Sorry, Nate.
Zach made Nate go watch A24’s remix of the original Smashing Machine documentary. It ended up producing one salty movie review on this week’s edition of The MMA Draw podcast.
If you aren’t a paid subscriber, go sign up and get access to Zach’s recent review of Smashing Machine, which does a great job of reliving MMA history through his eyes during the start of the Japanese boom period.
A hard lesson for A24's The Smashing Machine film
Why did A24 create a remake of The Smashing Machine documentary, and who was the primary audience for this project?
At the time of publication, Box Office Mojo lists worldwide numbers for Smashing Machine at $18.5M. That is ugly. Variety has the gruesome details.
Why did this movie fail so spectacularly? We asked a series of key questions on this week’s MMA Draw podcast and tied those questions into a much larger topic. Why is combat sports history such a hard thing to sell in theaters?
Smashing Machine is a perfect example of a walking contradiction. The Rock deemed it to be a tribute to Mark Kerr while Benny Safdie was pushing a “life’s losers” angle. The Rock is one of the greatest WWE superstars of all time, and yet wants (or wanted) to vicariously be a major Japanese legend.
Given WWE’s recent two-day event in Tokyo at Ryogoku Kokugikan, American wrestlers remain obsessed over Japanese fight culture, and rightfully so. But why? What’s the gravitational pull that attracts so much love for Japan inside the American business?
For our paid subscribers, we have some hard-hitting observations about WWE’s Netflix era vis-a-vis WWE’s non-Netflix programming being measured by Nielsen’s Big Data + Panel metrics system. This is a huge story for everyone in combat sports. The impact these new metrics could have on how much money is spent on advertising campaigns is big. On the surface, this MediaPost article painted a rosier picture for WWE. Is it the truth? And why should this story matter to fans? We make dollars and sense out of it and explain the impact it can — and will — have on your fandom.
We also have some big updates on the aftermath of the California State Athletic Commission endorsing the Muhammad Ali American Boxing Revival Act.
Zach broke down the scheme behind the scenes and how TKO positioned their various political assets to get the result they wanted.
The question the general public is asking: if the Ali Revival Act is so bad for boxing, why won’t current boxers or promoters step up and actively protest this bill?
We received many questions from our readers and industry insiders regarding what’s next for the future of Zuffa Boxing and the boxing scene in general. Nate & Zach have some important advice on how to read these tea leaves. Who is really calling the shots and, most importantly, what are their motives? Don’t fall for the silly dog-and-pony show with Eddie Hearn vs. Dana White. Think bigger.
You can check out The MMA Draw Podcast on Substack via the following feeds:
Nate Wilcox is Editor-in-Chief of The MMA Draw. He founded BloodyElbow.com in 2007 and sold it in 2024.
Zach Arnold is a lead opinion writer for The MMA Draw on Substack. His archives can be read at FightOpinion.com.
