15 Days That Changed Wrestling Forever (6)

6. The UFC Becomes The New King Of Monthly PPV, December 30th 2006

The history of monthly sports entertainment pay per views was defined by Vince McMahon. Next came Eric Bischoff before Vince seized control again in 1998, and it should now be Stephanie McMahon and Triple H alongside Vince ensuring the WWE remains the king of pay per view.
That hasn’t happened. Instead WWE’s traditional PPV business has stagnated before declining severely. Lucrative TV deals have minimised the impact, but it has been hard for McMahon to take given how personally he takes the business.
Ironically, as WWE declined, a new promoter by the name of Dana White emerged. Claiming to have borrowed Vince’s business model, White took over the failing cage fighting promotion UFC and turned it into the biggest monthly pay per view business in America. Like it or not MMA fans, White achieved his success by marketing the UFC product in a way that appealed as sports entertainment. From entrances to encouraged storylines, the UFC has WWE hallmarks all over its product. Even their reality show The Ultimate Fighter is a rehash of WWF Tough Enough from 2001.
The UFC and WWE maintain that they are not in competition but the emergence of UFC undoubtedly had an impact on the wrestling business. There have been weekends where I have only been able to buy one PPV and have opted for UFC over WWE. They are in competition for my money because I engage to the feuds in both content. Was Ortiz vs Shamrock or Silva vs Sonnen really that far removed from a WWE feud in its marketing and promotion? No. White’s genius was to take MMA competition and give it a narrative edge. The business then skyrocketed.
The signal that made Vince McMahon sit up and take notice was when UFC 66 Liddell Vs Ortiz popped over a million PPV buys in December 2006. Earlier that year UFC had also done over 600k buys and was establishing a patten of well bought events. WWE meanwhile were struggling to top 300k. UFC had became the hot pop culture sensation which WWE was in the late 90s. From 06 to 2011 the UFC dominated college dorms and water cooler conversation. Males 18 to 35 were obsessed with it, and when former WWE star Brock Lesnar debuted it was clear — Dana White had made the UFC the new WWE.