What If Vince Bought The UFC In 2001?

[ShinobiMusashi]

How would things have worked out for the sport? Did Vince have enough money to outbid Zuffa for the UFC back in 2001? Could he have done as well with it as they have, or would it have ended up like the XFL?

Very interesting alternate reality that I though of today. What if instead of trying to compete with the NFL, and wasting such a large investment in the XFL, would Vince have been better off buying the UFC from SEG in early 2001 when they went up for sale? I think so. I think Vince should have been all over the UFC as soon as they were available.

 

[willross]

Thats easy to say now. Clearly you don't understand the condition MMA was in back then. It was banned almost everywhere in North America and was making NO MONEY what so ever.

Looking back, yea....maybe I should of bought it cause clearly it is probably the biggest thing going right now in terms of athletic competition.....but in 2001, it was not a very hot commodity at all.

 

[ShinobiMusashi]

Yeah, but it had done solid PPV numbers from 93 to 96(their highest until 2002 when Zuffa got rolling). That was one of the big reasons why he brought in Shamrock, and Severn.

I do understand the condition that MMA was in back in 2001, or I wouldn't have started this discussion. It is just a discussion. I'm not trying to say that I know anything would have happened for a fact. Just trying to throw a few "What If"s around for fun.

I think the UFC was something that was right under Vince(by Vince I mean the WWF/E)'s nose, and would have been a much smarter investment than trying to start a new football league.

It would have been a very big risk though. They(the UFC) probobly would never have gotten legal sanctioning with the WWF's reputation. The Fertittas were juiced in with the Nevada State Athletic Commision(rumor has it that they even made it hard for SEG to get the UFC sanctioned just in order to keep the price down, and force the sale.)

 

[The Hardcore Kid]

That's like asking "What if Vince bought KFC in 2001?". Maybe he'd make some more money, but what does it have to do with anything?

MMA =/= pro wrestling. Outside of having a few MMA fighters on RAW (and therefore hurting the fighter's credibility for participating on a "fake" show), I don't really see what the question is asking.

 

[Richard Blonoff]

Back in '01 no one wanted to touch anything MMA related. Like the dude above me said it was banned in a decent chunk of states and it was viewed as human cockfighting, a label its still trying to shed in some people's eyes today.

Even after ZUFFA bought the UFC they were treading water until TUF came along. Even that was a huge shot in the dark that the company paid for 100% and had no financial backing from Spike.

One of the things about Vince is that outside of wrestling his business sense isn't that great. The XFL was a failure, the movies WWE films put out are generally pretty bad, that restaurant they had in New York didn't work, the bodybuilding think in the early 90s failed, and the thing at Niagra Falls didn't work either. Plus his wife thought she could buy a political seat, unrelated in a way but still

 

[ShinobiMusashi]

What about PPV revenue? Wasn't that what the WWF/Vince knew best? Didn't the WWE have a stranglehold on PPV at one time? They don't have it anymore. They lost it.

I think Mcmahon could have gotten MMA on television sooner than 2005. He had the connections to make it happen somehow. He had the resources to invest in the UFC's ailing ppv production values, and sagging roster.

Mcmahon could have dominated PPV through the decade had he been smart in late 2000/early 2001. The WCW, ECW, and UFC were household names that held value on the PPV market, even though they had fallen on hard times.

I had my attorneys tell me that I was crazy because I wasn't buying anything. I was paying $2 million and they were saying `What are you getting?" Lorenzo Fertitta revealed to Fighter's Only magazine, recalling the lack of assets he acquired in the purchase. "And I said `What you don't understand is I'm getting the most valuable thing that I could possibly have, which is those three letters: UFC. That is what's going to make this thing work. Everybody knows that brand, whether they like it or they don't like it, they react to it."

As bad of shape as the sport was in, and the fact that nobody wanted anything to do with it didn't hurt Zuffa when they bought the UFC in January of 2001. Turned out to be almost a genious bussines move for Zuffa. A group of men who had absolutely no clue about PPV, or Television, or Entertaining large venues jam packed with people(all they had was a boatload of money, and a passion for the sport).

I think buying the UFC would have turned out better than the XFL did. Vince, and the WWF had the money, experience, resources, and connections to get MMA up off of the ground sooner than Zuffa did. The only problem would have been getting legaly sanctioned by state athletic commissions with their sour reputation in the legitimate sports universe.

I mean, the XFL? Really? What was Vince thinking? How much money did he/they lose?

At the end of the day none of this matters. No real big deal. I just like to look back on things sometimes and ask: "What If?"

 

[lil bitch Kid]

Interesting question.... The bottom line is that Vince tries to give everything a gimmick. He tried it with football and I have no doubt he would have tried it with MMA. I think if Vince had invested and turned it over to someone else to run, we<d probably be in the same place we are now. Since that was and never will be Vince's style, I think that MMA/UFC would be in the stone ages or extinct.

