pride FC

[Guest ian02840]

any chance this could happen? i read that shane mcmahon was gonna visit and attend a few events. i think if WWE wants to compete head to head with UFC this would be there next big step. and itd be there first real brand extension to cover the sports side of the sports entertainment industry.

[Hunter's Torn Quad 0]

Zero chance.

[Bruce Blank 0]

Zero chance.

Yes, about the same chance of Kurt Angle signing with TNA, there is zero chance that will happen

[razazteca 0]

It makes more dollars & sense than making low budget movies.

[Hunter's Torn Quad 0]

Some debate from elsewhere:

 

It would make zero sense for Vince McMahon to bother buying into PRIDE.

 

For starters, what hard assets does the company have? Other than name value and the trademark, nothing. It would be a preposterous purchase to explain to shareholders why he would pouring money into a company that is basically an office, a ring, and a few trademarks.

 

Second, if McMahon puts money into PRIDE he opens himself up to major scrutiny by the police in Japan (who still are investigating people 'around' PRIDE). Why would he want to do business with a company that has a publicly tainted image as 'yakuza' when he wouldn't do business with Inoki in the 1980s?

 

Third, MMA is a business in which doesn’t have hard assets. It's real easy to buy off fighters and sign contracts. He has no reason to buy anyone out. He can make his own brand name and run his own shows. There's zero reason for him to financially back or support anyone else's company.

 

Well, it's the premier group in Japan where it is a name brand. That has value - the same way that the WWE brand has value in the US.

 

No, K-1 is the brand with mainstream value. PRIDE is a tarnished brand right now in Japan. It's support is from hardcore fans. And PRIDE's value, like the value of all fight organizations in Japan, is directly tied to what kind of TV push they have.

 

He would also inherit a talent-roster superior to UFC's so right off the bat he could go after them with people like Fedor and Cro Cop who are bigger stars within the MMA community and have considerable charisma. He would get the contracts without having to get into a bidding war over them.

 

That is false. In the fight game, especially with the various loopholes in the PRIDE contracts, you would see fighters jumping out of their deals or finding loopholes.

 

Besides, if PRIDE was to be ever purchased, all those contracts would essentially be null and void. New contracts would be have to created.

 

So why bother buying a rat-infested company when you can set up your own ship and buy off fighters that way?

 

If you buy it from them, then they are out of the business. This happens all the time - the Los Angeles Kings hockey team owner over a decade ago was indicted for tax evasion and a ton of felonies. He had to sell the team. No one accused the new owner of being tainted.

 

Apples and oranges. The PRIDE situation is vastly more serious. You're talking potential liability that ranges anywhere from possible money laundering, organized crime, racketeering, extortion, death threats, etc.

 

Why in the world would Vince McMahon want to stick his neck out and purchase this? The answer is he wouldn't, and he never will. He's not this stupid to buy liability.

 

If the WWE lost television, don't you think there would still be considerable value in owning that brand?

 

WWE has legitimate assets. They have the rights to all the VTR footage they own. Their offices. The McMahon family has done a magnificent job of building assets and liquidity in a business that is full of companies that have little or none of these components.

 

The business philosophy in Japan is completely different. Virtually everything that can be outsourced is. And a lot of the VTR footage is owned by the various networks, not the promotions themselves.

 

Pride is a known brand - that has value.

 

It's not significant value. It's actually, in some regard, a liability now. When there were rumors a month or two ago that a TV network was interested in working with DSE, the network proposed ditching the name PRIDE in favor of Condor (don't ask me why they chose that name).

 

If the networks think PRIDE is a damaged name brand, then no one who is a serious player wants to touch it.

 

Pride is the premier fighting organization internationally.

 

There is perception with the hardcores that PRIDE is vastly superior to everyone else. They are essentially persona non grata to the casual fan right now in their *home* country. There is a reason they are trying to run outside of Japan now. The name value of PRIDE is very little now.

 

McMahon can and would create his own brand. He would do well with it, too.

 

The company is bleeding money right now and if they don't get a television contract, they could be bought for relatively cheap.

 

Realistically, this is such a rare occurrence. You'd have to go back to the late 60s when Tokyo Broadcasting System took over IWE (International Wrestling Enterprise) from Isao Yoshiwara and ran it for a few years (before they got out and IWE went to TV-12, which is now known as TV-Tokyo) until '81.

 

The chances of a TV network saving PRIDE as far as buying the company are very small. And the chances of McMahon buying are even smaller.

 

Now that the informational portion of this thread is out of the way, some of you can resume with the 'jokes'.

[razazteca 0]

Are Bob Sapp, Mark Hunt, Akebono under contract with PRIDE or K-1?

[Wyld Cannon 0]

Now that the informational portion of this thread is out of the way, some of you can resume with the 'jokes'.

 

Vince would not want a company called pride, humiliation is more his style. Ba dum shhhhhhh

[Guest Hotbutter Spoontoaster]

Zero chance.

PRIDE meets WWE.

 

Earlier today, WWE.com learned that WWE officials and members of the group PRIDE had a meeting scheduled this morning at WWE global headquarters in Stamford, Conn. The meeting would focus on the possibility of the two groups doing some form of business together in the future.

