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PRIDE US PPV version of 12/31 Saitama event
By Zach Arnold | January 2, 2006
In quick discussions that I’ve had with Adam Summers and Dr. Keith Lipinski, both men told me that the US version of the PRIDE show was heavily edited. To the point that several fights were not shown at all, period.
In Japan, those who saw the PRIDE show on free TV ended up seeing most fights, but a lot of them were in digest (clipped) format.
I watched the entire 7 hour event and did PBP (play by play) commentary for it at Puroresu Power. I’m disappointed with both Fuji TV & DSE for their handling of the event on the free Japanese TV side and especially for American PPV customers. I’m disappointed because it was not a bad show at all. A lot of fights, yes, but certainly was entertaining for the most part.
It feels like I watched a totally different event compared to most viewers who ended up being subjected to heavy editing or no matches at all. If you watched the free TV version of the event in Japan or the US PPV version, I want to hear your comments. Please post your comments in this thread about the show. Tell me about the editing of the show, how it came across, and how many fights were shown. Plus, tell me about what kind of video packages (if any) were shown.
On the lighter side of things, the MMA Snark girls have their PRIDE US PPV review up online now.
Topics: Japan, MMA, PRIDE, Zach Arnold | | Permalink | Trackback | Share This
Could this be the fault of the US office? Looking at how the lineup is set, You’ve got the main event as the second fight on the card. This sorta spits on the legitimacy of the match as well as Ogawa, doesn’t it?
You also have the Arona/Silva title fight as main event and not the two grand prix title fights which had a lot of build here in the US. By having those matches lower on the card, doesn’t it just cheapen the belts here in the US?
What I don’t understand is how on their English language website they hyped Kondo/Nak, Kikuta/Takimoto, Bennett/Kaneko, and Aleks/Pawel without showing them. And how they could have a video package for Kondo/Nak right before it started. And how they could show Silva, Thompson, Aleks, Pawel, Kondo, and Nak in the opening ceremony and then leave them out. Cut out some of the national anthems and promos for the knockouts special and you could fit at least one, probably two more matches in. It stinks badly of trying to sell us both the PPV and later the DVD. Foul play. That is an attitude that will alienate many an American fan.
[...] After my post the other day, FightOpinion.com has commented and pointed me to their thread here. [...]
Thing that gets me is they had 15 minutes left on PPV so they didn’t even need to edit much out, if at all, to fit the matches in.