UFC Buys PRIDE: How it Can Avoid WWE's Mistakes

The news that Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) has bought its top competitior, PRIDE Fighting Championship, has been met with excitement and trepidation.

This could be great news, leading to exciting fights and high interest in both companies. However, it could also lead to missed opportunities, millions of dollars down the drain and the destruction of PRIDE.

As an announcer of both mixed martial arts and pro wrestling, I heard this news and immediately thought of World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) and its purchase of World Championship Wrestling (WCW) in 2001.

Everybody was going bonkers with excitement back then, because of the possibilities of seeing Sting, Goldberg and other WCW stars battle the big boys of WWE. However, before too long, the WCW Invasion went off the tracks.

The first mistake was the storyline "ownership" of WCW by Shane McMahon. By making WCW a prop in the feud that was going on at the time between Vince and his father, Shane, fans weren't able think of WCW as the strong promotion it one was.

The next mistake was the debut of WCW during the final 15 minutes of a Raw episode that summer. After switching announcers and referees, the WWE presented a slow, boring match between Buff Bagwell and Booker T that was booed out of the building.

The WWE tried to juice up the Invasion by adding ECW to the mix, but that idea took a wrong turn when Stephanie McMahon was revealed as the new ECW owner.

So the first thing UFC needs to learn is to avoid advertising that PRIDE is now under its control. If fans liked PRIDE the way it was, don't mess with it.

During the Invasion, the WWE moved Stone Cold Steve Austin to the WCW/ECW group (which was dubbed "The Alliance"). Suddenly everyone in WCW and ECW was portrayed as a disciple of Austin. This led to some funny stuff, like the wrestlers singing "Wind Beneath My Wings" to Austin, it didn't allow the fans to take anyone else in the Alliance seriously.

That means the second lesson for UFC is to emphasize that PRIDE is a strong promotion with a deep roster of unique stars. If PRIDE is portrayed as Dan Henderson, Fedor Emelianenko and a bunch of other guys, those "other guys" will not be able to make money for UFC.

The WWE didn't allow the Invasion storyline to last more than six months before squashing the Alliance in a "Winner Take All" match at Survivor Series 2001. The message to the fans was "WWE is the better promotion, and it always was."

History is always written by the winners. UFC can claim to be the best, but it would be foolish to push PRIDE to the back burner. One of my high school friends recently told me that he and his buddies like PRIDE better than UFC. Their money is just as green as those of UFC fans.

Finally, it would be great to see a UFC vs. PRIDE "Super Bowl" type show. If UFC plays its hand properly, it can keep both groups strong before and after such a mega-event. Let's see if they can pull it off.