WWE Taking Notes From UFC?

[Mitch Henessey]

Based on the success UFC has had promoting the upcoming Brock Lesnar vs. Cain Velasquez fight and the recent Rashad Evans vs. Rampage Jackson fight, WWE is strongly discussing UFC-style primetime hype shows for the top match or two at next year's WrestleMania 27.

http://www.prowrestling.com/article/news/16742

This is interesting. I've watched a few of the Primetime episodes hyping the Lesnar VS Velasquez fight, and I thoroughly enjoyed them. Watching Lesnar train was cool, and it was nice to see Velasquez have fun with his daughter and fiance. The primetime specials gave you a deeper look into each fighter's life.

I can understand WWE doing something like this for Wrestlemania 27. I imagine they'll do this for the World Title Unification match, and they could also do another special for a blockbuster match. But when doing something like this for pro wrestling, you have to ask yourself the big question....is it okay to break kayfabe? All of us know that pro wrestling is scripted, but not breaking kayfabe is one of wrestling's Cardinal rules. I don't think that this would be too big of a problem, because all of us know pro wrestling isn't real. But when it comes to The Undertaker, there could be a problem with this. There's tons of speculation about next year being Taker's final run, and there's a VERY good chance he could main event Wrestlemania 27. It would be kind of odd to see Taker talking normal, because as far as his character goes, he's supposed to be a man who can't die, and he can take your soul. I wonder how WWE could pull this off?

This could be something to look forward to next year. I would like to see this, because with Taker's retirement rumors and the World Titles being unified at next year's big show, these specials could really blow us away. Also, I'm not too sure, but I think the only other time WWE did something like this is before the Wrestlemania 12 Iron Man match between Bret Hart and Shawn Michales.

Do you like this idea?

Should it only be reserved for Wrestlemania?

 

[Rhonda Rousey's Sports Bra]

I love the idea. The prematch vignettes for Wrestlemania are always favorites of mine, so a whole 30 mintue special would be amazing to see. I'd love to see them stay in character a little bit to keep it kayfabe, just not a full blown out of character show. If you take them out of character for the show then have them in character for WrestleMania you might drive away some new viewers that buy WM because of the special. A nice mix would be the best route to go, show the competitor's character and motivation for the match, but show them in their home life too. It gets more people emotionally invested into the wrestler.

For Undertaker I'd show a career highlight of him, from his earliest years through every gimmick change and show just a small part of his personal life, maybe just training for him.

WrestleMania is the place to start doing these and stray from kayfabe here and maybe the other big 4 PPV's, but if the decide to have a special for each PPV then they should keep the lesser PPV shows in kayfabe. I do think that this could be a very cool thing to do each month and would be a success.

 

[INDYjon22]

Honestly it just reminds me of Summer Slam 2002. The WWE did something similar to this involving Rock and Brock. It was really cool to see them training because I for one had never seen what kind of work out they went through. It also gave the match and even more realistic feel, because you got to see them training their cardio and what not for it. I would be all for a Primetime sort of show that aired leading up to the Wrestlemania match. I don't think breaking kayfabe would be that big of a deal, you do show another side of the wrestlers, but honestly when it comes to the match I believe the fans would respond the same as any other match. They will boo the heel and cheer the face. I think the WWE should give this a shot.

 

[Wrestlefan73]

Why this would never work in WWE:

1. Vince was always the first person to say wrestling was fake, which is why he or WWE doesn't refer to them as "wrestlers", they are superstars. They are in the sports entertainment business. The WWE superstars are actors, plain and simple.

2. Let's say, for the sake of argument, WWE makes a primetime special right before the big 4 PPV's. So, we are to believe that it's real now? Only until the big 4 PPV's? What about Raw the next night or every other time when there isn't a primetime special?

3. Is watching Randy Orton and John Cena get together with Vince and lay out the match they will have really entertaining?

4. How would WWE show Randy Orton "preparing" for a title match against Sheamus? By having a camera crew follow him around Raw, then to the hotel, then to the rental car, then driving to a house show, then to another hotel, another house show, then home to spend time with family, then to an airport, then to an arena, then.........you get my point.

