WEC - The Something Awful Forums

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Sports Argument Stadium > The Hammer House: Stinger Splash Zone > WEC

Boco_T: Mar 12, 2003; la calaca tilica y flaca

I'm watching the fights from the first show and the ring announcer is dressed up like Furio from Sopranos

# ¿ Jun 22, 2022 04:35

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ¿ May 13, 2024 22:28

Boco_T: Mar 12, 2003; la calaca tilica y flaca

Here's some extra stuff I dug up to contribute to the thread:

- The Wrestling Observer was mostly only covering UFC and PRIDE at the time, so there is no mention of this show. But there was notable historic MMA news that broke on 6/28/01, two days before this show took place:

"Dynamite" Dave Meltzer, WON 2001-07-09 posted:

During a time when the dynamics of the sports entertainment industry in the United
States seems to be changing almost weekly, in what would be the biggest story since the
purchase of UFC by Zuffa Entertainment, In Demand announced UFC PPV shows would
be back on basic cable starting with the 9/28 event after the two groups agreed to a four
year contract.

The announcement was made on 6/28 at a press conference at the ESPN Zone restaurant
in New York to promote the PPV event the next day. Steve Brenner, the President and
CEO of In Demand made the announcement, crediting the recent sanctioning of UFC by
the athletic commissions in New Jersey and California for the move. The 9/28 date is
tentatively scheduled for the Mandalay Bay Casino in Las Vegas, pending formal approval
of the Nevada State Athletic Commission, which is expected when the subject comes to an
official vote on 7/23. There is a follow-up show at this point scheduled for 10/26, as will
as a final show of the year for December.

That's right, the founding of WEC coincides almost exactly with the end of the "dark ages" of UFC where it finally got onto the road to becoming the "legitimate" sport that we know and love.

- As Mekchu metioned, the show takes place at the Tachi Palace Hotel & Casino, on the first nations land of the Tachi Yokuts tribe in Lemoore, CA. 22 of the first 24 WEC events took place at the Tachi Palace from 2001 to 2006, when Zuffa purchased the organization. WEC was the first MMA promotion to be aligned with Tachi Palace from 2001-2006. From 2007-2009, Palace Fighting Championship ran 17 events there, followed finally by Tachi Palace Fights, who ran all 35 of their events there between 2009 and 2018. That run included a very brief break, where "the tribal council decided to discontinue mixed martial arts events at the casino in December 2012, but reversed its decision in March 2013, and TPF fights resumed."

- In his promo after his main event win, Dan Severn said that he's 43 years old and is entering the final two years of his professional career, do the disappointment of the crowd. He said he was currently working on trying to put together what would be his final big sendoff fight. Dan would actually continue to fight another 11 years after this event, finishing up in April 2012. This event was his 52nd pro MMA fight, and he would spend that 11 years having 75 more fights before finally actually retiring. I searched the text of Dan's book for reference to this fight but he did not write abut it. The only reference he makes to the year 2001 in the book is about his fight with Forrest Griffin in October, which was Forrest's pro debut after a 5-0 amateur start and which Dan won by decision.

- I decided to open up one more Observer issue from later in July before I posted and I found the first WEC CONTROVERSY~!

"Dynamite" Dave Meltzer, WON 2001-07-23[/quote posted:

UFC pioneer and pro wrestler Dan Severn was suspended by the International Fighting
Council (IFC) after allegations from the promotion that he was involved in a fixed fight on
6/30 in Lemoore, CA against Travis Fulton. Fulton, along with Severn's manager, Becky
Levi, were also given indefinite suspensions, effective immediately, as it related to a
match that Severn won by unanimous decision.

According to an IFC press release, the suspensions alleging a predetermined fight, said
that it became apparent to referee Mason White that Fulton was holding back from
punching Severn while he had the 43-year-old former UFC heavyweight champion in a
full mount. When questioned after the fight, Fulton claimed that Levi had approached
him before the fight on behalf of Severn telling Fulton to go easy on Severn and to
guarantee Severn the victory or Severn would pull out of the fight. Fulton was a last
minute replacement opponent for Severn, who was expecting a much easier fight that
night.

Commissioner Paul Smith said in the press conference that the participants could all be
fined and suspended for up to one year for a first offense on this charge, but were
withholding a final determination on the suspension until speaking further with Severn
and Levi.

There are three different versions of what happened, two of them pretty clear cut, Smith's
claim the fight was a work and Levi's claim it wasn't. Fulton's side of the story at this
point is a little more murky, since he admitted to a pre-fight agreement but not to a fixed
outcome, and brings into question whether a pre-fight agreement to limit offensive tactics
constitutes a work (it doesn't) or a deception on the public (it is). At the same time, the
question of feeding fighters opponents who are believed to have zero chance to beat them
and switching opponents on fighters at the last minute is another form of deception,
which at times is necessary, but opens up a lot of cans of worms.

Severn and Levi's story, in response, as printed in the current issue of Full Contact
Fighter, is that they contacted by promoter Scott Adams about three weeks before the
fight to come in and fight a tomato can, as a late replacement for Chuck Liddell. Severn
booked himself to do fights on four consecutive weekends from 6/23 to 7/15 and this was
the second weekend of the series. Severn was already booked for that weekend in the
Poconos doing a seminar and being inducted into the World Karate Hall of Fame. On the
day of the show, they flew out of Newark, to San Francisco, arriving at 3 p.m., and drove
four hours to Lemoore. Upon arrival, they got the first indication that Fulton, a very
experienced journeyman fighter, may be Severn's opponent because of problems with the
scheduled opponent. When they got to Lemoore, CA, Levi was paid Severn's guarantee in
advance. Levi said she went to Fulton, who told him that the original opponent was
drinking and smoking at the casino and the promoters took him off the card. Levi then
went to one of the promoters, Reed Harris, and told him the money figure they agreed to
was to fight a tomato can, and not an experienced fighter like Fulton. Harris told Levi that
they were already over budget and wouldn't up Severn's money. He said that if he thought
Severn would want more money, he never would have taken the original opponent off the
show. It should be noted Severn had a fight scheduled in September in Iowa against
Fulton. She noted that they were given the rules, which banned knees and elbows to the
head, just as Severn entered the cage (he missed the rules meeting because he was in the
Poconos for his previous engagement), which ruined his typical fight strategy. Levi
claimed that even though Fulton did get a mount during the fight, he never had any space
and when he tried to make a move, Severn reversed him and dominated the rest of the
fight. They were called the next day and told that Fulton had told Smith the fight was a
work.

In the same magazine, Fulton did an interview saying that he was also promised an easy
fight, his opponent kept changing, and the night before the fight they brought up to him
fighting Severn. Fulton claimed he talked with Levi and said they would try to give the
people a show but that the fight itself would be real, in that the grappling would be real,
but they did reach a pre-match understanding because Severn was worn out from the
travel and Fulton had one hand all banged up that he wouldn't be able to punch with. He
said the agreement was that Fulton wouldn't punch Severn, which he said didn't really
matter because with his hand so sore, he couldn't anyway. He said the deal they privately
agreed on was not to strike each other, but there was no deal on who would win, and that
Severn beat him fair and square. Fulton said he mentioned to Smith after the fight about
their pre-fight agreement not to punch each other and Smith got furious, saying that with
all the work the IFC is trying to do to legalize the sport and they were doing a work.
Fulton said he mentioned the agreement not to punch when he was asked why he never
threw a punch when he got the mount, and his response was, that he only had one good
hand, and that they had agreed not to. Fulton also said that Adams was the next day to
take him back to San Francisco to fly home, but refused to do so because he believed they
did a fake fight and Fulton wouldn't admit to it, although Fulton did get a ride from
Adams' father to the Fresno airport, and Adams' father bought him a plane ticket from
Fresno to SF so he could catch his flight.

# ¿ Jun 22, 2022 14:49

Boco_T: Mar 12, 2003; la calaca tilica y flaca

Oh I forgot to mention, from the "looking through Tapology" file:

- Chris Sanford, the "guy in the shirt," was on TUF1 but got sent home by Randy Couture without even getting to fight. He lost to Josh Koscheck on the TUF1 Finale show.
- Scott Carson was the second of two guys to lose to professional MMA fighter and absent father Herschel Walker
- Bryson "The Outlaw" Haubrick only had 3 MMA fights (0-3), and his pro debut two months before he lost on this show was a loss at KOTC: Bombs Away to a 7-1 Quinton "Rampage" Jackson
- An 0-2 Victor Estrada was one of Antonio "Mandingo" McKee's 6 finishes in his 30 MMA wins.
- It does appear that there was an entire series of shows in New Zealand called "Princesses of Pain" https://www.tapology.com/fightcenter/events/35055-princesses-of-pain-45

Boco_T fucked around with this message at 16:27 on Jun 22, 2022

# ¿ Jun 22, 2022 16:25

Boco_T: Mar 12, 2003; la calaca tilica y flaca

I watched WEC 2 this afternoon so I could get caught up on the thread.

- Unfortunately for us, the big missing piece in WEC 3 is pro debut of Glover Teixeira, which he lost to Eric "The Great" Schwartz, he of the huge body blow TKO in at WEC 2. Those were Schwartz's only fights.

- There is a big time gap for WEC 3, the second show was October 2001 and the third was June 2002. WEC 4 is on 8/31/2002 so we're force into skipping ahead almost a full year. I cannot find any coverage of WEC 2 or 3 in old Wrestling Observer Newsletters.

- It was very funny hearing them call him "Rob the Razor" instead of "Razor Rob" and I wonder how many "undocumented on Tapology" kickboxing fights he'd had before switching to MMA. Bobby Southworth mentioned seeing in him Strike Force Kickboxing on commentary. I should look for those.

- WEC 3 had the promotional debut of Richard "Cleat" Crunkilton, but we'll hear more about the man with one of the funniest last names in MMA on future shows including WEC 4. At WEC 3 he beat our tribal belly boy Cruz Gomez.

- The main event of WEC 3 was Aaron "The Frijolero" Brink quickly defeating the 2-9 UFC 1 loser "Nasty" Zane Frazier. The next month Brink defeated Valentijn Overeem in Nevada before returning for WEC 4.

- It was interesting hearing reference to Nova Unaio from 2001. I see that they were founded in 1995 but I did not know that the pipeline to the US was open for them this early. Nyza being on WEC 2 seems to be a direct line to Jose Aldo showing up there at UFC 34.

- Bobby Southworth is most famously remembered for calling Chris Leben a "fatherless bastard" on an episode of the original Ultimate Fighter.

# ¿ Jul 8, 2022 19:04

Boco_T: Mar 12, 2003; la calaca tilica y flaca

Notes and Research, WEC 4:

- They put belts on Pellegrino, Crunkilton, and Horn after they won. It's possible that those belts were simply the equivalent of the trophies given out for the winners of the earlier fights. Though I agree they definitely made it seem like the Danzig/Pellegrino match was a title match. But weirder still because the Crunkilton/Oliveira fight was also at lightweight.

- There was a 90-second interval between rounds on this one, that was very weird.

- They worked Chuck Liddell into paying to get "www.chuckliddell.com" on the top of the cage.

- The Fight Pass file airs the Fryklund fight twice in a row for some reason.

- Luciano Oliveira's only other fight was in Milan 12 years later.

- I guess I'm unusually familiar with Bao Quach because he was on those early Gladiator Challenge and King of the Cage DVD sets that were very easy to find in Best Buy back in the day. I'm sure those shows are the most represented minor league MMA of that era. Good on Quach for having a 3-4 / 4-5 / 6-8-1 record early in his career and still managing to retire at 19-10-1. He truly fought everywhere you've heard of in that time too: Gladiator Challenge, King of the Cage, WEC, Shooto, EliteXC, ICONSport, Affliction, Strikeforce, Bellator, and M-1 Challenge. Hell, does anyone else have that wide a resume?

- Heavy ad representation from "Team Pain Inc." on this show. I thought it was a fight camp but apparently "Pain Inc." was a Tapout competitor apparel company.

- Still no coverage of WEC or this show in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.

# ¿ Aug 1, 2022 19:03

Boco_T: Mar 12, 2003; la calaca tilica y flaca

You covered a lot of what I noted down while I was watching WEC 5.

Diallo Baza did several grounded knees to the head, I think, but the shot framing was such that it was difficult to see where they landed. Ref did not say anything.

Tim Kennedy won by classic MMA strategy "punch the brain stem 4 times and the ref says it's legal and gives you a TKO"

Commentary was clearly recorded in a studio after the show was edited to tape, and per the Youtube comments the lead commentator Mike Popp was operating one of the cameras so you can see him on screen while he's doing commentary.

No coverage in the Observer. I'm hoping eventually Dave covers or attends one of these shows before the Zuffa purchase, but maybe he won't.

First fight (not on tape) winner Justin "Shaggy" Wieman has a win over the legend Jay Ellis in Jay Ellis's MMA debut. Yes, THE Jay Ellis that is currently 16-105.

