When the UFC announced plans to go to the Phillipines, Australia, Germany, and other countries next year on top of regular shows in the United Kingdom, my immediate concern was that there would be too many shows. Spike obviously is not willing to carry all the minor shows, and weak PPV cards only water down the brand. Apparently my fears were misguided, because some of these shows will not air at all. Dave Meltzer reported this week in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter that some shows might not air on PPV or Spike TV, the idea would just be to grow the local fanbase by running there:
Dana White said Lorenzo Fertitta’s main focus has been on making international deals. He said they are on television in the Philippines on a major network station doing big ratings so that’s a target for 2009, as in Australia, Brazil, Germany and Dubai. White said they would be doing grassroots shows in some of these places, which I had the impression means using local fighters and the UFC name and maybe name fighters in the main event, including doing some shows just as live house show events for the market. Some new market shows wouldn’t be big enough for PPV and wouldn’t necessarily be on Spike.
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