WWE vs. UFC: Vince McMahon Shouldn't Worry This Friday Night

The debate has been going on for the past decade or so.

Who likes UFC? Who prefers WWE? Which is the better brand of entertainment? Who has the more dynamic performers to feature?

Obviously, I am on the WWE side of things. However, I am still a fan of the UFC. Both bosses are very similar and know what they are doing more often than not. My complete trust is with them, and I look forward to what each company will do in 2012.

This Friday night will be the first real test of the year for both companies.

Whether they are "competing" with each other or not is always questionable. One is "sports entertainment," while the other is an "action sport."

On Friday night, the new season of UFC' s The Ultimate Fighter will premiere live on FX. This week it will air during the second hour of WWE Smackdown. After that, it will air each week immediately after Smackdown until the finale in June.

As every week is the case, Smackdown will be on Syfy for two hours. Going against a live UFC "reality" show for the second hour this week (and once in June) will be very interesting to watch.

UFC fans will watch the Ultimate Fighter. WWE fans will watch Smackdown. There is no doubt on that one. My question is where do the fans of both brands fall in?

According to this report, WWE was rewriting their script for Smackdown, solely based on the UFC competition this Friday night. Vince McMahon may be a lot of things, but stupid is not one of them.

He (just like Dana White) knows what he is doing. Loading up the Blue Brand this week may seem like a great idea, but I am not sure how far the company should go.

The first factor is the usual "taped vs. live" issue. Smackdown will be taped, while UFC will be live. I have covered this in the past, but Smackdown has shown next to no effect on spoilers being out all week.

Some may deny it, but numbers don't lie. Spoilers haven't been a downfall whatsoever for Smackdown. Thus, I see no reason to care too much there.

The next issue is UFC's reality show itself. Even at its peak, Ultimate Fighter just never topped WWE's ratings. Some huge fight cards have on Spike TV, but I really don't see how much interest is left in their reality show in 2012.

The series averaged 1.5 million viewers last year (taped on Spike TV). During the past few months, Smackdown has been hovering around 3 million viewers on Fridays.

I could be way off here, but I don't see any way UFC beats WWE this Friday night or even comes close. Their PPV numbers may shatter WWE's these days, but television still belongs to Vince.

In conclusion, just keep an eye out for both shows. It will be interesting to see if UFC pulls out all the stops or if John Cena, Triple H or any other major star jumps to Smackdown for one week only.

Add in Kane vs. Aksana being teased, and you already have an interesting show this Friday.

On my end, I will definitely be watching Smackdown. My interest level in the Ultimate Fighter has dropped off in the past few years. Even with the show being live now, I wouldn't worry too much about how it will affect WWE...

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