25 Reasons the WWE Needs to Worry About the UFC

Just as the UFC is synonymous with MMA, the WWE is synonymous with professional wrestling. The two organizations are so similar but yet so different.

The UFC offers fans real combat as organised sport and the WWE offers sports entertainment. Arguably, both should have their own separate fan bases but they are always competing with one another.

There are a number of reasons for the recent fall from grace of the WWE while the UFC's popularity seemingly has no ceiling. This article aims to explain the reasons why one company continues to falter while another rises.

Weekly Programming Schedule

The WWE has arguably one of the worst programming schedules for their weekly shows.

Raw airs on Monday nights and while the NFL is in season there's no hope for good ratings. SmackDown airs on Friday nights on SyFy channel. I'll give you a moment to look through your TV guide to find the SyFy channel.

The UFC's Ultimate Fighter series airs on Wednesday nights which often times has less competition for ratings. This scheduling will change with the UFC's move to Fox but undoubtedly competing against a weekly sitcom is a lot easier than against Monday Night Football.

Public Perception of Athletes/Sports

Watch the above video and see the general public's view on people who like wrestling. When fans see a wrestler fall from the top turnbuckle or be put through a table, many of them simply say "Yeah well he knows how to fall."

While UFC fighters are looked at as mindless brutes, Dana White and the UFC are always making attempts to show that each athlete possess intelligence to go with their athletic ability.

The WWE's public perception also took a huge hit with a certain national media story... 

Chris Benoit

The Chris Benoit story was a public relations nightmare for the WWE. Everyone knows the gruesome details that were played over and over on national news channels.

The WWE has made attempts to erase Chris Benoit's even existence but the backlash created by the incident cannot simply be forgotten.

The equivalent to this event happening in the UFC is someone dying as result of a fight which has luckily been avoided. The UFC praises its referees on their ability to keep the combatants safe and with its new wellness policy for health insurance, the UFC clearly wants the safety of their fighters as a top concern.

UFC's PPV Plans

Dana White has repeatedly said the UFC plans on doing more and more events each and every year.

More events means more money for the UFC's pockets. They already do almost two pay-per-views a month with some months having a free event put in the middle.

Fans of both sports are going to have to make choices as to what event to pay for. With the UFC's popularity rising, more and more fans are going to be choosing UFC PPV's over WWE PPV's.

Low Buy Rates

The WWE's PPV buy rates have been steadily declining every year. The last major show was SummerSlam in August.

While the buy rate figures fluctuate depending on what site you're looking on, there's no question that the PPV buys are down from last year and 2009 as well. The show did roughly around 300,000 buys.

That's about the norm for a UFC show that doesn't feature a title fight. 300,000 buys isn't acceptable for one of the WWE's "Big Four" PPVs.

Wrestlemania and Losing Its' Appeal

The WWE's "Super Bowl" of wrestling happens once a year. It's wrestling biggest stage and to main event a WrestleMania is a career milestone every aspiring professional wrestler wants.

The problem with this show is that it's just once a year. WrestleMania is supposed to conclude major feuds while starting new ones. This past WrestleMania, besides the Undertaker-HHH match up seemed more like a monthly PPV.

Remember when wrestling's super show was super? Yeah me neither.

Jon Jones

Speaking of super, how about Jon Jones?

The future of MMA as he has been proclaimed, is a human highlight reel. He's also the youngest UFC champion in history.

The second bit is particularly important. While WWE's mega stars are older, Jones is just 24 years old. The WWE continues to struggle building young talent and the UFC is just starting the Jon Jones: Greatest of All Time hype train.

Whether or not Jones has the light heavyweight belt around his waist makes no difference, Jones will be one of the top five draws if the UFC continues to promote him the right way.

Attendance Figures

Let me run some numbers by you.

The UFC's recent event "UFC on Versus 6: Cruz vs Johnson"- 9,300

The WWE's recent PPV "Night Of Champions"- 11,000 fans

The UFC did virtually no advertisement for this bout while the WWE did weeks of hyping Night of Champions. Most of the money for these two organizations are made in PPV sales but live attendance still accounts for a sizable income.

The UFC is not only outdoing WWE in buy rates, but are catching up in attendance rates as well.

Women

One area WWE has been lacking talent in is their women's division. If you've had the pleasure of watching a WWE woman's match then you'll understand.

WWE used to have women who were not only beautiful but were also gifted athletes. Women like Trish Stratus, Lita and Chyna all had the looks and athletic skills that rivaled some of the men.

Although the UFC hasn't opened its' doors to women's MMA, when/if they do, they have a lot to work with. Girls like Gina Carano, Cris Santos and Miesha Tate all have looks to match their athletic talents.

