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  • Is Reebok best for UFC’s business?

    The UFC is in the business of selling fights, number one.  Anything earned elsewhere is gravy, but too much gravy smothers the turkey.  UFC has made a variety of branding decisions that will earn them a ton of money in the short term, but it may hurt the product in the long run.  I’m not the first person to point any of these things out, but it begs repeating.  Choosing the Reebok brand is bad for business.

    Reebok is a weak brand.  The Reebok Company is most closely associated with basketball.  Their famous Reebok Pump sneaker put them on the map in the 80’s, but it’s a basketball shoe.  If UFC couldn’t sign Nike or Adidas, they shouldn’t have bothered with branding.  It’s third tier sports apparel at best.  Sure, Reebok paid the most, but Nike is number one, and so is UFC.  They sold themselves short.  Kids don’t want to buy Reebok stuff.  It’s not cool. 

    Reebok created the most boring fighter wear ever.  This most recent TUF episode showcased exactly why the Reebok deal is making the product lame duck.   The first fight of this show featured two average looking men, both from Team Europe, both sporting crew cuts, both wearing gray trunks, and both executing some pretty average fighting skills.  Not to harp on the fight, because fights can be boring, and TUF is essentially a training camp, but the fight was in no way helped by the drab gray trunks.  We all know personalities sell fights.  How are these guys supposed to display any uniqueness when dressed exactly the same?  Not only did the UFC upset almost everyone by eliminating their ability to get sponsors, but they also took away any individuality that a fighter may have displayed via their trunks. 

    Reebok chose some horrible colors.  Black with white, or white with black are your only uniform options as a UFC fighter.  These things seriously look like the original “biker” short of the 80s.  They are unflattering and worse, the same for everyone.  I’m assuming they will start to expand with colors, but so far, six months into the rebranding, it’s terrible.  The fighters are generic and hard to tell apart for a casual fan.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m not a fan of the NASCAR style trunks prior to Reebok, but a fighter’s colors are important.  It’s part of the individual fighter’s brand.  Fans remember colors.  I loved Bret Hart because he wore pink and I thought that made him tough.  I hated Cheick Kongo because he wore blue Muay Thai trunks with the silly drawstring.   The point is that I remember the fighter because of the specificity of the outfit.  I couldn’t pick Marcin Wrzosek out of a line-up and I’ve watched every episode of TUF 22. 

    The corner men are now wearing pajamas.  Have you seen these outfits up close?  They’re paper-thin.  Remember when Lulu Lemon made those see-through yoga pants?  I guess Reebok bought the template.  The corner men look like they’re getting ready to go to sleep in the 20’s.  All they need is one of those starched up long pointy hats.

    Finally, the Reebok emblem looks like a vagina.  Am I the only person who has pointed this out?  I can’t be.  Maybe it’s because I live with a doctor that specializes in women’s health, and thus I have a model of a vagina in my house of which to compare, but it looks exactly like one of those models I’ve seen on my kitchen table.  For those of you who don’t know anatomy, it looks specifically like the uterus.  The vagina is technically the canal from the external to the internal reproductive organs.  

    Bonus Bad Branding:  NOS Energy Drink.  NOS is terrible.  The term “nos” was first brought into the nomenclature of Americana with the prestigious Fast and Furious movies. Paul Walker and Vin Diesel spoke the word “nos” a combined total of 457 times in that first movie.  It is the energy drink most closely associated with supercharged douche bags.  A few episodes ago on TUF, we saw Team USA dousing each other with NOS drinks after a victory, like the KC Royals after winning the World Series.  NOS cans are displayed at every opportunity in the UFC.  Yes, the UFC and the Fast and Furious franchise have a lot of crossover audience, but again NOS is a bottom of the barrel energy drink behind Monster, Rock Star, and Red Bull (probably not in that order).  Not only does NOS taste terrible, but also the only people who actually drink NOS are guys who wear Axe Body Spray, and Danny Bonaduce.

    UFC is trying to be the NFL with branding and selling its rights to everything.  The replays are brought to you by Harley Davidson, the round is brought to you buy Bud Light, etc.  Eventually, the UFC will lose its identity and instead of the NFL it will just be “football.”  That’s bad. 

    The fight industry is based on creating stars with personality.  Dressing these guys all the same is counterproductive.  Even if the UFC is making big bucks on the fees, it’s not worth it.  Selling the naming rights to everything is literally the definition of selling out, and that’s bad for business. 

