Who put the hallucinogens in the DREAM kool-aid?
May 11, 2008 by Sam Caplan
The power of nostalgia is an amazing thing. So powerful that it can make an average product appear to be much more than it really is so long that it offers a few elements that take you back to a time of greatness.
In the past 12 hours I’ve received a lot of e-mails, IMs, and phone calls that pretty much go like this: “Did you watch DREAM!? Man, how great was that?”
Great!? Wow, since when did the standard for greatness sink so low?
DREAM.3 wasn’t a bad way to kill nearly five hours on a Sunday afternoon. But aside from a fight of the year candidate between Eddie Alvarez and Joachim Hansen, what was so great about it? DREAM might have similar look to PRIDE; use a lot of its unique elements such as the Grand Prix format; and utilize a lot of the same fighters, but it’s not PRIDE. Not by a longshot.
I realize I am in the minority when I say that I was hardly impressed by DREAM.3, but then again, I stopped drinking the PRIDE kool-aid the day Zuffa bought the company from Dream Stage Entertainment. I think it’s high-time people start judging DREAM on the merits of DREAM and not on the past accomplishments of PRIDE.
And when you look at DREAM as a stand alone product, you begin to see it for what it really is:
a watered down version of PRIDE. DREAM.3 was a perfect example of everything that’s wrong with the promotion. I just have so many issues with the show I just watched that I don’t know where to begin. But let’s start with the production. Sorry folks, the stage setup we saw was not of PRIDE quality. The stage concept for DREAM.3 looked like NASA was doing construction on a satellite. The rampway was especially awkward, as it looked like a detour entrance area for the fighters to walk through because the normal ramp was out of order.
And don’t get me started on matchmaking. Yes, I know PRIDE provided its fair share of mis-matches over the years, but it was done with the intent to build stars. If they put an up and coming guy with someone that couldn’t hang with him, the sacrificial lamb at least a respectable fighter at one point in his career. Instead of giving of a bunch of has-beens, DREAM is feeding us a steady diet of never-will-bes.
I understand they are trying to make Jason “Mayhem” Miller into a big star in Japan, and understandably so. But could the talent differential be narrowed to the equivalent of pro vs. college as opposed to pro vs. high school? Is that too much to ask? And people are surprised that the ratings for the first two DREAM cards were low!? I mean, c’mon, Caol Uno vs. Mitsuhiro Ishida as your main event? I am not even certain if Ishida vs. Uno would have been good enough to headline a Bushido card. Which begs the question, why do so many people mark out to Ishida? When Josh Koscheck first started out everyone killed the guy because he relied too much on his wrestling yet Ishida gets a free pass? I respect Ishida as a fighter. He’s a tremendous wrestler. But he’s a little too one-dimensional right now for my tastes.
Another beef for me was HDNet’s production. Let me preface this by saying Kenny Rice is a good man and an accomplished announcer. I also have enjoyed his work on most of the MMA telecasts I’ve seen on HDNet. But he was not on his game for DREAM.3. I thought he did a much better job for Yarrenoka! when he touched down in Japan only a few hours before the show started. This time around, it was pretty obvious that he and Bas Rutten were in the U.S. doing a voiceover of the feed in a production studio. But what I don’t understand is that Rice was well-rested and ready this time around, yet sounded like he was in major need of a Red Bull.
My biggest issue was the call during the Alvarez vs. Hansen match. To me, that was without question a match of the year candidate. But Rice called it with the same kind of energy you’d expect for an opening match. The first round of the fight was the best round of the whole tournament that I’ve seen thus far but you wouldn’t know that by listening to the telecast. There was almost no storytelling. Alvarez scored two knockdowns in the first round. That’s a huge deficit in the scoring right there. Why didn’t they push Hansen’s need to finish Alvarez in order to have any chance to win that fight? There were just so many dramatic moments in that fight and incredible exchanges on the feet and the ground that were pooh-poohed.
