Yeah, but who the hell DIDN’T know that it was fake? I would’ve been more surprised if they admitted under oath that it wasn’t.
That last part’s pretty much true for all sports, though, isn’t it?
This is the doing of the owners, not “The NFL.”
What’s the UCI?
I’m not going to commend it at all for being the most successful marketing machine in sports. I get a little tired of constantly being sold something during a telecast, not the least of which is a game which isn’t particularly appealing to me any more.
For U.S. sports leagues, certainly. Pony up, all you cities! Loyalty is a one-way street.
I daresay that MMA is “real wrestling” for all intents and purposes, and it’s certainly done alright.
The Darts governing body was so bad that about 20 years ago all of the best players left to start their own Organisation and run the sport themselves.
It’s done well so far, but its ruling bodies are awful. It’s regulated by state boxing commissions, many of which know little about it and at least several of which actively dislike it. Recycled boxing judges judge ground fighting that they don’t understand…it’s a mess outside of a few select states.
I know that this is a USA-centric board, but could some of our European Dopers expound on this? I have heard that Bernie was one of the most corrupt individuals in sports, but I don’t know any particulars.
NASCAR, on the other hand, is pretty much a family run operation which keeps a tight grip on all decisions in the sport. They have expanded out of the South pretty well, but are fighting to remain relevant by messing with the championship format. This has alienated a lot of long-time fans, and has not attracted as many fans as they had wanted.
Yeah, I guess it’s really the only practical way you could HAVE real wrestling as a professional sport. There’s really no room for anything else in the marketplace now.
An interesting question would be this; would MMA have exploded in popularity had boxing not completely self-immolated? I have a feeling the answer is no, but who knows.
I find this question interesting. On the one hand, I firmly believe that boxing could have survived all the corruption; it was moving all the fights to pay per view that killed it dead. On the other hand, MMA is (and has always been) mostly a pay per view thing.
I can’t really wrap my head around it, to be honest.
Martin Garcia, the American who did the investigating of FIFA FOR FIFA, says that their report does not agree with what he told them. And now the German Bundesliga President is demanding release of the full Garcia report.
(Emphasis mine.)
MMA is definitely working to get away from that model, though. The #2 promotion in MMA, Bellator, has all of its fights free on Spike (basic cable) except for one or two PPV events. And the UFC’s deal with Fox makes for double-digit free cards per year, which paired with their habit of running prelim fights for free on Facebook, is making for (I think) a gradual migration away from the “10-15 huge PPV cards per year” business model. There are just too many fighters and too many fights for that anymore.
Boston has made the playoffs one time in the last five years, Dodgers and Yankees combined have one WS win in the last 15 years, Angels have one win in their history.
It depends a lot on what pro wrestling you’re watching, and who. But yes, in general, pro wrestling doesn’t have much “wrestling” in the sense of grappling, holds, transitions, things like that. There are certainly some wrestlers who use those (Kurt Angle and Jack Swagger come to mind, along with Brock Lesnar), especially those who came from a college or amateur wrestling background.
Alot of the Japanese wrestlers mostly focus on strikes, as well as American wrestlers who imitate that style (like CM Punk).
The other big difference is in how submissions are handled. In MMA, once the submission is locked in, generally the opponent taps out immediately because he doesn’t want every joint in his arm dislocated. In pro wrestling, of course, it’s all about the drama, and so “devastating submission” holds are sometimes locked in for a minute or more before the opponent taps. On a few occasions, the victim of the move refuses to tap out long enough that he “passes out from the pain” in order to show what a tough bastard he is.
No. The problem with figure skating was that it involves judging outside of competition. Read Inside Edge and you’ll see what I mean. Judges already knew who they wanted to win from watching practices and exhibitions and scored according to that. Why do you think they had to change it completely around to make it a points based system?
Randy Savage could win a title match by using exactly zero wrestling moves in the ring: he’d throw punches and land the occasional kick, and deliver a knee strike and an elbow strike without even bothering to go for the pin because (a) the other guy just got counted out, soon after a (b) DOUBLE AXE-HANDLE OFF THE TOP TURNBUCKLE!
NASCAR I think is in the running for an award as the governing body that is driving their sport into second class status.
Watch a NASCAR race and look at the stands. They aren’t full, hell in many cases they aren’t even close.
NASCAR seems to be trying to emulate the lack of success pioneered by USAC/CART/INDYCAR who took the Indy 500 from the great spectacle in motor race to part of a ho hum series.
I’m not sure how much of this is NASCAR’s fault though. The tracks are primarily owned by two publically traded corporations (ISC and SMI). Those companies set the ticket prices at their tracks and both reacted late to the 2007/08 economic downturn (although SMI reacted sooner and IMHO better). NASCAR has some control over the schedule, but also has contractual obligations to the trackowners that hamper the wholesale shifting of races to more exciting venues. I think the ratings are more a function of the increased competition from other sports along with a general lack of compelling personalities to inspire interest. None of that is really under the governing body’s control.
That is exactly it. I stopped watching and following boxing when you couldn’t see any decent fights without paying a ton of money. UFC has done a much better job of it balancing PPV and free broadcasts.
It’s still real to me!