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« | Home | »

Bushido 8/26 Nagoya event on FSN TV

By Zach Arnold | August 27, 2006

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By Zach Arnold

The good, the bad, and the rest — reviewed.

TV matches aired:

The Good:

  1. As is the case with most of the Bushido events, the fights are overally good in quality. No difference tonight, as most of the fights had good action. The round system (first 10 minutes, second 5 minutes) really seems to help keep up a good pace.
  2. Frank Trigg did an excellent job on commentary. He really put over the new guys (like Melendez) and also explained to new fans what certain MMA terms are (i.e. what “passing the guard” means). Good performance.
  3. PRIDE tried to do the best they could with a hard sell for the 10/21 Las Vegas show. We’ll see how it works out.
  4. The best part of the show actually was a pre-taped video package which was a package of highlights of some of the better KOs or finishes in previous PRIDE fights over the years.

The bad:

  1. I can’t state what a horrible set-up Fox Sports Net is for a channel. There were a few markets that did not get to see the Bushido show at all, and in some areas (such as San Francisco) the show aired later due to Oakland A’s baseball. It’s impossible for FSN to draw high ratings as a network when the viewers at home never know when they are going to catch a show or how reliable the network’s own schedule is.
  2. The PRIDE US presentations on FSN are downright boring. They are lifeless compared to the Japanese broadcasts. If you are a hardcore PRIDE fan, you probably will agree with my sentiments. There is simply little emotion at all conveyed on the FSN broadcasts versus what you see with the standard PRIDE PPV on SkyPerfecTV. No ring entrances, no true crowd noise or reactions, nothing special at all.
  3. There was a lot of bizarre audio and video editing on the FSN broadcast. In at least two of the fights, the camera shot was looking right at the finishes happening and suddenly edits are made to go to a canned shot of the crowd. FSN didn’t air much, if any, of the ring entrances (even editing out Gono’s entrance) at all. Furthermore, the FSN editing machine killed the crowd audio for the matches. There were many times during the fights where you could hear gonging (audio taken from other shows) and inserted during referee breaks. It was bizarre. One minute, you would hear gonging and the next minute, you’d hear a faint voice of an announcing screaming in the background while you could clearly see the Japanese fans intently watching and making no noise during the fights.
  4. Jay Glazer, who has a lot of good MMA knowledge, really was not needed for this telecast at all. (There’s also the question of FSN continuing the relationship with PRIDE, but that’s another story for another day.)
  5. From the looks of everything in the PRIDE ring, this company is starting to hurt for sponsors. The main sponsor logos on the ring were FSN, Caesar’s Palace, Don Quijote Co. Ltd., and the PRIDE fan club. Not having TV makes a big difference in terms of getting sponsorship.
  6. The attempts by FSN to do video packages building up PRIDE “taking America by storm” and on both Gomi & Henderson came off as cheesy. UFC has really raised the bar for TV presentation with the American audience, and when you put these video packages in comparison to UFC it’s not good. I’m not the viewer who needs to be pleased by presentation (since I watch all shows), but it is important to send a good message to the new fans watching at home and I don’t think these FSN shows are doing it at all. The funniest part about the Gomi video package was a translator inserting the line (on behalf of Gomi), “I even went on The Best Damn Sports Show Period!” Also, the timing of the Henderson video package couldn’t have come at a worse time because right after they put him over as the Welterweight champion, he loses to Kazuo Misaki.
  7. Mauro Ranallo was in rare form tonight, and I say this as a person who usually supports his work. During the Gomi vs. David Baron fight, Ranallo made reference to Gomi being known as the “Fireball kid.” “The firefighter from France is going to try to extinguish the flames tonight!” You could hear Frank Trigg just groan when this was said. Also, Ranallo was doing some stupid insider reference ribs on Trigg, including one about Jake Shields.

Overall, I don’t see how the FSN broadcasts of PRIDE really will help out the promotion overall in terms of cranking up the hype machine for the Las Vegas show. The one message that really needs to be stressed is that if PRIDE wants to make a big impression in America, then present the fans with a true PRIDE product. Give them the production values, the good Japanese-style TV product, and the true sense of the crowds at these shows. The FSN broadcasts come off choppy, watered-down, and a mollified version of PRIDE.

Topics: All Topics, Japan, Media, MMA, PRIDE, Zach Arnold | 11 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |

11 Responses to “Bushido 8/26 Nagoya event on FSN TV”

  1. Art Shimko says:

    I enjoyed the fights this evening, lots of fast-paced action. The production was a bit wonky especially the audio at times. The commentary was mixed low for the commentators during the Misaki/Henderson fight. Seems like FSN can’t help produce an outside product on their station, at least with Pride and from what I remember some of the TNA shows.

  2. Mateo Souj says:

    How could you not list Henderson’s performance in the bad category? That was the worst fight I have seen in a long time. He literally let his opponent pepper him with punches the entire fight. You could tell he was waiting to do some damage with a right punch, but the stupid man never actually bothered to throw it. Yeah, I’m exaggerating, but he looked like a retard in there. Then when he raised his arms in quasi-victory after the end of the second round, that was amazing in it’s offensiveness. F- performance.

  3. keith champagne says:

    Personally, I didn’t care for Trigg’s performance. I think he needs to slow down, h e’s talking too fast, and could use more inflection in his vocal range. He sounds very monotone. I also thought Ranallo was way off last night.

