Brock Lesnar is making the rounds on behalf of the WWE as it promotes the company’s second-biggest event of the year, Summerslam, at the Barclay’s Center in Brooklyn, New York. The biggest news to come out of Lesnar’s appearance was his comments that Vince McMahon is a better promoter than Dana White.
The statement itself is not that controversial. The 38-year-old Lesnar signed a lucrative deal with the WWE and as he said he upon announcing the re-signing with the WWE he gets paid full-time for working part-time. So, for him to take the side of the WWE is not that extraordinary.
But the reason for the question by ESPN was based on a twitter back and forth between Dana White and a fan in which White stated that wrestling is “fake.” Well, of course it is. And there’s no dispute there. Yet, we should probably go all the way back to the source for the response: some guy on twitter. The question asked by the guy to White is to whether UFC PPVs should be priced at $9.99 like WWE PPVs.
@RKORollins I hear u bro but fake shit should be 9.99
— Dana White (@danawhite) August 1, 2015
@RKORollins not disrespecting what they do. All the WWE guys I have met are awesome people but yes it’s fake. — Dana White (@danawhite) August 1, 2015
Obviously the second half of the tweet may be tongue in cheek as both White and twitter guy know its fake.
One might assume the question was based on whether the UFC should go to the WWE model of placing its PPVs on Fight Pass like the WWE has done or whether the UFC should charge its fans a discounted rate for PPVs that do not have big stars appearing on them.
White told the twitter follower that wrestling is “fake” and one might read into that response that based on its scripted finish the price point should reflect accordingly. Still, the back and forth seems rather innocuous.
As with most of White’s tweets, it did not go unnoticed. WWE Champion Seth Rollins chimed in with a response to White’s “fake” comments.
Guys, cut @danawhite some slack. I mean he’s had a million matches, so his opinion is super valid and should be taken as gospel.
— Seth Rollins (@WWERollins) August 2, 2015
Fast forward to yesterday in which ESPN hosted Lesnar. The question which got MMA web sites to sit up at their keyboards and take notice was the now infamous White tweet that wrestling is fake. Lesnar responded with perhaps an honest response in stating that McMahon is a better promoter than Dana White and explained the differences between UFC and WWE.
Payout Perspective:
I would argue that the UFC and WWE business models are similar but not the same. It’s clear that the WWE has taken a big step with its WWE Network as opposed to what the UFC is doing with Fight Pass. The WWE received steep criticism from the outset with its plan as it essentially invested heavily into the over the top network while planning on moving its PPVs to the platform. Not only did this deteriorate its PPV business, it put off its previous distributing partners that received a revenue split from the PPVs. The distributors still receive a PPV cut, but it is less than before.
The question about whether UFC PPVs should be $9.99 needs to be addressed because it’s such an illogical question from the start. The UFC business model is predicated on the success of its PPVs. While the company receives revenue from event gates, merchandise and Fight Pass subscriptions among other revenue streams, PPVs remains one of the biggest pieces of the UFC financial pie. Starting this year, it increased its PPV price point $5 to $59.99 which likely meant an increase in PPV revenue. To suggest it cut UFC PPVs by $50 so more people can afford it seems way off the business model. Yet, it’s not wrong for someone on twitter to ask. And perhaps White’s response was appropriate as he was making the point that its business of real fighting is different from the WWE’s.
But, as with anything on twitter, it exploded into more. While most web sites, including this one, are picking up Lesnar’s comments, the underlying cause for the news is predicated on non-news. A question from someone on twitter that escalated. It’s an obvious commentary on the state of what is news nowadays.
ESPN picked up the twitter back and forth from White and asked Lesnar. Thus, what was an innocuous question about lowering PPV prices turned into Lesnar calling out White on ESPN. Of course, just a few months ago, Lesnar showed up in LA at UFC 184 with White and entertained thoughts of going back to the UFC. So, it’s unknown how personal White will take the slight. In the past, McMahon has taken swipes at the UFC with no response by White. One might expect nothing more to come of this since the WWE would like to have Ronda Rousey make another appearance at next year’s Wrestlemania in Dallas. Thus, a working relationship between the two companies is warranted for that to happen.
But then again, someone might ask another question of White on twitter which may once again be blown out of proportion.
Jason,
This is an interesting topic. At one time, the WWE was the king of PPV (outside of the odd big boxing event) as is the UFC now. When MMA – UFC – started to get more popular, the sport was able to match the wrestling PPV buy rates, eventually surpassing them.
The UFC holds far fewer events per year than the WWE, however, they are able to charge much more for event tickets and also charge much more for PPV. However, the WWE has made some bold moves with the new network with the intent of stabilizing revenues from their 12 major live events (in my opinion).
For argument sake, let’s take a look at 2014. in 2014 the WWE total revenues from all sources was around 540 million (http://ir.corporate.wwe.com/file.aspx?IID=4121687&FID=28495894&O=3&OSID=9), of which network revenues (WWE network/PPV buys) amounted to about 115 million. If we were to compare to this to the UFC in 2014, using the blue book numbers with an average charge of $50 per buy, we end up with 165 million (3.3 million buys x $50), of which about 82.5 million goes to the UFC. This is based on the assumption that there is a 50/50 split with cable/satellite and providers, this could be more or less in reality.
Based on the 2104 numbers, maybe it’s not a bad model after all? However, if we take a peak at 2015, UFC PPV numbers will easily double the 2014 numbers. Will the WWE model still look comparable in 2015? Possibly, they did recently boast that they have about 1.3 million subscribers and revenues for 2015 with respect to the network are gaining steam.
Dana is so desperate nowadays
Dw with the twitter tirade,lawsuit to scrutinize the financials,loan due,reebok deal negative image,union helping fighters….bubble about to burst hahahaha
The UFC did copy the WWE model; they are their own sanctioning body (They make and hand out their own internal belts and control who gets a shot at the title, unlike boxing where the external sanctioning bodies dictate rankings, contenders and hand out the belts), they also have their own commentators who do nothing but hype their product (just like the WWE does, unlike traditional boxing where the commentators work for the network and NOT for the promoter), they control every aspect of production just like the WWE, the build up to the fights are always full of ridiculous hyperboles & over the top stupidity, everything is always the ‘greatest ever’, the main differences are in the contracts which resemble the old boxing contracts from the 80s and that the fights are not scripted, everything else is “virtually identical” to the WWE, there’s even a clown president… Carnies-WWE-UFC, same lineage.
http://www.bloodyelbow.com/2015/8/19/9178995/ufc-exec-stitchs-reebok-comments-had-nothing-to-do-with-firing#comments. Hahahahaha….too late pr for ufc….
Logical you speak the truth, even wrestling has a better amateur product and development cycle than UFC. UFC is so desperate for mainstream attention they will have people fight with hardly any background for championships.
bahahaha just what Ive been saying all along!! wow the ufc has fallen into a hole headed by a twat that has no competition! Great sport guys thanks for all the bullshit!
http://mmajunkie.com/2015/08/brock-lesnar-talks-super-beast-ronda-rousey-a-super-athlete-in-a-weak-division
Fag Fan takes it up the ass at his local Buffalo Wild Wings.