A couple of years ago, there was a Saturday/Sunday morning show that was basicly a WWF style show with martial artists instead of wrestlers and targeted for little kids. The Power Rangers fans. It sucked, not least of all because every single "fighter" used exactly the same moves even though they were listed as knowing different styles.
The question is, if they targeted it for adults, with good story lines and cool fights, could it work?
Problem:
A martial arts fight is very difficult to plan and work out. Where wrestlers use a set number of moves and can improvise in the spot, martial arts have to be planned out and practiced in advance.
Bonus:
Martial arts fights are much more complex and cool to watch.
Basically, when Ultimate Fighting Championship was first formed in the early 90's, it's premise was no holds barred fighting between different disciplines (wrestling vs. kickboxing, sumo vs. Brazilian jiu-jitsu, boxing vs. tae-kwon-do, etc.). However, after media pressure and legislation threatened the group's existence, it has evolved to the point where all fighters use pretty much the same style, although it is still considered a Mixed Martial Arts promotion. Other groups like PRIDE and Pancrase have evolved in the same way. If you're really interested, I'd recommend checking out the following fights for starters:
Royce Gracie vs. Kimo (UFC3)
Royce Gracie vs. Dan Severn (UFC4)
Rickson Gracie vs. Zulu (Brazil)
Renzo Gracie vs. Eugenio Tadeau (Pentagon Combat)
Mark Coleman vs. Maurice Smith (UFC14)
Tank Abbott vs. Don Frye (UUFC'96)
Randy Coutre vs. Vitor Belfort (UFC15)
Frank Shamrock vs. Enson Inoue (Japan Vale Tudo '97)
Frank Shamrock vs. Tito Ortiz (UFC22)
Royce Gracie vs. Ken Shamrock (UFC1)
But to answer your question, it can and has worked for some time now, despite the many obstacles involved in running a NHB promotion. I just don't think it could work if the fights are worked. What would be the point?
Edited By Sir O on April 08 2002 at 3:15
i just went and downloaded various clips from the UFC. one was "awesome knockouts", this shit is crazy. and i have two others, one focuses on this japanese guy with light orange tights, and he is awesome. and the other is of bas rutten, who just destroys guys in the video i have.
I remember that show Arthur. It was pretty cool.
Do you remember the name of it offhand because I'm drawing a blank on it.
As for your idea, I'm not sure if enough people are into martial arts to keep viewer interest.
The reason UFC went to everyone using the same "style" is because the grapplers ALWAYS win. Take a boxer or a Tai Kwan Do guy and tackle 'em and you win.
If you want to have a really cool stand-up fight like Blood Sport, it would HAVE to be faked. You'd need an expert corigrapher to make it work.
If you threw in some storylines and got guys like Ken Shamrock, it would be entertaining, but I think you'd ony be able to do one show a month because of all the time to practice the fights.
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I don't remember the name of the show, just that they fought for medallians for the chance to win the "Dragon Belt" and Bruce Lee's daughter Shannon was one of the hosts.
I think you might be thinking of WMAC Masters. That show had story lines and a ladder to get to a championship match. Plus there were cool fight locations.
i remember that show. some dude taught another some secret kick as long as he promised to never use it on him, but in the fight the guy used it to win, and they became enemies.
alkey calls me karate-twat {
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Quote:I think you might be thinking of WMAC Masters. That show had story lines and a ladder to get to a championship match. Plus there were cool fight locations.
Yeah, that's it. You forgot the <table style=filter:glow(color=RED)>NINJAS</table>. Who, like any good ninja, knew how to get their buts kicked by the "stars".
A friend of mine trains with Royce Gracie, the guy is amazing. Grappling is definitely a powerful martial art but boring when it becomes the only style on UFC. I want to see mixed styles with punching, kicking, and the whole nine. Submission is just no fun.
In WMAC I rememeber that episode where the guy used the kick and like 2 weeks later he used it again as a show of good faith or something. Also there was one episode where a ninja came into the final battle and kicked both contender and champion off and thought he deserved the Dragon Star but I stopped watching after that and I don't know what happened with that plot.
eph:
There is an organization called FMW, or Frontier Martial Arts Wrestling. You can check in out at tokyopop.com. It's ECW laced with martial arts, I like it a lot and maybe some of you will too.
Unfortunately, FMW folded earlier this year. During the early to mid 90's, they were probably one of the most influential wrestling organizations on the planet, with the use of electrified cages, barbed wire, mines, beds of nails, exploding ring matches, etc. A lot of their tamer concepts were "borrowed" by Paul Heyman in ECW, and then by Vince in the WWF, in addition to smaller feds like Big Japan, CZW, and XPW going the ultra-hardcore route. It can all be traced back to Atsushi Onita and FMW.
Of course, watching FMW will give you a clear view of just how pussified the WWF "Hardcore" division really is.
I was not aware of their folding. I bought one of their DVD's on a whim. It was some of the most hard-core wrestling I had ever seen. Anyone who has never seen the FMW should. I have three of their DVDs and I don't intend on ending my purchases until I have them all. There is another hard-core federation, it's XPW Xtreme Pro Wrestling.
No matter how big the WWF is, there will always be a smaller federation that will give the fans what they want. However, FMW was truely unique and the news is disappointing.
Edited By The Dragon on April 12 2002 at 8:26