  • Devin Taylor’s fate decided on episode 2 of WWE Breaking Ground

    Submitted by Ryan Pike

    Key Takeaway:

    We open with Devin Taylor getting terminated and the episode closes with questions about Dana Brooke’s NXT future if she can’t keep improving. In-between, it’s another enthralling but unfocused edition of Breaking Ground, with the best part of the episode focusing on a three-day try-out for prospective NXT trainees.

    Show Recap:

    This week’s episode had three general focuses: the women’s division, a three-day try-out at the Performance Center, and Tough Enough finalist ZZ beginning his training.

    The cliffhanger from last week – which NXT talent would be fired – is dealt with immediately, with Devin Taylor getting the heave-ho from Canyon Ceman, who complemented her for how she added to the “culture of the building” before having her escorted out by security. Sara Amato refers to the competitiveness and depth of the NXT women’s group as a “shark tank.” After singling out Bayley as someone who’s excellent and works really hard, the rest of the episode is spent focusing on Dana Brooke. It’s obvious she’s really focused, as she walks us through her daily routine and it’s a lot of working out and training.

    She also goes to the salon with her friend to get her eyebrows and eyelashes done, as she notes talent may be contacted by Triple H at any moment for a photo shoot or another opportunity. Sarah Stock teaches the girls a specific kind of front-bump, using Nia Jax as a base – basically Jax spins them around and they do a front-bump. Dana’s tentative, and Sara Amato mentions that she’s talented but she’s worried she’s plateaued, and if she stalls out in her development she might not have much of a future.

    The arguable center-piece of the episode is a three-day try-out at the Performance Center, which largely gives us a show-long glimpse at how head coach Matt Bloom and William Regal run things. The first day is mostly testing cardio with stuff like Hindu squats, drop-downs and stuff like that, trying to blow people up. The second day is a lot of basic bumps and more cardio testing, and the third day is doing forward rolls and backward rolls in the ring and landing in a fighting ready position. The rolling session led to an amazing William Regal tirade. He began criticizing some individuals for hopping to their feet rather than landing and stepping into a fighting stance. Then, after correcting a handful of individuals, he announces to the entire gym his expectations.

    After watching several more individuals screw it up, he stops the entire session and goes on a tirade, singling out the person in the ring for screwing it up. Of course, this person does it again and does it correctly, and both Bloom and Regal praise him for being “coachable.” Finally, Regal leads the promo try-outs, noting that “If you have the personality of a cabbage, you won’t be here.”

    Highlights include a heavy-set man doing “the worm” and a female delivering a heart-felt promo about her troubled up-bringing which earns praise from Regal for her vulnerability. After the try-outs are over, Canyon Ceman leads a meeting where he and the coaches decide which applicants will be offered contracts – pending background checks and Triple H’s approval.

    Former alligator wrestler and Tough Enough male finalist ZZ arrives at the Performance Center, along with his parents – who want to make sure he’s training somewhere safe. They meet with Bloom, who’s told by ZZ that he’s been “training outside” and hasn’t been to the gym much. Tough Enough winner Josh doesn’t think ZZ has a good enough work ethic to make it, and ZZ himself admits that his cardio’s not that great. In drills, ZZ struggles. He also struggles in the gym, getting blown up, and Mojo Rawley gives him a nice pep talk about getting blown up in the gym and in the ring is how he’s going to get better.

    Robbie Brookside has a chat with ZZ, saying he wants to see some commitment from him and if he sees that, he’ll do whatever it takes to help him improve. He emphasizes to ZZ that it’s a lifestyle, not a job. Later on, Brookside leads the rookie orientation. Bayley, Tyler Breeze and Sami Zayn give introductions to the Performance Center to the rookies (and Asuka, who’s there for some reasons). Zayn admits that he was scared about giving up his independent character, but learned to adapt and encourages everyone to be flexible. ZZ notes that he wants to remain a kid, and then gets scolded by Brookside for screwing around, ending with Brookside saying “Get out of my ring.” ZZ skulks out of the ring.

    Final Thoughts:

    I’m not a big fan of how the program skips around from story to story without following up on much. Granted, many of these stories could be compelling if told in full, but the editing of the show is too scattershot to really have much impact or to establish much of a pace to the narrative. Case in point: unless they were going to really focus on Bayley, I’m not sure what the point was of spending time with her in this episode. Similarly, they spent so little time on Brooke that the “cliffhanger” they left on doesn’t have much of an impact. That said, they really spent a lot of time burying poor ZZ and his lack of focus, maturity and fitness.