Would Dana White have a use for making fighters jealous of his favored fighters? Rowdy Roddy Piper on WWE's control tactics

[don't ask]

This was pretty interesting to watch. It's someone narrating from Rowdy Roddy Piper's autobiography, selections regarding people Piper hated, and he talks about several things the WWE did to take power away from the fighters (like removing wrestler names from promotional materials so fans would eventually be showing up for the company, not the wrestlers, stripping them of their ability to demand money) which the UFC has been trying to duplicate.

He also talks about how McMahon made a point of announcing to all the wrestlers that Sid Vicious would be the future of the company and the most important wrestler, which immediately turned the wrestlers against him and forced him into the position of being Vince's informant.

I'm wondering... we all know about Dana White Privilege, which has led to fighters getting unearned title shots and even doing what I would consider fight rigging (Aljo vs O'Malley), but I'm wondering if there could be a similar advantage to what McMahon did with Vicious. Are there any advantages to singling a fighter out like that, as a recipient of privilege, such as creating informants who would keep you briefed on any talks of unionizing, lawsuits or even what's going on behind-the-scenes regarding contract negotiations or injuries?

Or is the industry too different from wrestling to have the same ability to manipulate people, since there's not one "locker room" in MMA and it's a bunch of teams/gyms competing against each other?

Have any fighters ever talked about this?

Anyways, here's the vid, it has a hilarious thing about Sid Vicious trying to fight an entire bar with a squeegee as his weapon.



EDIT: damnit, video won't display. It's called "Rowdy" Roddy Piper DESTROYING People in his Autobiography by Wrestling Bios.

​

 

[rear naked ankle pick]

its not even hard to grasp. Dana will love you if you accept fights often and risk CTE for the company

simple as

he is just like every boss ever on this planet

 

[don't ask]

its not even hard to grasp. Dana will love you if you accept fights often and risk CTE for the company

simple as

he is just like every boss ever on this planet

True, but he also likes some fighters in a super duper kind of way if he thinks fans can be convinced they're superstars or will deliver a certain market.

 

[Axe720]

Wrestling Bios is my favorite wrestling channel, dude is an absolute workhorse. As for the topic, I could definitely see Dana doing that. We've seen how he can play favorites and make guys think they're the chosen one. He'd likely use them for any info he could get about other fighters, camps, and anything else. And like Vinnie Mac, he'd drop them as soon as a new shiny toy came along.

 

[WoozyFailGuy]

Vince, while being a slimeball perv, was a brilliant, and I mean brilliant businessman. His consolidation of the territories is something you could teach a class on for any MBA.
Tactics like that, keeping wrestlers at each other's throats, creating infighting, your own snitches, that's all something that you need to do while you have competition.

In my opinion, the largest issue is twofold:

1. Pugilism is an inherently selfish athletic pursuit. You're in it for yourself. Yes, you may bring the belt back to your gym, but you're the champion. This creates an inherently selfish ecosystem, the easiest every day comparison is if you've ever worked for commission. The one kiss ass making the most stealing sales doesn't want the system to change because he thinks he can benefit. Most fighters are delusional enough to believe they will become the champion, therefore, they will benefit from the millions.
2. The UFC has no actual competition which can poach their talent. No one outside of burn outs or post prime middling guys are going over to PFL.

The UFC doesn't have to worry about a fighter's union forming as the chances of it happening are so slim, I expect every barista and amazon warehouse worker in America to be unionized before fighters are.
Trying to coordinate with other independent contractors from across the globe while hoping no one snitches on you, or a manager like Ali doesn't overhear anything? No need to turn fighters into snitches, you have Ali and the 4 other managers who seemingly have a monopoly on that aspect of the sport.

Tough prospect to realistically achieve, especially with the loudest voices in the sport being the ones who benefit the most from the MLM pay structure.

We saw the antitrust lawsuit fall flat on its face, and while PFL exists in it's zombie state, you can be assured that any other antitrust suit will most likely end the same way, a paltry payout for a few fighters and a law firm buying new Porsches for the Partners.

 

[AP_RESURRECTION]

All firms use similar tactics to control the troops. Some firms are more blatant and aggressive about it, but it follows a similar strategy either way. It's not just the UFC and wwf that would do this kind of thing. The idea of dividing and conquering is simple basic strategy. And of course the more you build the brand vs the individuals, the more share of the pie the house gets. These are basic simple ideas. Go back to circus back in the day and it would be similar as it is in companies and organizations across the world

 

[Tweak896]

I mean it's push and pull between UFC and fighters. You'll see fighters sit out until they get their way and UFC get petty with bad matchups/timing to get them to lose.

UFC wants good fights for the least amount of money and fighters want the most amount of money for the least amount of fights.

Sometimes both UFC and fighters align and others they clash. UFC will be petty and announce shit never signed.