5. UFC is real! The special on Brock Lesnar is him training for a real fight. You can see the hate he has for his opponent. You see how hard they train. They don't have 4 house shows to do the week before a PPV, like WWE.

 

[Gabbo]

First off, great idea.

Arguments for why it won't work are balanced out with arguments for why it will work. They've never mentioned that matches are pre-planned before so I don't see why they would introduce that now. I know you were being flippant but is it really too hard to imagine them showing Triple H training, studying his opponents cerebrally, working out game plans etc.

Plus, since it's all scripted they can engineer tension and friction in a way the UFC could never.

The second point above me is nonsense aswell. UFC don't do hype shows for every match or even every show, does that mean all those others fights are fake? You're forcing yourself to believe this can't work. It can and did at Summerslam 2002, to a degree.

My only gripe with the matter is why this needs it's own show. Why can't this be part of Raw and Smackdown's current line-up. It's symptomatic of where the WWE are at right now. They have two shows with loyal fans and a generally stable viewership. Why give them a better show if the ratings are stable, why treat them? Let's make them watch a completely different show, more advertising, more tv deals, more branding, more money.

It's disgusting and the attitude displayed here is why the quality of programming is the way it is now.

I don't watch Raw or Smackdown with anything approaching regularity anymore but if this ever happened, I'd permanently give up on Raw and Smackdown and just watch these hype shows.

 

[Ferbian]

I've never watched one of these hype shows. But I'm guessing we're talking about material where you follow them in their preparation am I right? Well, WWE have obviously done it before. Do any of you remember John Cena vs Triple H? Their two promo video's of them working out and all that. I think both of them was great and a very very nice and different touch.

I would definitely think there can only be some kind of advantage to this whole deal. However it would have to be handled carefully. Considering the fact that WWE is and always will be kayfabe material, it will be harder for them to keep the legitimacy and realism of this kind of hype. But I'm sure they have every ability to make it work. So I can't see any downside to this. And I'll say I can't wait to see how they plan on working with this.

If UFC has been successful with it, I can only wish WWE good luck in succeeding with it as well.

 

[Wrestlefan73]

@ Gabbo:

Yes, I see your point about UFC not having a hype-up show before every PPV, but at the same time, if WWE did a hype show between Orton and Cena, and it shows both of them training hard and talking about how important the match is.....like the previous 157 matches weren't THIS important, then 3 months later they are teaming up together. How "hyped-up" can one really get?

After watching the hype show from Brock Lesnar/ Frank Mir, I can't imagine seeing these two hanging out or training together......something that will happen 2 months after WWE does a hype show.

If WWE did "hype-up" segments on Raw & Smackdown, instead of idiot guest hosts doing dumb stuff, then it would be worth watching.

 

[Icedawg316]

isn't this what the WWE pre-shows are for or do they not do them anymore? I wouldn't mind seeing something like this, adding more intrigue and interest to the matches can only help the pay per views. I imagine they'd do this to try and boost buy rates on some of the pay per views, but for Mania? Hell yeah this would work!

 

[Richard]

The WWE preshows are different than these "Hype up" videos.

The WWE pre shows before PPVs are generally that Scott dude talking about what matches are coming up and showing the match promo video, exactly what they play between the matches during the PPV.

A "Hype up" pre WrestleMania show would be great. They would have to be very careful how they handle The Undertaker though, or hell, just don't include The Undertaker and have whoever is wrestling him talk about how much he's trained over the last two months for this and clips of other guys saying how much of a challenge this years challenger is in for etc etc.

For the other main events that don't involve him, it would be easy. Just have sit down interviews with them talking about how much they hate each other (Randy Orton vs Triple H at WM25 could have been a good one) and training videos like we've seen before and now I am not sure about this but if anyone could clarify it for me, does WWE still hold press conferences before PPVS? If so, they could also be used to hype up the event even more so if they are not used.