WWE were oddly gracious in congratulating their former WWE Champion Brock Lesnar for winning the UFC Heavyweight Title last night at UFC 91, however, while looking deeper at the article regarding Lesnar's win, a bit of frustration is noticed.
The following appears halfway down the article:
Critics have noted that many of the fights on the UFC pay-per-view ended in the first round, leaving UFC producers scrambling to fill the three-hour event with content. The dearth of hearty competition left many viewers to watch less prestigious under-card fights and only served to bolster claims that UFC pay-per-view events can often be a "crap shoot" in regards to filling the full three hours.
- B/R Ticket Guide
That's the nature of legitimate sporting events, isn't it?
With WWE PPVs, the writers carefully time the length of the matches to guarantee nearly three hours of action. As for UFC, there is the chance that all five advertised main event matches will end in the first round, which is the reason the undercard is there to provide possible extra content.
In shows with a title match, such as last night's, nearly 90 minutes of fighting occurs if all fights go the distance, keeping in mind the entrances, breaks, and the announcement of the results. WWE needs to understand that their shows are controlled to the smallest detail, and whatever happens in the ring and around the arena, is largely what's down on paper. In the UFC, it's up to the gods what happens there, and if they're required to fill a half hour before the main event, that's what they have to do. I think it's a bit low of WWE to call UFC on something that's a completely different nature to what they do.
They congratulated Brock Lesnar though, and who would have thought they'd do that after the way he left their company?
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about 1 month ago
Nice little article
about 1 month ago
Also, those undercard fights are exciting (The fight of the night was on the undercard, as well as knockout of the night), and a great way of keeping up on up and coming fighters. Plus, there's usually a few TUF fighters there, who draw attention from being on the show (In this case, Matt Brown).
about 1 month ago
Yeah - I had mixed feelings about this card - undercard fights were great; yet main event felt like it was orchestrated (if I were EliteXC I would ask for investigation).
I am not saying the punch was fake (I almost hit myself half-conscious just by tapping the back of the neck area where the punch landed)
All in all - I would say that this PPV was well put together - not a blockbuster what DW said it would be - yet plenty of good fights for the money.
Brock - congratulations, I knew you had the power - now lets see if you can figure out the jiu-jitsu for your next fight
about 1 month ago
it's tough to compare a WWE ppv event and a UFC ppv event, as it seems like they are doing. the two are on opposite sides of the fight spectrum. WWE is all about the entertainment value, and is chock full of bad acting and skits and pre-recorded interviews etc, etc. the bouts are all scripted and it's much like putting on a primetime television show when they have their ppv events. the UFC is real fighting. What would they have them to do? If two big dudes get in the octagon and beat the hell out eachother for 10 minutes, someone is likely to get knocked out. If someone locks in a rear naked choke or an arm bar, what would you have the victim do? take it way past his pain threshold just to make sure that the viewers were getting an extra few minutes of action? it's impossible to predict a UFC card. you could have one event where every match goes to a decision and the next where everyone gets KOd in the first round...it's REAL!
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