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Elite XC MMA debuts on Showtime

Showtime beat HBO to the MMA punch tonight by televising a MMA event under the Elite XC banner. The card, headlined by Frank Shamrock vs. Renzo Gracie, was fairly entertaining and the organization–as well as Showtime’s MMA production efforts–show much promise.

First of all, I really hate the name of the organization. Elite XC, short for “Elite Xtreme Combat” sounds like to should be a energy drink or bodybuilding supplement. Plus, they deserve major heat for using the word “extreme”–and even worse, its ‘edgy’ variant with the X. MMA in general is at a crossroads trying to figure out if they’re “extreme” like pro wrestling or a real sport like boxing. This isn’t meant as a dis on the sport or the competitors–obviously if you’ve read my stuff you should have figured by now that I’m a huge MMA fan–but is really the fault of the US fight organizations themselves, along with the TV networks responsible for promoting them. On one level, going after the pro wrestling demographic isn’t a bad business decision. US pro wrestling is by and large unwatchable now. The major organizations–the WWE and TNA–have some exciting young talent like CM Punk and Samoa Joe but they’re the exception rather than the rule. So I’m being charitable by saying that 90% of US pro wrestling is now unwatchable. I’m sure some pro wrestling geek will call me on that, so I guess that I should qualify that as the WWE owned brands and TNA. ROH (Ring of Honor) puts out a good product, but since they don’t have national TV exposure I’ll stand by my previous statement.

As tempting as it might be for MMA to chase the pro wrestling demographic, they do so at their peril. For one thing, the serious pro wrestling demographic has always been into MMA and will be along for the ride anyway. Hardcore US wrestling fans were the first to notice the fledging UFC back in the day, after all. MMA is at the proverbial fork in the road–one path leads to the land of failed sports entertainment concepts like Rollergames, American Gladiators, the XFL, Celebrity Boxing, etc. The other path leads toward acceptance as a serious sport where MMA could exist alongside boxing as an alternative “combat sport”. The momentum is pushing MMA toward “real sport” status and deservedly so, but its still early enough in the game that the parties responsible for promoting the sport can still screw it up.

I didn’t have much hope for the Elite XC show from the outset, when they revealed a big stage prop of a smoke breathing dragon head. It looked like a metallic version of the thing that Ricky Steamboat wore on his head during his late career stint in the WWF and WCW, but even more ridiculous. The fighters walked out of the ‘mouth of the dragon’ and into the ring. Now I don’t begrudge the organization for trying to make things theatrical–I am a sucker for the flashy PRIDE ring entrances after all–but this reeked of something that Eric Bishoff would have thrown a lot of money for a “Clash of the Champions” show during the height of his spendthrift ways at the helm of WCW.

Lead announcer Mauro Renaldo did a decent job after he made the unpardonable sin of mangling an Elvis reference (saying something to the effect that “Elvis grew up in Memphis with the dream of being a singer” when everyone knows that “The King” grew up in Tupelo, MS). He then introduced his color man, none other than BILL GOLDBERG! Now, I like Bill Goldberg–he made the most of his situation after his pro football career went south, he’s a huge animal lover and a rottweiler owner. He didn’t do a disastrous job on commentary (aside from his frequent observations that he was bigger and/or tougher than the fighters) but his whole pro wrestling iconography is the last thing the organization or the sport needs. Jay Glazer rounded out the on-air team–I’m not sure if he’s done any live MMA broadcasts before but he was competent and since he’s served as co-host of the Fox Sports PRIDE highlight shows he seems to know his MMA. Actually, the other bad thing that Renaldo did–which might have been good announcing practice, but was horrible in this setting–was to make reference to Goldberg’s career to try to bring him into the conversation. The lowlight of this was his reference of Goldberg’s “worked” 170 match pro wrestling winning streak. Throwing out a serious reference to what was essentially a wrestling “angle” like Jim Lampley would throw out some obscure observation about Carmen Basillio’s fights against Gene Fullmer may have been the most “cringe worthy” moment of the show.

The good news is that after this less than promising intro, it began to look like a Showtime boxing broadcast. “Classy” Jimmy Lennon, Jr. handled the ring intros and the rest of the production package looked like a by the book boxing event. “Crazy Horse” Charles Bennett came to the ring talking on his celly phone, which had the air of a pro wrestling heel entrance but that’s just the way he is. I thought it was TNA’s Ron “The Truth” Killings for a moment. He broke off a couple of nice moonsaults off the top of the cage in celebration after winning his match. Aside from Bennett’s cellphone antics, the rest of the fighter intros and entrances were by the book. It was slightly odd to see Herb Dean and Steve Mazzagatti officiating since they’ve become so closely associated with the UFC (especially the dreadlocked Dean) but they’ve served as refs in other groups.

One thing that came off really well is something the UFC should pay attention to and emulate–whether or not they end up buying PRIDE. The announcers made frequent references to fighters’ accomplishments and bouts in other organizations. The cynics view on this is that for a new organization there’s no reason not to do this but that for the UFC it legitimizes and promotes their competition. Of course that might make sense for a pro wrestling promotion, but not if the goal is to have MMA taken seriously as a real sport. This is very common in boxing, for example, and it not only makes your fighters seem more impressive but shows a lot of respect for the fans (many of whom know this stuff already). Having Jimmy Lennon, Jr. introduce Frank Shamrock as the “former King of Pancrase and former UFC middleweight champion” gave the main event an air of greater significance and is one of those subtle touches that distinguishes a sport from “sports entertainment”.

The main event ended in somewhat disappointing fashion when Herb Dean DQ’d Shamrock and awarded the match to Renzo Gracie after he suffered a concussion from an illegal knee strike. Obviously its not the way the organization or Showtime wanted it to end, but Dean made the right call in this situation. The rest of the action was solid, if not spectacular. It certainly wasn’t any worse than many of the UFC “Fight Night” undercard events. The standout match of the event was something of a surprise and could have a significant impact on the future of the sport. At the very least, it could serve as an unexpected “unique selling proposition” for the new promotion and Showtime. We’ll devote the next blog post to this…

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