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JR's Blog: UFC 129/Toronto Thoughts..RAW is Knoxville..John Morrison..Order Now For Memorial Day Grilling Needs from J.R.'s

Posted: May 11th 2011 By: CMBurnham

Here's hoping everyone is having a great day and thanks for stopping by our website. Let's grill.....

Random thoughts on every thing from UFC 129 to Monday Night Raw to grilling ideas and more:

The hard working people at UFC are to be commended for promoting such a successful extravaganza recently in Toronto. TO was the perfect city for UFC to have their first stadium show as UFC was able to make a huge splash in the market, media wise, plus key UFC executives have strong Toronto/Canada ties that helped promote the live event and subsequently helped sell what one has to assume was a large number of PPV's in Canada.

With no hockey to compete with and with the baseball season so young, UFC was able to position their event as essentially the biggest, sporting event in the city of the year which means by and large the biggest sporting event in the country if one buys into the fact that Toronto is THE media market in Canada.

Point being is that UFC made a sound, strategic call on selecting Toronto as the host city for their stadium event.

This logic will be imperative to have in place for future stadium shows that UFC decides to promote.

Some observations on UFC 129 (BTW for future stadium shows giving the event a theme name/subtitle other than a number ala UFC 129 is essential for marketing):

The event felt special but between rounds, on entrances, and in other non 'bell to bell' moments, UFC could have benefited by shooting the expansive crowd more. It's imperative to continue to reiterate how big the gathering was which helps validate the overall growth of the brand and the genre. Size matters to TV viewers. Take a look back at the 'beauty shots' at the Super Bowl and Wrestlemania.

More backstage pieces of business would be welcomed by most viewers to enhance he 'live event feel.' Fighters arriving is on the money but so would short, sound byte oriented pre fight interviews as they help build heightened anticipation which is and always will be viable for MMA fans.

Personally, I love to have to fight to hear the announcers over the crowd which makes me feel as if I'm more emotionally invested in what I'm seeing on TV for my PPV dollars.

A tip of the hat to UFC for their new fighter's insurance referendum. Many fighters seem to need ample help in managing their lives and this aspect of their life is imperative to address. Very strategic maneuver by UFC notwithstanding it is the right thing to do.

The UFC is akin to the NFL as it relates to being able to utilize colleges as prime recruiting ground. By bringing more college educated, high character, world class athletes into MMA, UFC positions itself well for the long haul as I feel the evolution of MMA will begin to migrate away from the handful of men with questionable character who are generally tattooed from head to toe and were formerly sponsored by such auspicious entities as 'Condom Depot.' (For the record, I have no issues with tattoos or with Condom Deport but some big time, big money sponsors do.)

Point here is that the insurance issue, the recruiting of top amateur talents, the move to stadium events on a timely basis all points to the long term growth of MMA as it continues to establish itself as a major sport around the Globe. With long term growth comes necessary changes in corporate infrastructure especially with the backup plans for key, decision makers as no one is immune to misfortune as it relates to health, etc.

I would be extremely selective if I were UFC about running stadium events. Utilizing a NFL stadium during the NFL season is iffy. These stadium events need to be positioned as the biggest event in the market and that will not happen if UFC is competing with the local NFL team who plays in the same stadium. Any thing significantly less than a full stadium, even though the gross ticket sales number would likely be impressive, can become fodder for a negative spin by less than supportive media.

UFC 129 was a major success story and injected tons of cash into the Toronto market. That data can be utilized in a major way as UFC promotes other markets especially stadiums.

Bottom line, and this will never change IMO in the MMA world (or boxing or wrestling), is that every event is attraction driven, or should we say 'attractions' driven, and when taking unpredictable injuries into the equation it's obvious that every stadium event has to be 'stacked' with a minimum of two main events and hopefully another nice personal issue or two. In other words, UFC stadium shows need to be packaged with enough diversity to appeal to marketable ethnicities, IE Hispanic stars in Hispanic marketplaces ala Houston, and ticket prices that can appeal to all budgets.

More.....

Monday Night Raw was an interesting, two hour broadcast. Thought the Lawler stuff was the most compelling content of the night other than Cole invoking the Mother's Day dialog that I found to be uncomfortable. Having been to the rodeo a time or two, I realize that was obviously Cole's intention.

The Triple Threat Main Event was executed very well. Really good, TV main event.

WWE promoting Smackdown inside Raw was strategic and timely. Nice positioning. It also tells me that Christian losing the World Title wasn't any where near his 'professional, death knell' as some fans declared and that Christian just may be set for a significant period of time of his career especially considering the overall lack of depth within the business, as we speak.

I see Christian becoming much more viable than he has been in the past and it seems that him losing the World Title has ignited that theory.

Good news on John Morrison's surgery to repair a neck issue. Not major or overly invasive and Morrison should be back in the ring in a month or two or so we assume. John would be best served to return later rather than sooner, make sure that he's 100%, at a minimum, not to mention it would be cool seeing him on Raw rehabbing himself back into ring shape which builds anticipation for his return. One suggestion to Morrison is to watch various Shawn Michaels bouts from different times of HBK's career to see how Shawn kept reinventing himself in route to becoming the best in the business.

I can't believe I still get asked questions on the dated 'Beyond the Mat' production. A recent Q&A on this site asked if my comment about not caring who wins or loses pro wrestling matches as much as caring about having a butt every 18 inches meant that I did not respect wrestling fans. WTH? Let's put it this way, back in the day when John Wayne made western films I did not get too wrapped up in whether 'The Duke' made it out of the film alive, wounded or not as long as the performance was good and the story that was told was on the money. If a guy wins a stinker, it's still a stinker but if two men have an off the page performance doesn't the match presentation trump who wins or loses?

Plus, I'm still waiting on some sort of payment, a DVD, any thing for the time and effort I put into the production that we all know made some people money.

As soon as I can meet with our webmaster, some prices, especially the Beef Jerky prices, will be increased. Good week to order ahead of any price increases and to get your goods for your Memorial Day cookouts.

I made a hamburger topping by using low fat Miracle Whip, JR's Chipotle Ketchup and sweet pickle relish recently that was so good I couldn't sit still and eat it.

The winner of the grilled hot dog topping has to be our Main Event Mustard, Chipotle Ketchup, chopped onion and the relish of one's choice.

If you are reading this outside the USA, remember that we do NOT ship outside America but http://www.wweshop.com does ship JR's products to a variety of countries outside out borders including the UK and Canada.

Thanks for all your support and for paying us a visit. We now have over 145,000 Twitter followers and invite you to join us @JRsBBQ.

Boomer Sooner!

J.R.

Tags: Jim Ross