DREAM is looking to build new stars yet there was relatively little buildup of the fighters. I heard very little on the background of the fighters and who they were and what was at stake. Unless I missed it, there was no discussion about how Alvarez was formerly a welterweight who dropped down after suffering the first loss of his pro career to Nick Thompson and about how he’s on the cusp of becoming a top ten lightweight. There was also no discussion about how Hansen was a staple of PRIDE’s Bushido shows and how he’s one of the toughest fighters in all of MMA. Did they even address the Planes, Trains, and Automobiles scenario that Nick Diaz experienced regarding his fight and being on the card?
I realize HDNet just recently got the rights to DREAM, but I still really felt they sounded overly unprepared. The pacing of the show was brutal. HDNet can’t be blamed for that but they can be blamed for a lack of content to compensate during the lulls. The intermission was especially embarrassing. How many times can you show the same tournament brackets? Why not try and sell “Inside MMA” to the viewing audience and go back to the studio for a special edition of the show where they have a moderator with a roundtable format featuring some fighters and or writers giving their thoughts on the matches that took place thus far? Then, they can also offer predictions for the remaining fights along with their breakdown. And can anything be done to cut down on the awkwardness that is experienced every time they had to cut away from FEG’s feed between fights?
The reality is that many of the HDNet telecasts I’ve seen are lacking in content and context.
Unfortunately, when they tried to add both content and context with the Mayhem Miller vignette that aired in the beginning of the show, they swung and missed. The segment jumped all over the place and I swear that the voiceover guy read the last paragraph three times in a row with some slight variations. Speaking of the voiceover guy, was it just me or was his voice a little much given the nature of the piece?
Look, I am grateful and appreciative of all the MMA action that HDNet is bringing to the table and I know they don’t have an unlimited budget, but I would like to see them try to up their game a little bit. That said, HDNet can only be blamed for so much. Much of the problems with DREAM.3 were because of DREAM, whether people want to admit that or not. Unlike some people who mark out to DREAM, I actually used to watch PRIDE. I enjoyed PRIDE. As an MMA fan, I grew up with PRIDE. But DREAM sir, you are no PRIDE.
Sam,
MMAWeekly is reporting that DREAM and ProElite are now partners. Any news on your front?
i agree there was no main draw but it seems from this piece your beefs are primarily with
i. the HDNet Production not not so much the fights
ii. Ishida being boring (no one disagrees)
iii. Miller giving someone the beatdown
… is that it? no comments on the other fights?
Don’t judge DREAM on HDnet, HDnet’s coverage of DREAM 1, 2 and 3 was a disgrace, terrible production, random graphics over fighter intro’s and during the staredown…
and why did they just cut away at the end of the event??
You don’t say EliteXC sucks because Bill Goldberg is an announcer sometimes…So let’s throw that arguement out…
Well actually, that takes about about 75% of your argument against DREAM, all this production stuff, all of HDnets fault, watch the Japanese telecast of DREAM, 100 times better…
and another thing, events are always better if you watch them live, that’s a joy a lot of people get, some “fake fans” (for lack of a better word) like to not watch events live, then just sit through it the next day or days later and you are sitting there not excited for it, you probably know most of the results, and even if you avoided results you can fast forward through things, and even if you don’t do that, its still not live, live sports, watching a replay or taped version doesn’t cut it…
Let’s get to the fights, ya, they are only on their 3rd show, they have a great LW tourney going on and have had other decent fights…What other promotion not owned by Zuffa is putting on better fights? EliteXC soon, with the all time classic Kimbo Slice-James Thompson main event???
You support that main event, a fight that is worthless and crap, but a main event between two “stars” in Japan isn’t good???
You say DREAM isn’t giving us has-beens and instead never will be’s…Better than EliteXC’s other classic Main Event of Kimbo Slice and Tank Abbott which I’m guessing you supported also (sorry for assuming if you were against this main event, point still stands though)…
Really, besides Zuffa owned promotions who’s putting out better fights and more exciting events? If you don’t watch it live then you don’t know because its not as exciting “wasting” a few hours the next day or days later…
DREAM gave us a clear cut fight of the year candidate and have been giving us GREAT LW matchups.
I hope that you or someone else on this site writes something soon like this;
When you look at EliteXC as a stand alone product, you begin to see it for what it really is:
A sleazy, herpes infested, UFC washout’s as their best fighters promotion.