 

[DirtyD79]

Vince's track record for ventures outside of wrestling pretty much speaks for itself and has been mentioned already. Another problem is that you'd get a lot of backlash from a lot of MMA fans saying "I don't want to watch that fake shit!" that's the image they would have gotten being associated with a wrestling promoter. It just wouldn't have worked.

 

[willross]

What about PPV revenue? Wasn't that what the WWF/Vince knew best? Didn't the WWE have a stranglehold on PPV at one time? They don't have it anymore. They lost it.

I think Mcmahon could have gotten MMA on television sooner than 2005. He had the connections to make it happen somehow. He had the resources to invest in the UFC's ailing ppv production values, and sagging roster.

Mcmahon could have dominated PPV through the decade had he been smart in late 2000/early 2001. The WCW, ECW, and UFC were household names that held value on the PPV market, even though they had fallen on hard times.



At the end of the day none of this matters. No real big deal. I just like to look back on things sometimes and ask: "What If?"

DUDE!!!! In 2001, WWE was the PPV King!!!! There was no way of knowing that UFC was going to become a PPV Juggarnaut!!! What aren't you getting? XFL was seen at the time as a IMMENSELY BETTER investment than an MMA company.

YEA NOW IT IS PROVEN TO BE DIFFERENT, but at the time, Vince was unable to tell the future. Sorry he is not God like he puts himself over to be on TV.

Look at the Ultimate Fighter ratings, they hardly draw. Raw gets better ratings than the Ultimate Fighter and UFC Unleashed.

There is no way to have known in 2001 what was going to happen in 2011.

This thread is way dumber than any other "What If" thread I have ever seen, mostly because your argument sucks

 

[willross]

It was Dana White's ideas that got UFC to where it is today.

I doubt Vince and Dana think the same way.

Vince is a genius and didn't think MMA was for him.

Dana is a genius and thought he could do something with MMA.

Vince McMahon runs a near billion dollar organization.

Dana White runs a multi-million dollar organization.

 

[BASSER911414]

It was Dana White's ideas that got UFC to where it is today.

I doubt Vince and Dana think the same way.

Vince is a genius and didn't think MMA was for him.

Dana is a genius and thought he could do something with MMA.

Vince McMahon runs a near billion dollar organization.

Dana White runs a multi-million dollar organization.

Sorry but 408 mil and decreasing doesnt sound like near billion to me... whereas ufc generates 452 mil in which it is known for for surpassing wwe and boxing in the same year.

As a person who enjoys watching MMA as much as WWE I cinfidentky say that had vince bought ufc in 2001, MMA would probably be dead by now. So thank God for failures like XFL and successes like Dana White

 

[dadubay]

I can't believe that no one has said this yet, but Vince probably would have killed it. UFC was competition for a while, and a threat. We all know what Vince does to threats.

 

[Pedigree1]

well i can almost say with certanity that MMA would cease to exist if Vinnie mac bought it in 2001!! At that time MMA as a whole was on life support no one in north america wanted to touch it with a 100 foot pole!! John MCcain said basically that its human cockfighting!!! When the UFC started in 93 remember they wanted to put in a mot or however u spell it along with alligators!! Someone actually thought of that stupid idea!! Vince no doubt would have tried some sort of gimmick with MMA probably ruining it all together!! MMA and Pro Wrestling are two different beasts!! UFC didnt start making any real money until 2005 can you imagine vince sticking around for four or five years losing money!! i dont think he would XFL folded after less than a year. Vince is a genius doing what he does and Dana White is mostly a genius at doing what he does!! So no thank god Vinnie Mac didnt do it. I always knew MMA would be huge not quite this quick but MMA as a whole i was vastly intrigued since its inception!! People can enjoy both products

 

[Suibon]

There's the matter of the UFC being so brutally brutal back then - 'human cockfight' and all - that any sane promoter trying to make a quick buck would fork themselves sick just for breaching the idea in his head. It could've even messed up his desire to appeal to a larger audience and go PG on all Attitude era smarks' asses, due to the bloody and sickening reputation UFC deserved over the years.

So, in sum, if Vince bought UFC in 2001, he might have been obliged to scrap it altogether just to dare go PG; the aims of one and the other are at such cross purposes they were unlikely to co-exist. (In other words: sadists everywhere lose their chance to cockfight. )
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[thebarber]

Vince would have destroyed it. He would have tried to turn legitimate hard men and legitimate fighters into cartoon characters and puppets. This is what killed the XFL, the WBF. Vinces movies always bomb at the box office. UFC would probably not even be called UFC if Vince bought them out, he would have re-branded and made out that he created Mixed martial Arts.

 

[Honkey_Kong]

What about PPV revenue? Wasn't that what the WWF/Vince knew best? Didn't the WWE have a stranglehold on PPV at one time? They don't have it anymore. They lost it.

