Brock Lesnar's back: What are the WWE & Netflix thinking?
How WWE Unreal unwittingly validated Dave Meltzer's existence.
Why is a newsletter called The MMA Draw talking about WWE content in the year 2025?
Thanks for asking. Here’s your answer: because the powers-that-be that run WWE & UFC, are named Ari Emanuel & Mark Shapiro & Nick Khan, and they have decided that what happens with one TKO property influences what happens with the rest of their Hollywood-flavored portfolio.
If you’re an old-school MMA fan, recall the heat that Dave Meltzer generated a generation ago during the UFC’s boom period when he stated that wrestling and MMA are essentially the same industry, but with different rule sets?
It turns out that Hollywood has unwittingly provided validation for the much-criticized Mr. Meltzer. Don’t follow their words; follow their actions.
The surprise returns of warhorses like Seth Rollins & Brock Lesnar at WWE’s two-day Summerslam event reveal a lot about where things stand with Hollywood’s perspective on WWE & UFC business.
What we’re witnessing is something far stranger than Disney in a ring.
What we’re witnessing is what happens when the world’s most powerful billionaire politicians decide to paint a portrait of what they think fight sport is.
What we’re witnessing is Hollywood-level value extraction of famous but older franchise assets.
What we’re witnessing is a multi-monopoly exerting its influence over the most powerful part of its billion-dollar machine: media control.
No greater example of this attempt to blur the lines is the brand new Netflix series called WWE Unreal.
Who bleeping cares about legitimizing a supposedly make-believe world? What does this have to do with UFC?
It turns out, a whole lot. And for fans who are paying more and more money to watch very expensive, maintenance-level fights, it’s getting harder to figure out how much longer they can continue to spend money on this nonsense before they become completely apathetic.
Hollywood is betting that your life cycle as a fan is about five years, after which they can replace you with a new mark. Life and death via numbers on a spreadsheet and an AI terminal.
We have some trends that fans should be watching out for, and how to navigate this increasingly disconnected and bizarre world of Hollywood control. History doesn’t repeat, but it often rhymes.
WWE Unreal’s very real validation and hunger for truth
WWE Unreal is the kind of work product you can expect to see from executives who confuse process with substance.