They have potentially fixed fights, with a boxing promoter that helped ruin boxing leading the way.
On their own, they haven’t put on one good event without the “help” of strikeforce.
Don’t even get me started on matchmaking, James Thompson in the main event!! Instead of giving us top ten fighters they are giving us has-beens, UFC washouts and fabricated “stars”…
EliteXC has one legit in his weight class top ten fighter, DREAM has how many?? Oh ok…
I could write more but this is probably long enough…
And yes I’m aware that EliteXC and DREAM have the deal to co/cross promote now, but as a stand alone promotion, that’s where my comparisons were being made…
nice article Sam, i completely agree. as soon as Eddie wins the Grand Prix he’ll finally make the money he is due here in the states.
Reaser:
I don’t know why I am responding to you because too many times you make arguments with little merit or you respond to things without fully reading what I wrote.
First, here are issues I have with DREAM that are not HDNet related:
1. Mis-matches
2. Lack of intriguing main events thus far
3. In the case of this event, a clunky stage setup
4. Pacing of the show (not HDNet’s fault)
“You say DREAM isn’t giving us has-beens and instead never will be’s…Better than EliteXC’s other classic Main Event of Kimbo Slice and Tank Abbott which I’m guessing you supported also (sorry for assuming if you were against this main event, point still stands though)…”
I never supported Tank vs. Kimbo. So your assumption is incorrect. Word of advice Reaser, maybe you should make your arguments based on fact, not assumptions? When there was a March ShoXC with five lop-sided fights that ended in the first round, did I not complain then? So you’re going to stand by your point even though it was built around a false assumption? Well, why should anyone take you seriously?
This isn’t about DREAM vs. EliteXC or DREAM vs. UFC. It’s about DREAM vs. DREAM… or, possibly DREAM vs. PRIDE in that thus far, I do not feel DREAM is living up to PRIDE’s reputation. Regardless, I analyze all of the events and give my honest opinion. I point out the GOOD AND THE BAD of all the promotions. If I write more bad about some promotions than others, it’s because in my view, I am seeing more bad in comparison to others. I’m not going to sit around with a quota and say, “Well, I said three negative things about promotion A so now I have to say three negative things about promotion B.” I call it the way I see it. A lot of times people see it differently. If you can’t handle the way I call it yet still read this site regularly, then I’m not the one with the problem.
Argue the merits of my points without dragging in other entities. Was that pacing not too long? Do you support the matchmaking? Did you not find the stage setup a little awkward? You should be able to make arguments without getting personal. You should be able to argue on merit and the topics raised as opposed to muckraking.
“Really, besides Zuffa owned promotions who’s putting out better fights and more exciting events? If you don’t watch it live then you don’t know because its not as exciting “wasting” a few hours the next day or days later…”
Weak argument.
At least bring something to the table Darrell, otherwise, what’s the point?
Agree that Kenny Rice was pretty lame but I would consider this a pretty weak piece. Really come across as looking for any small detail to not like. Hopefully HDNet steps it up next time but the fact that this is their 2nd live broadcast of it suggests they can.
This is what is so great about it…CULTURE SHOCK.
It is absolutely refreshing to NOT hear curse words spoken by the commentators as well as fighters. It is refreshing to hear…NOTHING…SILENCE…the breathing of the fighters, the sounds of glove to face.
Are we so used to constant noise…the constant “Grand Theft Auto” stimulation that we have forgotten the purity of fight?
That is what is great about DREAM, the culture of combat sport.
I agree with Sam on the mostly mismatched fights. On an average though I did enjoy the event. However Caplan needs to try not to enforce his desire on the Japs. They obviously enjoyed the fights and main event, plus sold out a huge arena. Maybe your favorite star isn’t theirs. Maruyama should have won!!!
i dont care what you say and i usually like what I read from you but this article was way off. i agree the production could improve but japanese shows are different than american shows so there is going to be some differences in production. ant also they have to use who they can aquire on their cards. they just cant say i want this guy and this guy and this guy and they show up. i really think that they are soing a tremendous job as well as hdnet and i give nothing but good comments to both organizations.
sorry caplan- but you are not correct this time
This was a great show in terms of the DREAM company finding their legs after a shaky first two shows. There were some good matches and some nice upsets (UNO!). However, going onto forums, I actually saw posts called this “the greatest MMA event of all time!” No joke.