 

[Doctor Grudge]

Dana White doesn't tell the fighters secretly who the UFC will push though, nor is there really any appropriate chance for him to do so - so it's not comparable to Vince declaring Sid the future of the company to the locker room.


White pushes fighters blatantly in the media for promotional reasons. Fighters find out who is being pushed the same time as the fans. Ie, someone like Paddy Pimblet or O'Malley.


No, I dont think him pushing fighters really has much to do with getting fighters to be against each other in terms of not working together for a union. I dont see the two as related.


MMA missed its chance to be unionized a long time ago. The only way it is possible is if there are 2 or 3 McGregor level draws that decide to form one, which is usually a conflict of interest for the guys on the top.

 

[don't ask]

Wrestling Bios is my favorite wrestling channel, dude is an absolute workhorse. As for the topic, I could definitely see Dana doing that. We've seen how he can play favorites and make guys think they're the chosen one. He'd likely use them for any info he could get about other fighters, camps, and anything else. And like Vinnie Mac, he'd drop them as soon as a new shiny toy came along.

I don't think I've watched his channel before, but I love the concept. I binged a bunch of his videos yesterday lol

 

[don't ask]

Vince, while being a slimeball perv, was a brilliant, and I mean brilliant businessman. His consolidation of the territories is something you could teach a class on for any MBA.
Tactics like that, keeping wrestlers at each other's throats, creating infighting, your own snitches, that's all something that you need to do while you have competition.

In my opinion, the largest issue is twofold:

1. Pugilism is an inherently selfish athletic pursuit. You're in it for yourself. Yes, you may bring the belt back to your gym, but you're the champion. This creates an inherently selfish ecosystem, the easiest every day comparison is if you've ever worked for commission. The one kiss ass making the most stealing sales doesn't want the system to change because he thinks he can benefit. Most fighters are delusional enough to believe they will become the champion, therefore, they will benefit from the millions.
2. The UFC has no actual competition which can poach their talent. No one outside of burn outs or post prime middling guys are going over to PFL.

The UFC doesn't have to worry about a fighter's union forming as the chances of it happening are so slim, I expect every barista and amazon warehouse worker in America to be unionized before fighters are.
Trying to coordinate with other independent contractors from across the globe while hoping no one snitches on you, or a manager like Ali doesn't overhear anything? No need to turn fighters into snitches, you have Ali and the 4 other managers who seemingly have a monopoly on that aspect of the sport.

Tough prospect to realistically achieve, especially with the loudest voices in the sport being the ones who benefit the most from the MLM pay structure.

We saw the antitrust lawsuit fall flat on its face, and while PFL exists in it's zombie state, you can be assured that any other antitrust suit will most likely end the same way, a paltry payout for a few fighters and a law firm buying new Porsches for the Partners.

This was a really thoughtful reply! The landscape isn't very healthy for fighters and you're right about managers like Ali, I completely forgot about him.

 

[don't ask]

Dana White doesn't tell the fighters secretly who the UFC will push though, nor is there really any appropriate chance for him to do so - so it's not comparable to Vince declaring Sid the future of the company to the locker room.


White pushes fighters blatantly in the media for promotional reasons. Fighters find out who is being pushed the same time as the fans. Ie, someone like Paddy Pimblet or O'Malley.


No, I dont think him pushing fighters really has much to do with getting fighters to be against each other in terms of not working together for a union. I dont see the two as related.


MMA missed its chance to be unionized a long time ago. The only way it is possible is if there are 2 or 3 McGregor level draws that decide to form one, which is usually a conflict of interest for the guys on the top.

They have played hardball with fighters who stick together, though. Like when they fired everyone at AKA for... refusing to sign over their rights to video game likenesses? I forget the reason.

 

[Doctor Grudge]

They have played hardball with fighters who stick together, though. Like when they fired everyone at AKA for... refusing to sign over their rights to video game likenesses? I forget the reason.

It would take a lot of coordination to get the UFC to do anything, and now that they're a much bigger org it's nearly impossible.

 

[Bubzeh]

Wrestling Bios is a good channel.

 

[don't ask]

It would take a lot of coordination to get the UFC to do anything, and now that they're a much bigger org it's nearly impossible.

Yeah, fighters have less power than ever and the UFC knows it. I read that after their inability to control Francis, they removed sunset clauses from their contracts. They'd rather fight it out in courts again than lose control of their fighters.

 

[GoWokeGoBroke]

its not even hard to grasp. Dana will love you if you accept fights often and risk CTE for the company

simple as

he is just like every boss ever on this planet

You are nothing but a number. A cog to keep the money machine rolling. After 50 years you get your 20.00 Home Depot gift card and a piece of corn cake with slight mold if lucky. Luckily Home Depot delivers as your heart disease eats you from the inside out and you can barley make it up a flight of stairs after showing up every day for 50 years. Maybe once every 6 months you get to Stick your pecker in your ditchpig wife who hates your guts. Then you finally croak (hopefully quickly and without pain) Thats life son.