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A tough marketing sell
By Zach Arnold | September 6, 2006
By Zach Arnold
Recently, many of the various professional wrestling web sites have tried to integrate MMA coverage into their news & opinion reporting. Today, The Pro-Wresling Torch announced the opening of a new MMA web site called MMA Torch.
When I started the Puroresu Power web site in 2000, it was right at the beginning stages of Antonio Inoki’s attempt to submerge New Japan Pro-Wrestling with PRIDE & K-1. Because of what Inoki was doing on such a high-end business level, I had no choice but to cover MMA with pro-wrestling. I increased the coverage of MMA on the Puroresu Power site as things started to decline for professional wrestling in Japan. There was a reason for this – because MMA was the industry getting preferential treatment in the Japanese newspapers over pro-wrestling content (angles and storylines). In Japan, MMA and pro-wrestling are considered to be cut from the same cloth. Pro-wrestling is considered just another discipline in the fight game (just like judo or boxing or jiu-jitsu). From a cultural perspective in Japan, MMA and pro-wrestling are lumped together with boxing and other fighting sports. That’s how it is covered daily in the Japanese newspapers.
In the case of UFC and WWE, the cultural lines in America are completely different. Wrestling is struggling right now because there’s oversaturation of just too much bad wrestling and it’s driving away viewers. Therefore, it seems that a lot of the US wrestling-based sites are now flocking to MMA simply to try to keep the traffic numbers that they were drawing in the past when wrestling was a lot more popular. I think it is for this reason that it’s going to be a lot more difficult for the US wrestling web sites to try to keep the tightwire act of balancing between MMA and pro-wrestling coverage, simply because it’s not something that culturally blends together in the American marketplace. Also, one of the major issues that these US wrestling-based sites will face is that MMA is a global sport, with a lot of power brokers in a lot of foreign countries. You’re talking about trying to walk into covering an industry that has heavy roots in Japan and other global markets, so cultural and language issues are a challenge for certain.
Nonetheless, I look forward to the expansion of MMA coverage online. The more players that get involved in trying to cover the industry, the less power that the “old guard” in the MMA media will end up having.
Todd Martin has more thoughts on this subject.
Topics: All Topics, Media, MMA, Zach Arnold | 5 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
While I think this is good for MMA, I can’t help but worry that most will become UFC-centric. I do hope they educate themselves to other promotions as well.
MMA sites are clean and professional looking, while wrestling sites are primitive, sketchy looking, and covered in invasive popups and banners that make them resemble porno or warez sites.
You sure you visited Sherdog.com’s forums in the last few months? 🙂
I hate to bash anyone, but I long stopped reading the Torch because I felt Mr. Keller often lacked objectivity in his reporting.
I can certianly understand why he would choose to increase his reporting on MMA, with wrestling on a decidedly downswing but I have little interest in reading it.
There are so many sites reporting on MMA that are more qualitied to comment on MMA.
[…] First, it was the Torch. Now, it’s 1wrestling.com. […]