I thought it was great, but definitely not the greatest. I think a lot of fans watch with Japanese blinders on. For them, if it is a good show and it happens in Japan, it is the greatest thing ever as if they are part of some exclusive club.
Sam, it’s atmosphere. A good steak tastes better in a really nice restaurant with your girl than it does out by a dumpster with Herman the local hobo. No one will ever beat the atmosphere of these shows, it makes it feel like you’re watching something special.
Sam:
I don’t really respond to anything you write usually, as I for the most part I only read the Duel and have been following the draft. Otherwise I only post a comment if I have an opinion, and most of the time its not to your “writing” so I have no idea what your talking about, but that’s you with assumption that I don’t fully read your writing. Word of advice Sam, maybe you should make your arguments based on fact, not assumptions?
I said if you didn’t support the Kimbo main event then “sorry for assuming.” Made it pretty clear what I was saying when I wrote that.
I didn’t read anything you wrote about the ShoXC event, so again, I have no idea what your talking about there. You were a fantasy football writer, why should anyone take you seriously?
So you can compare DREAM vs. PRIDE, but because it doesn’t help your argument I’m not allowed to compare DREAM against EliteXC??? Please tell me also why DREAM has to live up to PRIDE’s reputation??? DREAM isn’t PRIDE, DREAM is 3 events old.
I analyze what people write and give my honest opinion. I point out the GOOD AND THE BAD. If I comment more bad about something, it’s because in my view, I am seeing you were “wrong” in my opinion.
Sam Says - “Argue the merits of my points without dragging in other entities.”
So you can make your points using PRIDE but because it doesn’t help you I can’t use other entities???
Sam Says - “Was that pacing not too long? Do you support the matchmaking? Did you not find the stage setup a little awkward?”
Pacing is fine when you’re watching the Japan version, that’s an HDnet thing with not having good “filler”….I support Aoki-JZ, Hansen-Alvarez, mostly the entire LW tourney, I liked the first round of the MW tourney as well and in the next rounds the matches will be even better. I would agree with your statement about a fighter against High School level talent, like Mayhem’s fight….They do different things with the stage, it didn’t bother me, wasn’t the best but far from being a reason to think DREAM is terrible.
Sam Says - “You should be able to make arguments without getting personal. You should be able to argue on merit and the topics raised as opposed to muckraking.”
Laughable, arguments without getting personal, like how you started off your response to me with “I don’t know why I’m responding to you,” plus assuming that I don’t fully read what you write, which you complained about assumptions, so I find all that funny.
Watching an event live is very different from watching it the next day or days later, I suggest, for anyone who didn’t, to watch DREAM live next time and feel the excitement as opposed to laying around days later and “wasting” a few hours watching it.
Weak argument, yes, I agree, your argument against DREAM was weak, at best…
For the record I did read what you wrote fully and you wrote this…
“I think it’s high-time people start judging DREAM on the merits of DREAM and not on the past accomplishments of PRIDE.
And when you look at DREAM as a stand alone product, you begin to see it for what it really is: A WATERED DOWN VERSION OF PRIDE….”
So you say judge DREAM on the merits of DREAM and not PRIDE then the first thing you say about DREAM as a stand alone product is a comparison to PRIDE….again, laughable…
I was by no means trying to pick your writing apart, I was stating my opinion/argument to what you wrote and you got personal.
I agree with #10 (except the part about HDnet) and agree with #12….
“I don’t really respond to anything you write usually, as I for the most part I only read the Duel and have been following the draft. Otherwise I only post a comment if I have an opinion, and most of the time its not to your “writing” so I have no idea what your talking about, but that’s you with assumption that I don’t fully read your writing. Word of advice Sam, maybe you should make your arguments based on fact, not assumptions?”
