Thoughts on Ariel's new ESPN show?

Scurvydawg said:
After trying to listen to Luke Thomas chew and burp his way through lousy MMA hour interviews...
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QONVIyz.gif
 
I have listened to the show for years and stopped since it moved to ESPN. Some of the shows are 5+ hours long, way too long for me, Ariel will literally talk to anyone.

Sadly MMAFighting has hit a rough patch, Ariel probably worked his ass off and it seems like Luke is on holiday most of the time - the other hosts suck and The MMA Beat is really bad now also
 
Mob69 said:
Ariel has been doing his new show on ESPN for a couple of months now, so I think we can get a sense of how things are going. What do you make of it?

Personally I don't like it as much. The interviews are often shorter and there is little general discussion. The fact that it is only live on Twitter and not on YouTube until the following day means the less people catch it live, and so it doesn't capture the same attention. The presentation isn't as good (the intro music is terrible, the lighting on the set is too dark, and for some reason the size of the table bothers me - it's too small, creating the impression that they shoved Ariel in a broom closet). They even bleep out the swearing. When the show is eventually posted on YouTube, it is broken down into individual interviews so you have to keep clicking on the next video and can't watch the whole show. The New York Ric section of the show isn't live even on Twitter.

There are quite a few complaints in the YouTube comments here:



At 27 minutes, Ariel addresses some of the complaints and seems a little sensitive.

He even claims that the show might be 'dead' if not for being broadcast on Twitter. That seems odd to me. New York Ric expanded on it and said that not many people understand that if not for the deal to broadcast on Twitter, the show wouldn't have continued. I don't know what that means. Perhaps ESPN recruited Helwani primarily for pre-fight and post-fight stuff, rather than for his show? And they only agreed to keep it going after making a deal with Twitter to broadcast it. If true - wow.

Helwani even implies that he would like to cover other sports....

Ariel obviously made the sensible decision for himself by going to ESPN, but it would be difficult to argue that the show is as accessible for fans, or as enjoyable, as it used to be. Maybe it will improve in the future. Meanwhile MMA Fighting.com isn't exactly rocking and rolling either. Luke Thomas isn't as good on the MMA Hour, and he gave up his Live Chat long form discussion which is now run by Raimondi and al-Shatti. I find it borderline unwatchable. Don't break up a winning team.
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I agree,

Its a flaming pile of dogshit.
 
I like what Luke Thomas is doing with his show, but he doesn't get the quantity and often not the quality of guests Ariel gets. He also tends to lecture a little too much and too long, often because of silly perceived fan views he doesn't agree with. Overall I do prefer him to Ariel, though I do appreciate Ariel too. Luke has a analysis segment which is cool if it's with a fighter or a coach, but really meh if it's just with another media member.

I agreed with someone who said that Ariel's ego starts to get a bit out of hand sometimes. He has a habit of imposing his opinion. I however do like that he "kisses" fighters asses like other SDers would call it. It's called being a nice, sociable and genuinely passionate person. As a show host you have to make your guests feel appreciated or your interviews will be shit. Try to understand that.
 
LouisBolanos said:
I also feel Ariel is getting extra cocky these days because he feels he's part of the big leagues, and he's starting to throw more shade at others, yesterday he said feels disrespected when people call his "multimedia experience" a podcast.

However, he did say his move to ESPN was so he could try something new, and hinted at doing new sports, which basically confirms what many have speculated: he's using the ESPN opportunity to break into other, more mainstream sports, because deep down he has never been a true combat sports fan, he was pretty much forced into MMA because it was the only thing available to him at the time.
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<36>
 
LouisBolanos said:
he's using the ESPN opportunity to break into other, more mainstream sports, because deep down he has never been a true combat sports fan, he was pretty much forced into MMA because it was the only thing available to him at the time.
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Spot on brother,

He's a shill who uses emotions and feigning weakness to get what he really wants. He took all his 'fans' for a ride with no lube.

The very definition of a beta. Rampage smelled it coming a mile away.
 
