By Andreas Georgiou
Professional wrestling and mixed martial arts, two very different art forms of intensity; although separated by the thin boundary between choreographed violence and contained barbarism, hold more similarities than many think.
After an extremely well thought out scenario involving Stephan Bonnar and Tito Ortiz this past week in Bellator, a lot of fans have shown their disgust in the sport becoming too “WWE” like. However, there are certainly cases for a crossover in styles of promotion.
Professional wrestling, the showbiz of sports, now largely considered as sports entertainment, the mixture of muscle, fireworks and drama are the basis of the modern day product, but much recently wrestling has looked to expose the possible crossover market of MMA.
The former UFC heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar, is now the current WWE title holder, the conqueror of the streak and the most physically present monster in all of wrestling, his run in MMA has helped him become more of a beast than anyone could have imagined after he left the company in 2004.
Similarly Bellator’s Bobby Lashley is TNA’s counterpart. Wrestling companies obviously see that MMA is the current trend and can you blame them for wanting to milk it? A few months ago you had Rampage Jackson, King Mo and Tito Ortiz all a part of the TNA roster involved in one of the company’s major storylines.
Moving onto the hottest topic of the hour, the Bellator brawl between Stephan Bonnar and Tito Ortiz may not have gone down as well as company officials would have hoped for.
If the unmasking of Justin McCully as Stephan Bonnar’s new training partner left fans more confused than shocked. It is a typical pro wrestling angle, the big reveal, however the way it was executed was done with little effect.
For those unaware (which I assume is many) Justin McCully was a former friend and training partner of Tito Ortiz, however the two split, according to McCully because of Ortiz’ behaviour and selfishness.
If the fans knew of this relationship, then there may have been a bigger emphasis on the shock factor. An example of how to unveil a mask? Vince McMahon revealing himself as the leader of the Corporation back in the day.
As well as this, Bonnar and Ortiz both cut wrestling like promos on each other. How are they wrestling like? Well the fact that Bonnar for the majority of his promo is cutting it to the crowd and not directly at Tito is a typical wrestling promo. This ended with a catchy Ortiz phrase “Bad boy’s back!” which ensued into a mass brawl.
Whether this was staged or genuine heat between the two we will never know, although despite the controversy surrounding it, I’m sure the Bellator media team will be happy about the fact that a large part of the MMA community are talking about it. As famous wrestling personality Eric Bischoff said, “controversy creates cash.” I think that is definitely the approach Bellator are taking.
As far as television demographics go, you can argue that both pro wrestling and MMA share similar demographics in both the 18-49 ratings bracket. The UFC drew an average of 911,000 viewers (Source: Dave Meltzer) and scored a 0.5 in the 18-49 demographic for Fight Night 50. In comparison, that week’s edition of WWE Smackdown scored an 0.8 in the 18-49, but had a total viewership 2,758 million.
Although this is just a small point in a much bigger comparison, even though the UFC and WWE drew similar number in 18-49 demographic, it shows that a much larger percentage of WWE’s fan base comes from younger and older viewers, meaning it is much harder to make the comparison of both products having a similar target audience.
With that said, even though it is hard to compare the current product of wrestling to MMA in terms of demographic share, it’s obvious that MMA promotions, and more recently Bellator, think this style of promotion sells fights. People like to see fighters get physical before the fight, it adds to the intrigue, and hype, however is there a place for it in MMA?
You may be able to get away with it in a scripted sport such as wrestling, in MMA, a combat sport that has a lot of impressionable fans, it seems to alienate identity more than promote integrity.
Now, there is a difference between what happened with Bonnar and Ortiz, to what happened with Jon Jones and Daniel Cormier during the UFC 178 media tour. Although there were still questions about how “real” the Jones and Cormier scuffle was, it didn’t have that prosthetic feel to it. There were no microphones, no promos, no cages, no body guards, it had a much realer feel to it, so in that respect even if unintentional, this kind of promotion can actually be done a right way; despite bringing the sport into a negative light.
It’s the light, camera, action approach that Bellator took which has fans in such an outrage, it isn’t the fact they oppose it, it’s the manner that it was executed which made it feel counterfeit, and that’s why it made Bellator look like a second rate WWE segment.
To wrap things up, is there a crossover between MMA and professional wrestling? In some respect yes, they follow similar forms of promotion and entertainment, however one would argue that for MMA to form it’s own identity, to keep its wholeness, it must deviate from this norm, distance itself from a choreographed product and forge its own image. Once people stop making comparisons between the two, the line between real and fake becomes too thin, leaving fans questioning whether or not there is more than meets the eye.