I think Mcmahon could have gotten MMA on television sooner than 2005. He had the connections to make it happen somehow. He had the resources to invest in the UFC's ailing ppv production values, and sagging roster.

Mcmahon could have dominated PPV through the decade had he been smart in late 2000/early 2001. The WCW, ECW, and UFC were household names that held value on the PPV market, even though they had fallen on hard times.



As bad of shape as the sport was in, and the fact that nobody wanted anything to do with it didn't hurt Zuffa when they bought the UFC in January of 2001. Turned out to be almost a genious bussines move for Zuffa. A group of men who had absolutely no clue about PPV, or Television, or Entertaining large venues jam packed with people(all they had was a boatload of money, and a passion for the sport).

I think buying the UFC would have turned out better than the XFL did. Vince, and the WWF had the money, experience, resources, and connections to get MMA up off of the ground sooner than Zuffa did. The only problem would have been getting legaly sanctioned by state athletic commissions with their sour reputation in the legitimate sports universe.

I mean, the XFL? Really? What was Vince thinking? How much money did he/they lose?

At the end of the day none of this matters. No real big deal. I just like to look back on things sometimes and ask: "What If?"

Vince lost something close to $80 Million on the XFL. It was a major failure. It was a shame too. The league had quite a few entertaining games and saved a lot of player's careers. But, the ratings tanked and ticket sales were practically nonexistent.

I don't think UFC would exist today as it is if Vince bought it. Face it, pro-wrestling is fixed because there is no guarantee in real wrestling that the fans are going to get their money's worth. Vince would notice a few shitty matches in his UFC and would've started fixing the sport to be a work just like wrestling. And even if he didn't, just the fact he's associated with it would make the fans think he did.

 

[BaconBits]

The UFC would have lasted less than a year had Vince bought it in 2001. At that point in time, the only fanbase mixed martial arts had was way hardcore about the spirit of mixed martial arts, and that hardcore fanbase detests anything even close to resembling professional wrestling to this day.

What it likely would have done, though, is driven up interest from the people who were UFC only in those days in PRIDE and chances are the Japanese promotion would have "won" the proverbial war.

 

[Trot]

am sorry, but some people on here are just stupid, firstly, good idea for a topic, because its viable that Vince looked at UFC, and would of made a go at it, he would of failed, because to many fighters disrespect WWE, for being a "Fake Sport" but, Vince is a smart man, whos to say Vince wouldnt of bought UFC and shared stakes with Zuffa, i think undoubtable the WWE if it had limited involvment, it would of helped UFC leaps and bounds, theres still a negative stigma around MMA today, but Vince is good with TV/PPV buys, he revolutionised it, remember?

Dana white is good, but am sure back then there was a price that would have had a little WWF/E logo in the bottom corner of your screen, if VINCE thought it was a viable option

but on to your topic good sir, i think hed of failed, altho theres logical ways he could of made it work, i cant really see him being botherd, one of the companys would be damaged if he had sole control of both, and WWE is vinces baby, i know what one hed trow to the lions,

and Dear op, dont let idiots detour you from posting more topics, anyone who says rants about how stupid your argument is when u make a "What if" post is obv a TNA fanboy

 

[dotty_84]

If you look at the XFL that could give you an insight to what would have happened to Vinces version of MMA. The media portray him as the man who brings in 'fake' sport, it'd make the UFC get questioned wether it was real or fake. That's the stigma that comes with Vince. Even though it would have been real, that's how journalists would look at it.
Vince is a genius within Wrestling he was brought up with it, outwith that, he's not had success so much in other ventures outside Wrestling.

 

[Xumer]

I agree with the majority, Vince would have killed it. In the beginning UFC wasn't MMA, there was no real MMA then. Back in the days it was strictly a single martial art (karate guy, boxer guy, etc) or no martial art at all (pit fighters aka bar room fighters). The UFC was basically a massive version of the "gracie challenge" (youtube that and watch GJJ in action) to prove that Gracie jiu-jitsu was the dominant martial art. MMA was the ultimate goal of GJJ, to have all other martial arts add GJJ to the training.

Knowing Vince he would have hired a shit ton of body builders and have them taught to kick box, occasionally throwing in some of the "legit" tough guy wrestlers from WWE. The sport would have never evolved to what it is today and because of that would have always kept the "human cockfighting" argument being what most people thought of when they thought about UFC. If vince had total control, UFC would have been more like "Brawl for All" and we know how that turned out for WWE.

 

[RyanAn]

I think Vince was focusing on attaining wrestling domination - but had he had the spare change or more importantly the spare time to work with UFC, it could of took off in a more thematic version. Heck, maybe even a cross-promotion with WWF at the time. Invariably, it would be Vince B or even C promotion and would eventually been kaput.