So for whatever reason I decided a couple months back to champion World Victory Road's Sengoku production over the rival DREAM. I guess I was impressed by the steps WVR had taken to distance themselves from the Yakuza scandals that killed PRIDE.
I reached a sort of crescendo of nitwittery when I spun a bunch of misunderstood rumors into a mistaken conclusion that DREAM had lost their prime time TV deal. Anyway, I was wrong about that, in case you hadn't figured that out.
DREAM has pulled off three hot cards in a row. Meanwhile Sengoku has established a pattern of mismatches, senior league bouts, and protecting their stars. But even worse than the aesthetic failings are the clear signs that Sengoku is not a success:
World Victory Road hosted its third Sengoku event Sunday before a half-filled Saitama Super Arena. Advertising and hype surrounding the event seemed to be extremely low, which was reflected by the attendance.
And yet, hope springs eternal. They've signed Frank Trigg and announced a pretty decent lightweight tournament lineup with the winner getting to challenge Gomi for the Sengoku championship. So even though DREAM is clearly way out ahead, I'm not giving up on Sengoku just yet.
Especially since they just signed a whole passel of Olympians from Georgia:
Hoping to expand its heavyweight ranks, World Victory Road also announced the signings of four Georgian athletes: Zurab Zviadauri, a 2004 Olympic judo gold medalist at 198 pounds; Ramaz Nozadze, a 2004 Olympic Greco-Roman wrestling silver medalist at 212 pounds; Eldari Kurtanidze, a two-time Olympic bronze medalist in freestyle wrestling in 1996 and 2000; and Georgi Gogshelidze, who took ssecond place at the 2006 FILA World Championships in the 212-pound freestyle wrestling category.
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