I have thought about writing this article for some time and after watching the Ultimate Fighter on Wednesday night, it seemed the right time. I am a fan of Mixed Martial Arts and of the UFC. That being said, I am not a hardcore fan that watches every second of everything the mixed martial arts world broadcasts, but I made a point of watching the May 7 edition of the Ultimate Fighter.
There is no denying the success and popularity of the UFC. They have drawn similar ratings to TNA Wrestling on Spike TV with the Ultimate Fighter reality series and their PPV numbers have been tremendous. Although 2007 PPV’s were down slightly from their 2006 peak; the UFC consistently outdraws the WWE on most monthly pay per views, excluding Wrestlemania and possibly the Royal Rumble and SummerSlam.
Dana White and the UFC copied an old professional wrestling business model. Create strong babyface characters to compete against strong heel challengers. The Ultimate Fighter reality series was actually created as a vehicle to create the personalities of the faces and heels and develop interest in their upcoming fight, which were the opposing coaches on the show. The highest rated fight ever on Spike is still the season 3 matchup of the aging, veteran babyface Ken Shamrock against the younger, cocky heel Tito Ortiz.
It is really a simple concept. The promotion provides fans with two fighters, one is someone the crowd can get behind and feel emotionally attached to; the other fighter is someone fans hate and want to see get what they deserve.
This concept was a staple in the professional wrestling business for years. As a kid, I remember a huge babyface named Hulk Hogan selling out the St. Paul Civic Center as he faced heel World Champion Nick Bockwinkel for the AWA World Heavyweight Title. In 1987, a babyface Hulk Hogan defeated the heel challenger Andre the Giant before the largest crowd ever to attend a professional wrestling event at that time. WCW drew their largest PPV buys and largest house for a heel Hulk Hogan defending the WCW World Title against babyface challenger Sting. The start of the boom period for the WWF was driven by a babyface Steve Austin feuding with a heel Bret Hart and later a heel Vince McMahon. There are countless other examples.
As recently as the Georges St. Pierre vs. Matt Serra title match from Montreal, you can see how the UFC smartly booked the fight. St. Pierre was presented as the babyface challenger in his hometown, trying to regain his title from Serra who was portrayed as the heel. Serra even said a few things in the media to make sure the crowd hated him. This was a very simple concept and yet the Molson Centre sold out in minutes of the tickets going on sale and PPV estimates are expected to be one of the highest purchased PPV’s ever for the UFC. In February, Brock Lesnar was portrayed as the heel, the “fake” pro wrestler invading the octagon against former UFC champion Frank Mir. Mir, coming back from injury was clearly the face in the promotion of the fight. They didn’t create some stupid gimmick match or try to swerve the fans, they just provided a simple fight that people wanted to see and the PPV numbers were huge.
The most recent episode of the Ultimate Fighter copied this format and I went out of my way to watch it last night. The dynamic was simple; Jeremy May is a punk kid that the fans, myself included; wanted to see get his ass kicked. Matt Brown was effectively placed in the babyface position. I didn’t know anything about Brown, but I wanted to see him destroy May. It will be interesting to see if this matchup did anything to the ratings of the Ultimate Fighter, which have been hovering around 1.0 as of late.
In boxing, Floyd Mayweather has done an excellent job of establishing himself as a box office drawing heel in his 2007 fight with Oscar De La Hoya as well as with the Big Show at this year’s Wrestlemania.
Right now, pro wrestling could learn from the UFC what the UFC originally learned from professional wrestling.
Recently, TNA did a good job of promoting a match up with Samoa Joe challenging for the title against Kurt Angle. In my opinion, they could have been more effective by focusing on Joe challenging for the belt and not mix Karen Angle or the MMA aspect into the match; however they still did the best job they have done in several years in pushing this fight as a face vs. heel match and the PPV estimates are expected to be double of what they normally do.
In my view, the biggest obstacle that TNA needs to overcome to be financially successful and to compete for the PPV dollar, is to present matches with clearly defined face vs. heel match ups. Can you name the top five faces and the top five heels on TNA right now? I watch every week and I can’t name them. It is interesting to me because one of the things people have criticized TNA the most about is the TV product. However, one of the most praised things about TNA is the house shows. On the house show I went to recently, April 4; it was a very good show. One of the things I wrote about in my recap for the PW Torch was that each of the participants on the house show was given some mic time to establish themselves as either the face or the heel. Their role was clearly established at the show and the show was well received as most reports of house shows have been.
Another section of TNA that has been receiving positive reviews is the Knockouts Division. Wade has mentioned this several times in his daily Keller hotlines, but it needs to be mentioned again. The TNA Knockouts segments have been the high point of the ratings on Spike TV, mainly because the storylines are easier to follow and the roles of the participants are clearly defined. I know Awesome Kong, Velvet Sky, Angelina Love and Jackie Moore are the companie’s top heels and ODB, Gail Kim, and Roxxi Lavough are the top babyfaces. About a year ago, it was mentioned to me that Jim Cornette was the agent for the women’s division. I am not sure who is booking the Knockout’s division now or who is the agent, but they are doing a great job of clearly defining the women’s roles and story lines. Case in point was the tag team match from last week on Spike. Velvet Sky and Angelina Love went to the ring for an interview where they made fun of Gail Kim and ODB and speculated how they would look without hair if they lost the upcoming PPV match with the hair stipulation. Kim and ODB came out to confront Sky and Love and then they had a match in which the babyface team of Kim and ODB got their revenge on Sky and Love. It was a rushed angle, but simple and effective.
Even the WWE could improve on this area. While Mayweather ended up being an effective box office heel in his feud with the Big Show; he was horribly miscast at the beginning of the feud as a face. Again, this is just my opinion, but right now the WWE does not have enough clearly defined heels and faces. I know Edge and Randy Orton are the two biggest heels on the roster, but who is next? Who are the biggest faces? Triple H, Undertaker and John Cena are the first names that come to mind, but everyone else seems to be somewhat of a tweener. Shawn Michaels, Chris Jericho and Batista have all played both sides of the fence recently. Is it a coincidence that Raw ratings are at 11 year lows?
I would love to see both the WWE and TNA make a solid, long term effort to revert back to an “old school” style of booking of clearly establishing their faces and heels and see how fan interest and buy rates react.
Thanks for reading, if you have any questions or comments; feel free to contact me at bhoops@iw.net.