The fact that WWE Divas have to take to twitter each week to defend their wrestling shows how far this division has fallen since the Attitude Era.

Lack of Competition for WWE

I'm a firm believer in the idea that you perform your best when facing competition.

The WWE has no competition (do not even begin to tell me TNA is a legit competitor with WWE).

Now am I calling Bellator a credible challenger to the UFC? Not at all. But Bellator puts on great shows and more than likely will be getting on Spike TV once the UFC leaves.

When WCW was challenging the WWE for ratings every Monday, you can't argue that WWE programming was at its best.

Accesibility of Training Facilities

When you watch the NFL or watch a baseball game, a lot of people go outside to play catch. The act of impersonating your favorite athlete is an activity that starts as a child and continues through adolescent years.

Fans can walk into any local MMA gym and immediately do the same training activities that their favorite fighters do. If you want to be a professional wrestler you're going to have to put in a lot of time to even step in a ring to perform in front of 20 people.

If Jon Jones was a professional wrestler he would still be taking down the ring after a local wrestling show.

And the ability to "do what the pros do" makes people connect with the sport easier. I can't tell you how many times I've had people train one week at my gym and say how they have a new found respect for the athletes.

Gimmicks

The WWE is scripted story lines based around wrestler's gimmicks. Some gimmicks take off (Stone Cold Steve Austin, The Rock) and some just fall flat (The Boogeyman, Isaac Yankmen). A good gimmick can make or break a wrestler's career.

Unfortunately for the WWE, most gimmicks for the new guys just aren't that good.

The UFC doesn't need gimmicks to succeed, although sometimes they do help (looking at you Mr. Sonnen). What the fighters say in interviews is who they are. When Rampage Jackson says he's coming to knock you out, you know he's going to be swinging.

UFC Is Real

People love to watch reality TV. Shows like The Real World and Survivor have been on for forever. The UFC is no exception.

Although it's not reality TV, the idea that what you are watching is real makes fans pay more attention. There aren't any scripted endings and a fight could end at any moment.

That and the fact there aren't any storyline spoilers floating around on the Internet means fans will have to tune in to see who wins.

Too Many PPVs

In a little over a month time span, the WWE will hold three PPVs. On Sept. 18th, Night of Champions occurred, Hell in a Cell is going on right now tonight on Oct. 2nd, and Vengence is scheduled to happen on Oct. 23rd.

That's an awful lot of money for the casual fan to drop considering these shows feature the same superstars.

The UFC can hold multiple shows a month because each card is different. It's not John Cena vs. CM Punk one month, then Cena vs. Punk II and now Cena vs. Punk vs. Alberto Del Rio the next. See the similarities?

The product needs to be different if the WWE expects its fans to drop $50 for each show.

Free Shows

What was the best part about UFC on Versus 6: Cruz vs. Johnson? The fact that it was on Versus.

The UFC routinely offers free events to the fans on an almost monthly basis. Granted most of these shows don't have the star power of its' PPVs, but they are free events non the less.

The WWE should offer a free PPV once in a while just to gain some new eyes to the program. It's obvious their PPV only system isn't working so things need to change in order to compete with the UFC for PPV buys.

Raw-Smackdown Rosters

Get rid of the separate brand gimmick. Seriously, get rid of it.

The days of the idea that superstars compete on one brand (Raw or Smackdown) only are long gone. Smackdown superstars are on Raw almost every Monday. The gimmick was neat at first and shook things up but it's time has come.

The UFC is experiencing the same sort of situation due to the recent acquisition of Strikeforce. Although Strikeforce fighters aren't under contract with the UFC specifically, many fans believe that soon the stars of Strikeforce will all be under the UFC banner.

One brand= less confusion.

The Fans

I know the guy in the picture is in now way indicative of the IQ level of the majority of MMA fans. But if you take away one thing from this picture, look at the passion.

Next time you watch a UFC PPV just listen to the fans. Whenever a fighter connects with a clean punch or finishes a fight, the crowd erupts into a loud roar.

Now listen to a WWE event and you can hear the grass growing outside the arena.

When the WWE was on top, the arenas were going nuts when their favorite superstars music hit. Now it feels like you need to be quiet because you're watching a dramatic play unfold.

The WWE needs to listen to its' fans if they want to win back some of the viewers they've lost.

Dana White

Dana White doesn't like to lose.

As you can see from the picture, White is focused on erasing every facet of competition in the MMA scene.

Pride FC, Elite XC, Affliction, and Strikeforce among others have all attempted to grab just a piece of the UFC's limelight. White has struck all of them down in his path to the top.

