and a more realistic worked version) and top names in each style. Interpromotional and inter–style matches headlined some hugely successful events. A few pro wrestlers had success moving into the MMA world (including Ken Shamrock, Dan Severn, Kazushi Sakuraba, Kazuyuki Fujita), and a few MMA fighters had success moving into the pro wrestling realm (including Don Frey, Josh Barnett). Fans didn’t buy into pro wrestlers as “tough guys” unless they proved themselves in the real fight world.
That isn’t likely to repeat itself in the same way in the U.S. since WWE doesn’t draw based on the perceived legitimate toughness of its stars. It draws a fanbase that already realizes and accepts that the stars are performers first and foremost. In Japan, there was still an aura of believability to the worked–style promotions and a suspension of disbelief among the fans that wrestlers who won matches were legitimately skilled, tough fighters.
Still, WWE may have to adjust how it presents its product if UFC begins to gain a more significant foothold in the cable TV and PPV world. If UFC begins to chip away at WWE viewership or steal away PPV buys, WWE may adjust either direction—more realistic or less realistic but more athletic or outlandish. UFC has the disadvantage of being stuck promoting in main events the best fighters, but not necessarily the most marketable fighters. UFC has the ability to manipulate who is perceived a top fighter based on booking mismatches to build up records, but in the long–run, the best fighters will have to be promoted as the top acts no matter how lacking in charisma or talking skills for the sport to retain its credibility.
In the Torch Poll, of those who said the were not UFC fans, most said they’re just not interested in “real fights” while about a quarter of them said they have an open mind and UFC could still hook them. That would mean up to two–thirds of WWE fans are either already UFC fans or open–minded about it and will sample the product this fall according to this poll.
Still, when asked whether TNA or UFC will have the greatest impact on WWE over the next two years, far and away, most believe TNA will have more influence than UFC by a 24 to 4 percent margin. However, 28 percent believe both will have a “profound” impact on WWE over the next two years. A full third believe both will put a scare into WWE, but in the long run things won’t be much different. Only 8 percent believe neither will affect WWE’s business in the next two years.
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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