Last Updated on: 17th April 2014, 10:00 am
It was announced today thatUFC and WEC are merging into one organization.I don’t know how the rest of the world feels about it yet, but I couldn’t be happier. If this is done right, every UFC event just became a must see, which is a nice feeling when there are so many of them. The bantamweight and featherweight divisions that WEC is known for have been responsible for some of the best fights I’ve ever seen, so slapping a couple of those onto every UFC card can do nothing but good.
I’m sure there are reasons why this hasn’t been done before now, but I’m kind of surprised it took this long. As much as I’ve loved the WEC shows the last few years, it didn’t make sense for Zuffa to run them as separate companies especially after they started folding divisions into the UFC a couple years ago. It would be different if they were using WEC as a showcase for fighters on their way up like Strikeforce does with the Challengers Series, but that’s never really seemed to be the plan. the guys in WEC deserve the chance to fight on the big stage and make some better money, and I’m glad they’re getting it. The only thing I’d suggest now is add some women’s fights if the talent is out there. The talent definitely exists and a lot of it is in Strikeforce, but there has to be more where that came from.
I’m sure that there will be some talent cuts which is sad, but if you’re working there now and are fighting like you’re any good you probably won’t have anything to worry about. UFC has always been about trying to put on the best possible fights, so unless you’re putting people to sleep with your 15 minute lay on a dude and hump him clinics you’re more than likely not going anywhere.
Switching gears, TNA Reaction…is it really necessary? I get why some people like the concept and I probably would to if Impact wasn’t Impact. In the hands of Ring Of Honor Reaction would be an awesome idea, because Ring Of Honor’s programming consists almost entirely of wrestling. After 2 hours of Impact where there’s almost nothing but talking most weeks, the last thing I want to watch is another hour of talking. Maybe if most of Impact was good talking that made sense and was building to something that could possibly be cared about it would be different, but that’s not going to happen until Vince Russo and anybody who thinks his ideas are anything but stupid are fired. TNA’s booking is such a mess that I don’t want to “pick up where Impact leaves off,” because half the time I can’t figure out where in hell we’re supposed to be starting. Because of this I have no use for Reaction, no matter how innovative it might be.