White will not sit idly by while other promotions beat the UFC in anything. If the WWE begins to gain some ground on the UFC's popularity, you can bet DW will be in the research lab figuring out a way to bring them back down.

Dana also listens to his fans. While each week Vince McMahon gets request to bring back the racy TV and promote real wrestlers and ignores them, White hears what fans want and generally gives them what they want.

Having the owner of your favorite promotion be a fight fan as well will always be a major plus for the UFC-WWE debate.

UFC on Fox

The UFC-Fox deal means the UFC will be exposed to even more viewers. The Spike TV deal worked for both sides as Spike TV gained a lot of viewers and the UFC was able to be on cable TV.

Now the UFC will be able to reach people on a national audience through Fox Sports.

The WWE meanwhile suffers from being on the USA Network and SyFy. I've already addressed the SyFy network previously so I'll give them a pass this time. I know the WWE tried moving away from the USA network at one time but if what you're doing now isn't working then it's time for a change.

The UFC realized they needed a change and made it. Why can't the WWE?

HHH

So here we are, the "top 5" reasons why the WWE needs to worry about the UFC.

In a recent interview, Triple H was quoted as saying he felt the UFC needed to evolve, not the WWE. According to HHH, the WWE never gives fans a boring show and always entertains. Sorry Trips, but Kelly Kelly and Super Cena aren't entertaining many people these days.

Normally these statements wouldn't cause much of a stir if any superstar said it. But this was HHH saying it. The man who many view as Vince McMahon's heir to the throne.

The WWE has continued to draw less and less each year but yet the man who will be running the show after Vince says they don't need to make a change.

Sounds like WWE is already tapping out.

The PG Era

The PG era undoubtedly contributed to the UFC taking over the top spot from the WWE. The UFC markets itself perfectly to its' demographics while the WWE is still struggling to reach theirs.

Ken Anderson recently spoke out against the PG era claiming that he doesn't understand how "we can have two guys that want to fight each other with half naked women running around" and still say it's meant to be family entertainment.

I agree with Mr. Anderson that I don't particularly care for the PG era either but I also believe, along with "Good Ole JR" Jim Ross that the lack of stars is more of a contributing factor.

The WWE may win over the kids with John Cena and Randy Orton, but eventually kids grow up.

Lack of Stars

I'll be the first to admit I grew up during the Attitude Era. I remember staying up past my bed time just to catch the last half hour of Raw is War because I knew something big was going to happen every week.

Whether it was Stone Cold giving everyone a beer bath, The Rock and Mick Foley showing us their lives, or Degeneration X making everyone laugh, every show was filled with star power.

Other than John Cena and Randy Orton, who are the other stars that can step up if need be?

The UFC isn't dependent on stars like the WWE is. If GSP or Anderson Silva were to lose their next fight it would actually make their divisions more exciting.

If Cena were to not wrestle another match the WWE would be bankrupt.

John Cena

John Cena is the face of the WWE right now.

As such he is pretty much attempting to win or defend the WWE title on almost every PPV.

Now this slide is not meant to start a "John Cena is the death of wrestling" debate. I'm bringing him up here to talk about how he is headlining every show. If he wasn't forced down the throats of so many WWE fans he may be more popular.

Also the fact that Cena loses and wins the title on a weekly basis the records of the wrestling greats such as Ric Flair and HHH seem meaningless.

Guys like George St. Pierre and Anderson Silva may bore fans due to their dominance of their division, but at least we don't have to watch them every single UFC PPV.

John Cena Pt. 2

I'm not trying to pick on John, I'm really not. The WWE Universe does a pretty good job of that for me.

The main reason the WWE needs to concern itself with the UFC is Cena. Not because Cena is going to leave or can't draw fans. It's because he IS the WWE. If Cena for some reason were to have a career ending injury, the WWE wouldn't be able to survive.

In the Attitude Era we saw Stone Cold Steve Austin leave, The Rock left and Shawn Michaels among others all left for a period of time. The large depth of talent allowed the WWE to move forward without losing much steam.

The WWE has no star power beyond Cena or Randy Orton.

The UFC has seen their main PPV draw (Brock Lesnar) be beaten to a bloody mess and yet they moved on to the next event without a hitch.

A Fateful Decision

Years ago Vince McMahon made a decision that he may live to regret for the rest of his life.

He allowed The Ultimate Fighter Season 1 to air following Raw on Monday nights.

The WWE programming lead straight into the UFC's new reality show that would eventually launch the promotion into the mainstream media. The McMahons may not be suffering in their wallet right now, but in a few years time one has to wonder what the WWE world will look like.

One thing is for certain, the UFC will still be king.