    I hated to see the fights so chopped up when they were edited down to suit the time constraints.

    Also, a ridiculous amount of commercials.

    As for the fighters themselves, Kang and Filho looked amazing! Ryo Chonan isn’t a champion but he’s a solid fighter and Filho schooled him like a child. Dangerous Dan is starting to look a little lost, I wonder if the game is subtly evolving around him and he’s not keeping up.

    Most importantly, in spite of my bitching, I’m very grateful to have a free Pride card on American TV. I don’t think this was a proper showcase of how great Pride truly is but hopefully, it’s a first step and their next free show will be an improvement.

  4. Zach Arnold says:

    Keith – your last comments reflect my sentiments. My confidence with the FSN shows is not high, however.

  5. East_Khan says:

    Zach; I know it may be off-topic but the only chance I can see the Bushido show is to buy its DVD since I live in Turkey. They usually get released in 2-3 months. But again due to the FujiTV scandal Pride hasnt been releasing DVDs for a long time (I buy the DVDs from Japan). Do you have any news on that matter. Are they planning to avoid the DVD market totally or planning to release the DVDs through another corporation soon. Thanks.

  6. Maxomillion Solaris says:

    Man o man there is so much mma going on. Tomorrow a few buddies and myself are going to buy tickets for the Las Vegas Pride show because with Fedor on it, who can resist? Of course Pride can pull any fighter from the card at any moment, and at this point, UFC is actually starting to talk like they want to sign big fighters.

    I’m sure Pride has enough money left over in the bank to make a solid push in the U.S. for atleast 6-8 months. If they can put together something decent, they will rival the UFC, no doubt about it.

    But after this weekend and an average pay-per-view from the UFC (lets face it — anything after that bomb they put out seems like gold) and really dumb fans who don’t even know that Chuck got his ass handed to him in Pride, the UFC is in a great position. They have a huge brand, tv, and are starting to bring in good fighters. They have everyone convinced that the UFC is the only org in the world that puts on fights.

    Lastly, about the broadcasts — this might be a culture thing. The only way to do Japanese quality work is to do it in Japan– the American worker (god bless him) really doesn’t behave, nor has the same ethics as a Japanese worker. So, this broadcast probably suffered from losses in translation. And lets face it too — Trigg’s heart is in his ass half the time, Mauro, even though he is great gets way too excited sometimes, and the other commentators are a silly hire and waste of money that Japanese organizations seem to do when they think they need some blond haired guy to appeal to some demographic they think is watching this stuff.

    No matter how smart the Japanese promoters are at booking fights and putting on good shows, the lack of understanding of the American culture could lead to their demise. And if I was Dana, when the heat gets to close, I’d just tip off the local networks about why Pride has left Japan in the first place. I mean — come on — it takes one to know one, right?

  7. Fruit Booty says:

    Am I the only one who noticed during the “Pride takes America by Storm” segment, that Vitor Belfort was identified as “‘Shogun’ Rua”?

  8. Luke says:

    Zach – does PRIDE still have an American PPV deal? Or did it fall through when they lost their deal with FujiTV? I don’t remember. At any rate, this show was more evidence that PRIDE is in bad shape without a TV deal in Japan. Henderson losing was music to my ears because he finally came out on the wrong end of a decision.

  9. Zach Arnold says:

    Luke – the PRIDE US PPVs worked in conjunction with Fuji TV, as the US office paid a rights fee to Fuji TV in order to broadcast the footage in America. Without Fuji TV producing the show, the Bushido show aired on FSN. However, the 9/10 Saitama show is scheduled to air on PPV with the American-style editing.

  10. grafdog says:

    FSN ran the show early because the ballgame ended around 7:30 i missed the first 2 fights. Fights were very good overall. The pride fighter meet and greet segment was good, and the fan who noted the international quality of pride, hit it right on the money.
    Its great to see the fighters just hanging out, literally in Fedors case.

    The bad…
    Many fights went unseen, butterbean v Minowa would have been the best american draw imo, but for whatever reason it was a no show.
    Glazer’s poorly fitting suit.

    My biggest gripe is Mauro’s inability to pronounce Japanese properly.
    “A” has (like the other vowels) one sound in japanese language, its ahh like in saw or fall not ay as in pay or Fail.
    Misaki, Sato, Right pronunciation….Mi-saw-key, Saw-toe
    wrong pronunciation….. Mi-sacky Say-toe
    How can the japanese keep this third rate huckster around? He even bragged about learning japanese during one show, BUT the first thing you learn is “HOW TO PRONOUNCE THE VOWELS” Mauro is a liar.
    Also his constant commentary on the “theory” of the fight being watched, he’s not up to speed. He states.. “But what does he have to do here Trigg? He’s had the mount but didn’t do what he needed to do…”
    2 seconds later Gono snaps on an awesome arm bar.

  11. ajax says:

    The commercials were unbareable, although I probably should just be happy that Pride showed the PPV for free. The audio was crap, with once again Trigg and Mauro’s voices almost impossible to hear. I love Pride so much more than any other of the organizations because of the the stomp/head kick to a downed opponent factor. Although there wasn’t as much of that as I would have liked in the PPV, I hope some new fans got to see how much more exciting fights are when those techniques are legal.

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