 

World Wrestling Entertainment is a multimedia conglomerate with a presence in films, music, and sports-entertainment around the world. Known for its unique brand of competition, PRIDE is a major championship mixed martial arts organization based in Japan.

 

Check back with WWE.com for updates on WWE and the PRIDE organization.

[Hunter's Torn Quad 0]

WWE.com posted about the company meeting with Brock Lesnar to discuss his return. Brock wound up not returning.

 

WWE. com posted about Vince meeting with Simon Inoki to talk business. They wound up doing no business together.

 

Not only that, it's more than a reach to turn one mention of some people from PRIDE meeting some people from WWE to talk about maybe working together into any kind of proof that there is a chance of Vince buying out PRIDE.

 

You might want to try reading up on the background of PRIDE before commenting next time, ok?

[USC Wuz Robbed! 0]

Well it's true it's far beyond a reach to assume that, the original poster sounded like he was just making a guess. Bruce is the one who made the dumb joke, so take it out on him, not the O.P.

[Guest Hotbutter Spoontoaster]

Yeah, it kinda was a dumb joke. I don't think that Kurt Angle fellow will ever go to TNA. Meltzer has the big newz on it.

[Hunter's Torn Quad 0]

--The biggest news of the day is that officials from the Pride Fighting Championships are meeting with officials from WWE about a business relationship. I've been aware of interest from both sides for about a month, at least from the time the WWE/Bob Sapp negotiations started. Part of the Sapp proposal involved the sides working together in promoting Sapp as both a pro wrestling superstar and MMA superstar. However, Sapp was planned by WWE to start on 10/29, and that day has come and gone and he hasn't signed a contract due to all the expected problems and his planned storyline was given to someone else. Regarding certain speculations:

 

*There is no way there will be a joint show in the U.S. of Pride fights and WWE matches on the same bill. No athletic commission will allow it, and neither side would probably want it because the mix doesn't work. It didn't work in Japan, and it will not work even more in the U.S.

 

*For Pride to work with WWE, due to the credibility issue, shows desperation on their part, which has been evident since losing television and trying to target the more difficult to crack U.S. market.

 

*The only viable things that can come out of this are:

 

A) WWE gets an ownership interest in Pride, and then gets them a time slot on the USA Network, perhaps at 11 p.m. on Mondays, since that was the time slot that put UFC on the map in the first place. Keep in mind of the brass in WWE, virtually all are completely clueless about MMA. Shane McMahon is a fan but his knowledge of MMA is very limited. Paul Heyman has a strong business level knowledge since he had looked into starting an MMA promotion at one point. After that, aside from a few lower level people who are big fans, you've got nothing. Vince McMahon understood more about bodybuilding, and as much if not more about football, as he knows about MMA (which is nothing whatsoever). However, if he's got an ownership interest, he'll call the shots. And he has big-time level experience in making characters and producing television that nobody has. But when he tried that in bodybuilding, his characters were so cartoonish that it was a disaster. His "character making" is not the kind of character making that has worked in the past in a real sport situation.

 

B) The two sides agree to cross promote someone with the idea of giving a guy a few wins in Pride making him "more legit" for pro wrestling and pro wrestling making him famous for Pride so he can draw on PPV--basically the idea every MMA promotion in the world was looking at as to why Kurt Angle was in such huge demand. But that's a big risk. Whenever WWE has messed with reality--whether it be Brawl for All--letting outside entities do documentaries on the real world of WWE, or even the 2004 Tough Enough, it has wound up from a company standpoint in disaster every time out. I can't imagine this happening, but who could have imagined Brawl for All until it happened? And Vince McMahon isn't always very good when it comes to learning lessons from mistakes.

 

The point is, they can fix matches in Japan because there is no commission, but they can't in the U.S. because it's simply not worth risking the penalties. McMahon's company is publicly traded and fixing fights would risk a billion dollar company for relatively little upside. Also, with the exception of Bobby Lashley, there is nobody in WWE today that could be cross-promoted, and even in safe fights, there are never any guarantees without fixing things. WWE never had interest in Kevin Randleman when he was younger, and his Pride career is on the downswing. Phil Baroni has a pro wrestler personality but would have to learn from scratch. There is no way to predict how he would do in-ring. Randleman with proper training has an athletic base to be incredible in the ring.

 

C) What they have in common is this. UFC. People are very tight-lipped about what this is about, other than these are two organizations with one common enemy and common goal, which is keeping UFC from getting any stronger than it already is. Pride can't compete with UFC in the U.S. without television. We've heard nothing about the October buy rate, and if it was good, we'd have probably heard. WWE is losing to UFC on PPV in the U.S., sometimes by a four-to-one or five-to-one basis in the U.S. That wouldn't be such a big deal, except it is often brought up in the media, and that's a perception that causes WWE doesn't like of them being portrayed the old business from the past being surpassed by the new business. You could really tell with the reaction when that was printed in Newsweek.

 

This could easily go nowhere. It's hard enough dealing with WWE in business if you are dealing from strength. Pride is dealing from weakness, and thus, WWE pretty much can name their demands. They don't have any need to do business with Pride.

 

WrestlingObserver.com

 

Of the three options given, the most likely is some sort of working agreement that sees them working together against a common enemy, the UFC. No matter what happens between the two, I don't see it lasting long if it even ever gets off the ground.