"Stone Cold" Steve Austin vs. "The Rock"
The headline sounds a lot like a pro wrestling match on a WWF Pay Per View event. I personally don't watch Pro wrestling, but the fact that I know who those two people are and what they do, speaks volumes about the type of popularity the WWF currently enjoys. Any MMA match up regardless of how well built up or thought out, just does not carry the same name value as any match up in the WWF.

The headline sounds a lot like a pro wrestling match on a WWF Pay Per View event. I personally don’t watch Pro wrestling, but the fact that I know who those two people are and what they do, speaks volumes about the type of popularity the WWF currently enjoys. Any MMA match up regardless of how well built up or thought out, just does not carry the same name value as any match up in the WWF. This is a fact. Having said that, let me ask you a question. What if the (above) headline was not a pro wrestling match? What if this was a MMA match on a UFC Pay Per View event instead of a WWF Wrestlemania event? Let’s think about this for a minute. What if this was a REAL MMA fight with two WWF superstars and NO predetermined outcome? Have I piqued anyones interest yet? To help illustrate my thoughts, let me present you with 3 simple questions.

Question 1: Would having a prominent Pro wrestler in the UFC arena help push the UFC to new heights in Popularity?

Question 2: Is the over hyped soap opera style "hoopla" really the type of fanfare we want to create?

Question 3: Is that what the sport of MMA really needs?

All three questions are somewhat controversial, and most certainly beg to be answered. So here goes nothing.

Superstars sell tickets. There is no arguing that. Performers such as "Stone Cold" Steve Austin are superstars with undeniable drawing power, drawing power that the sport of MMA cannot yet compete with. If you ask any of your young (and old) friends what PPV events they like to order at home, kids and adults alike want to see their favorite superstars on T.V and the WWF variety are among the top of the list. There is no doubt in my mind that if the UFC set up a match featuring a popular pro wrestler such as a "Triple H" or "The Rock", vs. a legitimate contender in the UFC such as Randy Couture, that the buy rates of the UFC PPV events would skyrocket. I am not saying that the UFC should go ahead and do it. (In fact, I am against it but I will get into that more later). I am just saying that buy rates for that particular event would soar head and shoulders above previous recent UFC buy rates, bar none. Is this concept really such a crazy idea? I don’t believe so. In fact, I didn’t make up the idea myself. This type of matchmaking has been going on for quite some time now in Japan. The PRIDE organization has been doing just that for years, and it has made them the most successful MMA event in the east. The reason they have done this is clear, it boils down to dollars and cents not sense.

Pride is an organization that promotes spectacle before respectability. The Questionable matchmaking of the PRIDE organization has been a subject of debate for some time now. It seems that most PRIDE shows have at minimum one match up that is of the "Who are these jokers?", variety. PRIDE matches up local heroes and popular celebrity icons of the Japanese community, and expects MMA fans to watch it believing that it is a competitive MMA bout. These "Fighters", more often then not, have no business in an MMA event. They are no doubt skilled and talented athletes, but they are brought in based on their popularity in Japan. Many times, they are matched up against legitimate fighters and end up losing badly or winning in questionable fashion. These competitors are not ranked in the top ten MMA rankings and have no previous experience in fighting but are brought in to bring marketing muscle and a familiar smirk to the PRIDE events. What business does a forty four year old Yoshiaki Yatsu have competing against a game Gary Goodridge? While Goodridge is not ranked in the top ten, he is well known as a fierce competitor and a threat every time he steps into the ring. There weren’t too many people, PRIDE official or not, who actually believed that Yatsu stood a chance against the younger and more experienced Goodridge. To put this into perspective imagine Hulk Hogan, who was a professional wrestler in the WCW and WWF organizations, stepping into the UFC and competing against Randy Couture in a legitimate MMA event in America. Hogan, who seems to be in relatively good shape, would get crushed by Couture, all that would be left of him would be a bloody stain on the canvas that "The Macho Man" Randy Savage would have to scrape off the mat to take home after the fight. Yatsu is an aging Japanese pro wrestler. Goodridge is a full time professional fighter that trains regularly with such notables as Mark Coleman and Tom Erikson. Gary Goodridge went on to smash Yatsu, bashing him repeatedly and unrelentingly until the referee mercifully stopped the bout, but only after Yatsu absorbed numerous unanswered blows to the head. Yatsu, in turn, went on to spend two weeks in the hospital following his fight with Goodridge, and suffered severe double vision in his right eye due to repeated strikes to the face. Fights such as this, though not "works" or fake fights, are a black eye to the sport (Pardon the Pun), and give it the negative press that MMA in America so desperately needs to shed.

Like it or not, the fans in Japan eat it up and love their pro wrestlers win or lose. In fact, PRIDE even went as far as to put on a rematch of the aforementioned shamefest that was Goodridge Vs Yatsu II. From a business standpoint, does Pride really have something here? Is this what Americans need to really drive into the sport? Do the Pride promoters really know something that we don’t, or is it just that they value the almighty dollar before respectability. Quick answer: I would hate to see this go on in the UFC. I love the way the UFC is growing the sport here in North America. The sport is going to get bigger and better with every awesome show that the higher ups at the UFC put together. If you asked me if a marketing ploy such as bringing in Pro wrestler would succeed in bringing in more buy rates for the Pay Per View, I would definitely say "Yes". But if you asked me if it was good for the sport of MMA I would screech a resounding "NO". I have no doubt that doing such a thing would bring in the casual fans and the fans that have not watched the show, but it also reeks of the same shame ridden matchmaking that PRIDE takes so much heat for.

Painful or not, If watching a few Pro wrestlers in Pride is the sacrifice that we must make, in order to also see the likes of Sakuraba Vs Vanderlei and Nogueira Vs Herring, then I can grudgingly live with that. Pride Is Pride and the UFC is the UFC. Japan is Japan and America is America. Let us just take the shows for what they are and enjoy them at face value. To me, they are two separate and different entities. I love watching both (Most of the time), and there may be times when I want to smash the T.V because I don’t agree with what a certain organization has done, that is to be expected. No organizations can please everybody. [Look at the sushi bars around the world, no matter how many times I have advocated the merits of eating sushi, McDonalds still owns the world!] For a moment, let’s think about the satisfaction of the fans. Truth be known, If there was no market for pro wrestlers in PRIDE, it just would not exist, regardless of demographics. I am not saying we should do it over here, just that we shouldn’t knock it too much, because in their position we may have done the same thing. I just hope that the Bottom line doesn’t become a factor here in North America. Let’s not be too quick to judge the matchmakers at PRIDE. They are just giving the Japanese fans what they really want, and believe me regardless of how we feel about them, it is what they want. In the end it IS a business, and at some point finances must become a factor in the decision making process. Isn’t the building of superstars what everyone wants? Isn’t the adoration of the fans really what is going to make the sport grow? Let’s just let PRIDE do its own thing and instead support the shows in our local area the best we can. We don’t need the slings and arrows, because that is what we are trying to avoid from senators and the conservative public, right? We just need to grow the sport the only way we know how. By supporting the UFC’s, and Pride’s, and spreading the word to the sporting public in America around the world. The Fans are number one in MY books and to quote a relatively unknown pro wrestler named "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, "That is the bottom line !!!"

This was the Sushiboy. What do you think? Send questions or comments to This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it