World Victory Road: Gaining on DREAM?

by Kid Nate on Mar 20, 2008 7:07 PM EDT in News Comment 10 comments

For the past couple of months DREAM has been getting all the love and most have written off World Victory Road as a second-tier promotion. Certainly DREAM.1 got more hype on the blogs than WVR's debut Sengoku event.

But now that both events have happened, I don't think many would say the DREAM event was head and shoulders better than Sengoku.

DREAM.1 got mixed reviews at best for fight quality, but much more importantly, the TV ratings for DREAM were awful:

It is confirmed that the show drew an 8.9% rating on TBS. That is a miserable rating that would even make HEROs blush. TBS finished second to last for ratings in that time frame, with low-powered TV Tokyo finishing in last (with a 6.9% number).

While DREAM.2 will likely produce better numbers -- featuring big draws like Sakuraba, Funaki, Tamura as well as top talents like Akiyama and Kang -- WVR is announcing some signings of its own. In addition to promising lightweight Satoru Kitaoka, who should be headed toward a showdown with Gomi next New Year's Eve, they also signed Yoshihiro "Kiss" Nakao. Now we know why rumors were flying that the Yakuza wouldn't let Nakao fight Cro Cop for DREAM -- I suspect he'd already committed to WVR before that fight was even proposed.

Most importantly though, it looks like WVR has scored a network TV deal with Fuji, the network that carried PRIDE until scandal forced them to drop the promotion. Personally I think more big events are a good thing. I also think DREAM carries a bit of the stink of K-1's fucked upness about it. With a network TV deal, WVR can compete with DREAM on an equal footing. I expect the better organization will win.

0 recs | Comment 10 comments

Story-email Email Printer Print

Comments

Re: World Victory Road: Gaining on DREAM?

I think Japan's two small for two zombie Pride orgs. Eventually one will die and the other will eat up all the free international and Japanese talent and fill huge stadiums.

by Yasnian on Mar 20, 2008 8:11 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Re: World Victory Road: Gaining on DREAM?

I beg to differ. I think we'll have one top org and a distant second, just like the old PRIDE/K-1 dynamic.

by Kid Nate on Mar 20, 2008 8:29 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Re: World Victory Road: Gaining on DREAM?

But I basically agree, and it should be interesting while the two promotions fight it out.

by Kid Nate on Mar 20, 2008 8:29 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Re: World Victory Road: Gaining on DREAM?

I have advocated WVR working with EliteXC for many reasons but doing so could help make them a bona fide competitor to Dream.

EliteXC owns the Korean based fighting org SpiritMC. Increasingly the Japanese fighting market is evolving and spreading through out greater asia, A Pan-Asia market. Japan and Korea are the two current hot beds with mainland China being a possible growth market of the future. FEG in the past has sought to extend their MMA brands over into the Korean market, using Korean-descent stars like Denis Kang and Akiyama to break the market. They had a Heroes show in Korea this past October and likely will have future Dream cards there. If Sengoku is to have a level playing field with Dream, the Korean market will need to be in Play. Working with Elite's SpiritMC would allow for an exchange of talent to supplement Sengoku cards (the first card had a smaller than normal number of matches) and would also provide an in country organization familiar with the intricacies of that particular market.

by robnashville on Mar 20, 2008 8:42 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Re: World Victory Road: Gaining on DREAM?

Great point. What do you make of Misaki's deal with Strikeforce? Does the Strikeforce/NBC deal mean there won't be any more Strikeforce/EliteXC cooperation?

by Kid Nate on Mar 20, 2008 9:54 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Re: World Victory Road: Gaining on DREAM?

The Misaki deal, while I wish it were signifying a trend with more top end Japanese fighters working US dates, more than likely it is just a quirk of his Grabaka fight team. Akihiro Gono is also a member of Grabaka that has branched out with his signing with UFC. I'd love to see Akiyama sign a non-exlusive deal with someone stateside, but he is getting paid too well to be the punching bag for a sporting nation. I like boxing but one of the things that irks me about the sport are some world class fighters that never/rarely venture outside their own comfort zone (ie. Hatton, Calzaghe, Henry Maske, Dariusz Nichalaswzeski). Since losses on your record aren't as big a deal in MMA, a little co-mingling of int'l talent ought to be more viable.

It is a bit disheartening to my prospects for Elite XC that Strikeforce is willing to do signings like this but Gary Shaw isn't. Strikeforce and Hardcore Championship Fighting out of Vancouver have a better set rosters than EXC with not nearly the monetary resources to match. I know that Shaw wants to create stars but working in a Babalu, or a lil nog, Misaki, or Auserio Silva here and there isn't gonna break the bank.

The Strikeforce/NBC deal: The NBC deal is pretty much a time buy situation, so i would think that NBC would have far fewer contractual rights over the who, what when and where of how Strikeforce operates. Hopefully both EXC and Strikeforce recognize the co-promotional model helps them both. These three co-promo cards have been better than anything they have done own their own, that goes for both companies. These co-promo cards were pretty much a shotgun marriage necessitated by Frank Shamrock and his liberal interpretation of a contract, but it would behoove Coker and Shaw to look past the initial bad blood and work for further ways to work together and better monetize the deal for both sides. Shaw has great TV real estate (CBS, Showtime, Showtime PPV) and Strikeforce has some guys that have already been market to the EXC audience that could be used to draw money in the future.

by robnashville on Mar 21, 2008 7:09 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Re: World Victory Road: Gaining on DREAM?

How many fights does Frank have left on his Strikeforce contract? His EliteXC deal? I totally remember all the fussing and fighting about him double signing but I'd totally forgotten it when thinking about the EliteXC/Strikeforce cooperation.

by Kid Nate on Mar 21, 2008 9:07 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Re: World Victory Road: Gaining on DREAM?

You're not going to find a much bigger PRIDE fan than me. I have every PRIDE event on either DVD or VHS and am constantly going back through the events from the start of the promotion to the finish (currently I'm watching Raging Rumble).

That being said...I don't like the stressing that one of the promotions be a "zombie PRIDE." I really would love for these promotions to push to establish their own identity. That "something special and unique" is very big to me in a promotion and the lack of that is one of my problems with the DREAM show. It just FELT a little like too new while also feeling a little unoriginal. I know the players involved will make it be similar in some regards, but still.

...maybe I'm just rambling though.

by Brent Brookhouse on Mar 20, 2008 9:49 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Re: World Victory Road: Gaining on DREAM?

I was under the impression that the Strikeforce/Elite XC co-promotion had to do with the contracts of Cung Le and Frank Shamrock. It would make sense if there was no more affiliation between these two promotions after the Le/Shamrock fight.

by Popetastic on Mar 20, 2008 11:40 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Re: World Victory Road: Gaining on DREAM?

I believe the Strikeforce/EXC co-promotion was for three events and was due to Frank's contract with SF. Next weekend's show is the final co-promotion I believe.

Considering the NBC deal, as big or small as it may become, it seems SF is taking a shot at being one of the 2nd place orgs (in other words everyone but the UFC, like it or not, they are by far the top dog right now). I think the co-promotions could happen again, if this move fails.

As for WVR and Dream, I have felt that eventually, they will become one promotion and work occasionally with EXC.

I have to say, my real interest right now, is the Affliction/Golden Boy promotion which is forming. I think they will end up with Aleks and Fedor, Barnett, Lindland and basically everyone they can get their hands on. This is where I expect to see the Fedor/Randy fight happen, with coverage on HDNet.

by BJJDenver on Mar 21, 2008 11:14 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs