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Nikkan Sports: UFC & PRIDE will be like Raw & Smackdown
By Zach Arnold | March 25, 2007
By Zach Arnold
Today’s edition of Nikkan Sports has an article titled UFC & PRIDE adopting the WWE method. In short, the article claims that UFC is purchasing PRIDE and that the formula for Zuffa with UFC & PRIDE will be similar to Raw & Smackdown in terms of talent distribution and operations. In other words, you’ll see two separate operations in terms of rosters and staff but a similar flavor of MMA with the top stars from each brand facing each other at big events. The paper says that PRIDE will be the second brand under Zuffa, with the idea of having an all-star event between the two brands (the paper says likely in America) each year.
Gryphon has more potential details about what could be upcoming for the new shell company behind PRIDE. The new figurehead could come from Tokai TV, which is a Nagoya-based Fuji TV affiliate. The same TV network that Nobuyuki Sakakibara came from…
Eddie Goldman has a two-part radio interview with Japanese writer Tadashi Tanaka (part 1 and part 2 here) that I will listen to and see if there’s any news worth noting (other than Eddie saying of Tanaka, “He describes himself as the #1 journalist in mixed martial arts and puroresu in the world.”) Summary of interview here.
Topics: All Topics, Japan, MMA, Media, PRIDE, UFC, WWE, Zach Arnold | 1 Comment » | Permalink | Trackback | Share This
Nikkan Sports: UFC & PRIDE will be like Raw & Smackdown…
Today’s edition of Nikkan Sports has an article titled UFC & PRIDE adopting the WWE method. In short, the article claims that UFC is purchasing PRIDE and that the formula for Zuffa with UFC & PRIDE will be similar to Raw & Smackdown in terms of talen…