Sleepover + Why MMA is better than Pro Wrestling

Anybody want to stay in my guest room for a couple of days for the benefit of my health?

Onto the other topic...

The first individual wrestling match I was ever excited for was Macho Man versus Hulk Hogan at Wrestlemania V. There was a focused, year-long storyline building up to this match and some of my earliest childhood memories are watching segments from this feud. Over the years, there have been many great builds to matches. Shawn Michaels versus Undertaker Hell in a Cell at Bad Blood '97, Steve Austin versus Undertaker at Summer Slam '98, Rock versus Austin at Wrestlemania 17, Rock versus Brock Lesnar at Summer Slam '02, etc. Recently, however? Undertaker versus Michaels and Flair versus Michaels from the past two Wrestlemania shows come to mind. Beyond that, the focus in professional wrestling, which for the purposes of this entry is basically just WWE, has never been less on individual matches. They have so many pay per views, so many hours of free TV every week, and so few new stars to cycle in and out of the mix that there is literally no combination of wrestlers I can think of that I would really care about headlining a pay per view more than any other. WWE's only saving grace is that they're loaded pretty much from top to bottom with good wrestlers, so while I very rarely greatly look forward to the pay per views, they're usually pretty solid.

On the other hand, MMA, and UFC in particular, is promoted in such a manner that I know the top fights off the top of my head, from now until the end of the summer. And pretty much without exception, I'm looking forward to ALL of them.

July's got Brock Lesnar versus Frank Mir, Georges St. Pierre versus Thiago Alves, and Dan Henderson versus Michael Bisping.

In August it's BJ Penn versus Kenny Florian and Anderson Silva versus Forrest Griffin. Then later in the month, Randy Couture versus Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira.

I actually don't know anything in September off the top of my head, but that's because they haven't announced the main event.

October however, brings us the return of MACHIDA KARATE as Lyota Machida faces Mauricio "Shogun" Rua.

Now, I'm not saying that WWE should announce their cards months in advance or anything like that. But making titles seem important, trying to work more guys into the main event mix, and even not worrying so much about people figuring out their booking just because they want to "surprise" the fans could lead to a much steadier, easier to follow product and would likely produce matches with longer build ups and thus more interest.

I'm not breaking any new ground here, but it's just something that's been on my mind.