The DREAM is Over

by Kid Nate on Apr 24, 2008 5:51 PM EDT in News

A few weeks back I opined that World Victory Road and their SENGOKU promotion would probably surpass DREAM as the premier MMA organization in Japan.

Well that day has gotten much much closer. DREAM has lost their network TV deal.

Is this it for big-time MMA in Japan? According to Zack Arnold a lot was riding on DREAM's success:

There's no question that the DREAM project is a big story to pay attention to. There are a lot of positive and negatives that will come with the rise and/or fall of this league. For all intents and purposes, this is Japan's last great hope for trying to restore glory and return to the salad days of the MMA boom that was thriving a few years ago in the country.

With the death of PRIDE and K-1 struggling to grab a share of the Japanese MMA market, DSE staffers and K-1 aligned together under the auspices of the Ishii-Kawamata connection. The idea on paper is simple - take K-1's brand power on Japanese television and combine it with DSE-style live-show promoting capabilities. Combine this with DSE-style repetitive GP tournaments and K-1's PR machine and hope that you can create a modified version of PRIDE, with K-1 essentially running the purse strings.

Where DREAM plunged ahead as if the Yakuza scandals that killed PRIDE had never happened, World Victory Road took a different approach:

A cast of national sports heroes, legitimate businessmen and former state officials like former Tokyo Police Chief, Yukihiko Inoue, lend the new MMA entity both credibility and financing in their official capacities.

World Victory Road presents a friendly face to the public, making sure to keep any controversial individuals involved out of the public spotlight. Much of this new organization's success will be determined by how well they are able to continue to do so over the long term.

We'll see if WVR's slow but steady approach allows them to become a truly first tier organization on the world MMA scene, but its clear that DREAM won't be.

0 recs | Comment 8 comments

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Re: The DREAM is Over

The problem with Sengoku, as far as I'm concerned, is that their roster lacks any internation intrest. On the upcoming card there are three names that I am intrested in seeing fight (Barnett, Monson, Randleman), where as DREAM has many, many more (Sakuraba, Galesic, Kang, Ikuhisa Minowa, J.Z., Aoki, Tamura, Mousasi).

Until Sengoku fleshes out their roster, or DREAM is cut off of television all together, or disallowed on PPV, making articles with the headline "The DREAM is Over" seems a bit premature to me.

Expecting DREAM to be PRIDE after just one show isn't very reasonable. Fuck, PRIDE wasn't even PRIDE after just their first show...so a little bit of slack should definitely be allowed for a new organization that is trying to fill very large shoes.

by Anonymous on Apr 24, 2008 6:11 PM EDT 0 recs

Re: The DREAM is Over

I think losing their network TV deal is a huge huge blow to DREAM. That was basically what K-1 brought to the partnership. I agree with you that so far DREAM has had superior matches to SENGOKU but it just seems to me that WVR is taking the problems that brought down PRIDE seriously and DREAM just tried to make-believe it was 2002.

by Kid Nate on Apr 24, 2008 6:24 PM EDT up 0 recs

Re: The DREAM is Over

But they haven't lost their network TV deal. They've just been repositioned to another air time.

WVR doesn't have any television deal to speak of, aside from an intergration into a 30-minute sports clip show on FujiTV.

by Anonymous on Apr 24, 2008 6:34 PM EDT 0 recs

Re: The DREAM is Over

After reading that article by Zach Arnold you linked to over at Fight Opinion about the Yakuza scandal, it's hard for me to look at PRIDE the same way.

by Tonley on Apr 24, 2008 7:08 PM EDT 0 recs

Re: The DREAM is Over

That's fine. The sooner the DREAM talent roster can be assimilated into WVR, the better. As it stands now, it feels like each side is preventing the other from putting on the best possible shows.

The DREAM talent can just as soon be assimilated into a US organization for all I care, but considering the abysmal financial situation of those companies (except for UFC?) and UFC's roster trimming, I don't see it happening.

by Brett Jones on Apr 24, 2008 9:16 PM EDT 0 recs

Re: The DREAM is Over

The good news is that they will air on live Japanese PPV allowing for live, unedited viewing for the hardcores. The tape-delayed TBS broadcasts always sucked much of the life out of the events.

How long they can continue operating under this new television landscape is troubling however.

Jeff Comstock

by Jeff Comstock on Apr 24, 2008 10:36 PM EDT 0 recs