Well now everything is disbursed and I watch NONE of it. I used to watch MMA beat if Chuck Mindenhall was on now I don't watch anything.
Disgusting that Fluke Thomas would take Fariel's left over scraps of the mma hour. Be your own man, guy.
 
machidafan99 said:
Well now everything is disbursed and I watch NONE of it. I used to watch MMA beat if Chuck Mindenhall was on now I don't watch anything.
Disgusting that Fluke Thomas would take Fariel's left over scraps of the mma hour. Be your own man, guy.
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<mma4>
 
never watched it

never watched his other show too

not a fan
and any important highlights of it, you can catch it with a timestamp on the forums
 
They cut a lot of the good parts about of it.. maybe has to do with rights etc. And it feels like the "same" show but on the cheap. Someone has planned this poorly. Lets bring him over and see what we do kind of scenario.. no fans that is.

And he keeps hinting/intimate/alluding to that a producer has taken a decision to not air any after the interviews section live.. strange decision that, and kind of symptomatic that someone not Ariel has taken it, and that he "complaints" about it on air.

Edit: and the Ric and Ariel picking winners betting part is the least interesting and thats a main part now.. pfft
 
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ANIM4L said:
I watched the link someone posted on here of today's show. Its got a good format and Luke is bringing in interesting people, but his style of interviewing needs work. If he toned it down and made the show less about him and his thoughts it would be better. To me anyway.
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He does a radio interview bro-style thing.. or he mostly sits quiet. Will never be his thing.. its embarassing when he goes to much college-fan buddy buddy rapport, its annoying when Ariel does it as well (as he often do..) but he gets away with it more due to its toned downed style of it.
 
It seems really dull somehow like they told him to never get his pulse above 20bpm

I prefer luke since ariel doesnt even like mma. Obviously ariel has the connections tho
 
Stopped watching all these shows. Ariels show is way to long needs to be cut down to 2hours
 
I've seen snippets of ariel and the bad guy, I like it but sucks we have to pay for that.
 
They must be doing something right because I never had any interest in watching his show before, but now I actually do watch from time to time, especially when chael is on
 
i only ever listened to the mma hour via podcast, so nothing's really changed for me. all i had to do was find ariel's new show and click subscribe. cant comment on the new layout, visuals or live platforms. btw- have you heard his new intro with the pride lady? not bad at all.

as for luke thomas taking over the mma hour- cant say i'm a fan, although i'm still subscribed.
 
Mob69 said:
Ariel has been doing his new show on ESPN for a couple of months now, so I think we can get a sense of how things are going. What do you make of it?

Personally I don't like it as much. The interviews are often shorter and there is little general discussion. The fact that it is only live on Twitter and not on YouTube until the following day means the less people catch it live, and so it doesn't capture the same attention. The presentation isn't as good (the intro music is terrible, the lighting on the set is too dark, and for some reason the size of the table bothers me - it's too small, creating the impression that they shoved Ariel in a broom closet). They even bleep out the swearing. When the show is eventually posted on YouTube, it is broken down into individual interviews so you have to keep clicking on the next video and can't watch the whole show. The New York Ric section of the show isn't live even on Twitter.

There are quite a few complaints in the YouTube comments here:



At 27 minutes, Ariel addresses some of the complaints and seems a little sensitive.

He even claims that the show might be 'dead' if not for being broadcast on Twitter. That seems odd to me. New York Ric expanded on it and said that not many people understand that if not for the deal to broadcast on Twitter, the show wouldn't have continued. I don't know what that means. Perhaps ESPN recruited Helwani primarily for pre-fight and post-fight stuff, rather than for his show? And they only agreed to keep it going after making a deal with Twitter to broadcast it. If true - wow.

Helwani even implies that he would like to cover other sports....

Ariel obviously made the sensible decision for himself by going to ESPN, but it would be difficult to argue that the show is as accessible for fans, or as enjoyable, as it used to be. Maybe it will improve in the future. Meanwhile MMA Fighting.com isn't exactly rocking and rolling either. Luke Thomas isn't as good on the MMA Hour, and he gave up his Live Chat long form discussion which is now run by Raimondi and al-Shatti. I find it borderline unwatchable. Don't break up a winning team.
Click to expand...

Stopped watching after 30 sec, what a f..ing weird music.
 
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