Not true Darrell. You have responded to a great many of my articles and have found it necessary on multiple occasions to disregard most of what I write in order to take some sort of petty pot shot at me. You’re one of the leading commenters on this site and you feel a need to comment on just about everything even if you don’t really have anything of substance to add. It’s not an assumption — it’s fact. Are you seriously going to claim that you don’t respond to my articles?
“I didn’t read anything you wrote about the ShoXC event, so again, I have no idea what your talking about there. You were a fantasy football writer, why should anyone take you seriously?”
Thank you for proving my argument. This is a perfect example of you taking a personal and petty cheap shot against me. Darrell, I don’t know what I ever did to you, but it’s obvious you don’t like me, which I am perfectly okay with. But if you want to keep posting on this site you need to stop making everything personal and you need to stay on track when you respond to someone’s articles.
And whether anyone should take me seriously is up to them. I don’t force anyone to come to this site. You continually make the choice to enter “fiveouncesofpain.com” into your web browser. You also make the conscious decision to respond to a great deal of what is written on this site. You take this site seriously enough that you spend a lot of time on it.
“I said if you didn’t support the Kimbo main event then “sorry for assuming.” Made it pretty clear what I was saying when I wrote that.”
This is a perfect example of how you open your mouth often yet say very little of significance. Why would you state something that you aren’t sure is correct? Just because you preface your false assumptions with an apology does not mean your ignorance is going to be excused.
“I didn’t read anything you wrote about the ShoXC event, so again, I have no idea what your talking about there. You were a fantasy football writer, why should anyone take you seriously?”
LOL. So if you don’t read my writing, then why make statements about what I have or haven’t written?
“So you can make your points using PRIDE but because it doesn’t help you I can’t use other entities???”
You comment on my writing yet I wonder if you even fully read it before you decide to comment. The whole premise of the article was how DREAM is failing to follow in the footsteps of PRIDE.
“So you can compare DREAM vs. PRIDE, but because it doesn’t help your argument I’m not allowed to compare DREAM against EliteXC??? Please tell me also why DREAM has to live up to PRIDE’s reputation??? DREAM isn’t PRIDE, DREAM is 3 events old.”
See, you’ve made a valid argument about asking why DREAM has to live up to PRIDE’s reputation and DREAM only being three events old. Why can’t you bring more arguments to this to the table as opposed to getting personal and trying to distort the intent of my article?
“Laughable, arguments without getting personal, like how you started off your response to me with “I don’t know why I’m responding to you,” plus assuming that I don’t fully read what you write, which you complained about assumptions, so I find all that funny.”
You have a repeated track record of making things personal. Further more, you made false assumptions and statements in your response to my article. I treat people how they treat me. How can you cross the line and then get all sensitive when someone throws it back in your face?
“Laughable, arguments without getting personal, like how you started off your response to me with “I don’t know why I’m responding to you,” plus assuming that I don’t fully read what you write, which you complained about assumptions, so I find all that funny.”
You’ve mastered the art of talking in circles. Congratulations.
“Watching an event live is very different from watching it the next day or days later, I suggest, for anyone who didn’t, to watch DREAM live next time and feel the excitement as opposed to laying around days later and “wasting” a few hours watching it.”
You continue to be reckless and irresponsible with your comments. You claimed I supported the Tank vs. Kimbo main event when I did not. And now you’re using the term “wasting” in quotations as if I used that term in my article. I did not.
There are quite a few people who disagree with my position, which I fully anticipated and there will be many more. But I didn’t feel a need to call them out because they merely stated their opinion without crossing a line. They didn’t make false assumptions and they haven’t mis-quoted me… both of which you have done. Either start acting more responsible when you post here or you’re not going to be allowed to comment here.
Could not agree more with this article. Sam you have spoken the truth and keep up the excellent work.
I have been to several UFC events and you cannot beat the energy of the Chuck v. Randy 3 fight. It was so loud I could not even hear my wife sitting beside me. I know it is the Japanese culture to sit “politely and quietly” during the fight but I don’t care for it. Dream will continue put on shows but it will never be PRIDE and it will never do well in the USA. The fighter entrances seem too cartoonish and almost pro-wrestling esque, but I guess that whats the Japanese like.