They’ve been running at 58% domestic of late.

Mania will likely be less because UFC has no effect on the Mania buy rate outside of the U.S. and Canada.

The cable people were telling me what UFC 112 from Abu Dhabi, which looks to be around 500,000, beat Mania in a lot of places. I know some market direct numbers that indicated that but figured it was a West Coast thing, and obviously a Canada thing.

They’re probably in the 500-510K domestic.

Bret-Vince was squandered. That’s why I pay attention to trending charts. Bret was huge in January and the minute they did the crash, his numbers plummeted. I wasn’t talking about of my ass on that one.

Another big factor is Bret means more in Canada than anywhere else, but UFC 111 did killer numbers in Canada.

Still, the real culprit is coming the day after a UFC show. WWE usually is down 10-15% from usual day after a major UFC, and I figured Mania would hold up as special, but with more people buying UFC than usual, people made their choice as the first show has a big advantage over the second.

Wrestling is tons more popular than 1992-95.

It’s more popular than 2002-2005.

Vince was just adamant about how UFC had no effect. He said they draw from the boxing audience not the entertainment audience. An investor brought up how all the PPVs have been up (not realizing it’s only because of opening up Mexico, not domestic increases) except two, both way down, and both the day after “another PPV event.”

Vince was excellent on the call, he always is. He’s a straight shooter unlike Linda who is “nicer” but paints everything is rosy. Vince was the old school “honest” promoter, he quoted Bobo Brazil of all people, and blamed it all on not having the attraction people wanted to see. But he’s in real bad denial on the UFC issue.


UFC 111 did 770,000, probably 95% domestic—that was the going rate a few months back and nothing should have changed it, so probably 732,000 North America

Mania 513,000 tops, and maybe less because they went on and on about how strong Mexico (which didn’t get UFC on PPV) was. Probably closer to 500. Will try and get a real figure this week.

UFC 112 neck-and-neck. UFC 114 will also kill the Mania number.

I was way more wrong that right on this one. Trending patterns indicated 515 and I was totally in denial, believing they did such a good build-up and I didn’t see UFC affecting Mania and thought trends were an aberration because it’s Mania (last year that happened). UFC killed Survivors dead (literally). Also shows Vince’s killing Survivors name is a kneejerk reaction to being in denial. But I thought Mania ws the one show a year bullet-proof.

What is shows is WWE has no attraction bullet-proof on the same weekend as a major UFC.

Blaming economy or interest is bs. Rumble was up at a higher price than the year before. Chamber was up at a higher price than the year before. A stronger Mania than last year was down at the same price as the year before. Vince wouldn’t accept economy as an excuse, blamed it all on the product because he can’t accept that he’s got competition beating him.

“885,000 buys worldwide. Needless to say a huge disappointment.”

They’ve been running at 58% domestic of late.

UFC 111 did 770,000, probably 95% domestic—that was the going rate a few months back and nothing should have changed it, so probably 732,000 North America

If there is a direct correlation (which I think there is) between UFC fans and WWE fans then that means there is a lot untapped money out there. If the UFC could increase their foreign ppv sales to be on par with the WWE, their average would skyrocket from 550,000 buys to 880,000 buys. That is an extra $8 mil per ppv event. No wonder Zuffa has been so adamant about expanding to new markets.
That also means there could still be a window of opportunity for any potential competitor to the UFC. If I’m Strikeforce or Dream, I’m giving Shane McMahon a call.

I wonder who’s more popular in canada..Bret Hart or GSP…or Sidney Crosby