UFC outperforming WWE/TNA

Tyler Durden

I read this report on the Figure Four weekly website and copied most of it here. I think the reporter makes some excellent points about how UFC are out performing their competition from the wrestling world and how they can go about changing things. Enjoy.

I’d be interested to see what people on here, particularly those that enjoy UFC and WWE/TNA what they think of the fact that UFC are on fire at the moment and WWE/TNA are not.

Yes, the fights in UFC are real. But both pro-wrestling and MMA have the same goal — to create stars that fans will pay to see get in a ring together. UFC is doing a fantastic job. WWE and TNA are not.

Tito Ortiz vs. Ken Shamrock is coming in at 775,000 buys. That’s the biggest buyrate in sports entertainment in 2006.

That destroys the domestic WrestleMania buyrate.

This is coming on the heels of Matt Hughes vs. Royce Gracie, which is coming in at 600,000. This past weekend’s show probably did in the 500,000 range, which will end up beating SummerSlam, WWE’s biggest PPV of the entire summer.
Keep in mind that SummerSlam had DX vs. McMahons, a rare Hulk Hogan PPV wrestling appearance, and Mick Foley vs. Ric Flair. UFC had a rematch of a great fight between two stars, one of whom has looked horrible lately, Liddell vs. Renato Babalu, a dude from Brazil who speaks broken English and can’t cut promos, and an undercard consisting almost entirely of unknowns.

What can be learned from this is that the basics always work.

UFC promotion is very similar to old-school pro-wrestling promotion. You take two guys, position them as stars with video packages and personality profiles, book them to fight, let them cut promos on each other (or, in the case of Babalu, have someone like Rachelle Leah carry him through promos like an old-school manager), and then tell people they have to pay to see the fight.

UFC All Access with Babalu, which theoretically could have been a disaster, was great thanks almost entirely to Leah, and when it was over you felt that Babalu at least had a chance. The UFC 62 preview special was even better, particularly the stuff hyping up Stephan Bonnar vs. Forrest Griffin. The point is that prior to the PPV, I had zero desire to see this match. Coming out of it, I actually thought there was a chance it would be better than their first encounter (it wasn’t but that’s another matter entirely).

These two shows made me excited to see the PPV. I cannot remember the last time I watched a WWE or TNA show and had that same feeling.

Also interesting to me is the fact that both WWE and TNA (more WWE really) are running on a treadmill.

SummerSlam was Booker vs. Batista and Edge vs. Cena. The next two PPVs feature rematches. DX vs. McMahons will continue. Smackdown has been the same show for seemingly weeks. Nothing new appears to be on the horizon.
TNA at least has plans booked through December or so, though their TV often looks the same as well.

UFC, on the other hand, not only has plans through December, but we already know what the big matches are for the rest of the year. We’ve got Matt Hughes vs. BJ Penn (Georges St. Pierre officially pulled out due to injury) in September on PPV. In October we’ve got the biggest match in the history of MMA on free television, Tito Ortiz vs. Ken Shamrock III. Also in October is Rich Franklin vs. Anderson Silva on PPV. Really, the company is moving forward as if it is, because December is scheduled to be Liddell vs. Ortiz in what will almost certainly be the new high-water mark.

WWE and TNA need to reassess the way they promote wrestling in 2006. WWE is promoting the way they promoted in 2000 when the business was on fire, and TNA is just doing what WWE is doing because “that’s the way it’s always been done�.
It’s not the way it’s always been done, and the closest thing to that is what UFC is doing.

The wrestling doesn’t even have to be MMA-like. They key is to learn how to promote like UFC is promoting, because their method of promoting is driving buyrates through the roof, whereas the crappy WWE and TNA method of promoting is being met with complete apathy by fans.

Why would anyone care about seeing Joe and Low-Ki have a match? If you don’t follow ROH or anything like that, what do you know about Samoa Joe? Not a whole hell of a lot. He’s a fat guy that never loses. What do you know about Low-Ki? A lot less. We know he’s a guy with a deep voice that kicks people hard. Why should we care that he’s going to wrestle Joe?

I could have given less about Bonnar vs. Forrest until I saw the last 30 minutes of the UFC 62 hype special last week. When that show was over (and 30 minutes is less than the 60 minutes TNA has), I was excited for that fight.

TNA is too busy trying to make us aware of all these people, aware that they exist. Awareness of their existence will sell 0 PPVs. Again, less time needs to be spent making us aware of everyone, and more time should be spent letting us know why we should pay for one or two PPV main event matches.

Certain guys on the PPV card no one is paying 1 cent to see them on PPV, or their opponents. In TNA, 5 minutes would have been devoted on the hype special to trying to make us aware of everybody and get their matches over. UFC, meanwhile, are smart enough to realize that nobody is paying to see the undercard, therefore they devote 50% of his entire program to one match, and the other 50% to the other match, and in doing so, those two matches will sell seriously almost twenty times the number of PPVs TNA did in August.

WWE probably has 5-8 million viewers between the three shows. An average PPV does about 150,000 PPV buys nowadays. TNA has about 1 million regular viewers. An average PPV does 30,000 buys. UFC programming on Spike has about 2 million average viewers. Their May and July PPVs did 600,000 and 775,000 buys respectively. For the audience they play for, UFC is doing significantly better than TNA or WWE in convincing that audience to buy a PPV.

So the question is, why?

The answer has nothing to do with real/fake, ESPN coverage vs. no ESPN coverage, etc. If you watch a lot of UFC programming and a lot of WWE/TNA programming, it’s very clear what UFC is doing that WWE/TNA are not, and that is creating stars and making you want to pay to see them fight. TNA or WWE don’t need to copy UFC, but there are lots of things they could learn from what UFC is doing to increase their percentage of TV viewers to PPV buyers.

thirty7

Thats a really good read. Kudos to you Canine One.

In essence i agree, however albeit i have not a lot of knowledge of how UFC is put together. By the gist of it, it sounds very simplistic and also showcased in a way that the stars themselves are giving the oppurtunity to be themselves and play to their own strengths. Its simple, but by far the best form of promoting in any form of sport or entertainment.

I wish my sex life was like ECW, first you get a One Night Stand followed by 2 months of nostalgic orgasms and then 6 months of constant sucking.

The Phantom

Nice find Bulldog, that article brings up a lot of valid points. I've watched the odd UFC PPV, but during the last few weeks I've really got into it. I personally can't wait to see Shamrock vs. Ortiz 3 - even though Ortiz will kick Shamrocks ass again. They build feuds up in the correct way, and for a new comer like myself to be really pumped for some of the up and coming fights, shows that they do their job well.

Building towards the long term is also a big failure of WWEs. As stated in the article, UFC has the rest of this year sorted... WWE hasn't even got No Mercy sorted yet and that's next month!

I don’t see the trend changing anytime soon either. UFC will continue to grow, while WWE will stay in the same place it is now.

ICEMAN

This is a story that's finally starting to get some attention. To me, this is the biggest story of the year, how WWE domestic PPV numbers are falling off the map, while UFC blows them out of the water.

WWE's PPV totals would be terrible if you eliminated the international buys, which make up nearly 40% of the totals in some cases. UFC's numbers are domestic buys only, so it shows you how much the landscape has changed in the last year.

And yes, long-term planning does go a long way towards success.

Dakstang

WC's Resident Redneck

I am more interested in the UFC than the WWE at the moment. I just started watching the UFC in May.

TooCool

Good read. Although I'm not into UFC at all. I do have a question...

How much are the UFC pay-per-views? That could easily be a deciding factor as to whether or not a person would purchase the show. I mean, we all know Wrestlemania is ridiculously overpriced at 50 bucks. To make things worse WWE raised their other PPV prices from 35 bucks to 40 bucks as well.

There are probably still lots more WWE fans compared to UFC, although as you mentioned UFC is growing and all. But there are tons of WWE fans who just don't buy the PPV because they know there's nothing huge to look forward to.

You are right. UFC sounds like they're doing everything the right way, and thats good to hear for their own sake. But if their PPV is at a decent price, that could explain why they got more buyrates. Then again, if their PPV prices are higher then WWE, then yes... WWE needs to shape up big time.

I'm more of a Smackdown fan than RAW.

Mr. Kennedy

I think the UFC PPV's are $49.95,

I would just like to point out something the article writer didn't point out that this year's WrestleMania was probably the least anticipated one in years. Same thing with SummerSlam, it just wasn't very exciting going in.

Visit and shop for video games at my Amazon-based store, also get discounted HD DVDs while they last.

ICEMAN

UFC PPV's cost $39.95