Gabe "Godzilla" Ruediger gets a rematch with Sam "Nico" Wells 3 years lator on the WEC Halloween Fury 4 show.

Victor Estrada was 1-6 when they forced him to fight Richard "Cleat" Crunkilton. He finished his career 5-12 and lost to a lot of famous names: Antonio McKee, Josh Thomson, Leonard Garcia, Melvin Guillard, and Lyle "Fancy Pants" Beerbohm.

Philip Perez really has that " Team Fresno! " tattoo on his chest, WITH the quotes!

Excited to Mr. International Shonie Carter in WEC. "Poppies Martinez vs. Erick Husbands" is a top-tier MMA fighter name battle.

EDIT:
Oh, I ripped the opening in case you don't wanna watch the whole show but do got 2 minutes to see something amazing
https://twitter.com/Boco_T/status/1557024587648536576

Boco_T fucked around with this message at 18:04 on Aug 9, 2022

# ¿ Aug 9, 2022 18:01

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ¿ May 13, 2024 22:28

Boco_T: Mar 12, 2003; la calaca tilica y flaca

Here's a bunch of notes I took like when I watched WEC 6 a few weeks back:

- File started with a highlight of the show you're about to watch. Ryan Bennett and Jeff Blatnick on commentary made a pretty good team.
Video is fullscreen letterboxed, but the video quality is tremendous for a video of this age

- Herb Dean is here in March 2003

- Poppies Martinez, making his debut here, has the nickname "Tachi Kid" and it looks like he fought about 30 of his 40 career MMA fights in the Tachi Palace.

- Sanford vs. Cardenas whips rear end

- First WEC show with an on-screen clock graphic (occasionally)

- Bret "The Angry Hick" Bergmark retired from rodeo to start MMA

- Ura vs. Swick very good fight
- Kengo Ura's pro debut here in 2003, he fought long enough to lose to Frank "The Crank" Camacho in Guam in 2015.

- Late Replacement Gilbert

- Nick Diaz fight is for the IFC United States Welterweight Championship
- "The Irisman" Joe Hurley fought on the legendary King of the Cage "Wet 'n' Wild" show in the rain

- Carter vs. Jackson very good fight
- Jeremy Jackson goes on to fight Nick Diaz in the IFC in July 2003 then fights him again at UFC 44 2 months later in September 2003.

- On-screen graphic had it as Castillo (17-2) vs. Williams (0-0), which is insane, but Tapology pegs it at actually being (6-2) vs. (0-1). Which is not much better.

Dave Meltzer did report on this show, because he attended it!

Dynamite Dave posted:

MMA: Frank Shamrock's first MMA match since December 2000 (he did one K-1 match in 2001) took place on a show called "Return of a Legend" on 3/27 in Lemoore, CA before a sellout 2,500 fans. Shamrock, who only has one MMA rules loss in his career (a 1996 match with John Lober), captured the World Extreme Cage Fighting championship with a win over Brian Pardoe. Pardoe clocked Shamrock right in the nose within seconds, bloodying him up. Pardoe was ground and pounding him until Shamrock's skill took over and he swept Pardoe almost out of nowhere and locked in an armbar in 1:46. Pardoe was a former college wrestling teammate of former WWE wrestler Ron Waterman.

This was being taped as part of a movie documentary on Shamrock's comeback. Goldberg, who is friends with Shamrock, was at the show, and did a promo announcing his Raw appearance (to the chagrin of the WWE brass) and talked about how he patterned his style in pro wrestling after people like Shamrock. He was also kind of in the middle of an unplanned angle since both Chuck Liddell and Tito Ortiz were there. Also there was Brian Johnston, who is now a trainer for New Japan Pro Wrestling for Shinsuke Nakamura. While has not recovered to nearly the levels of Bret Hart, Johnston has made a remarkable recovery from his stroke, walking around without a cane.

Liddell said he was going to fight on the 6/6 UFC show in Las Vegas, whether it was against Ortiz, or someone else. Ortiz, who was booed, said he hadn't signed for the good of the fighters and for Chuck himself, saying that fighters should make better money for the big matches and wasn't going to shortchange himself. People booed that a lot, as almost everyone in the building thought it was a code word for not wanting to fight Liddell.

Shamrock also produced the show, and even though he appeared in great shape, it is really risky training for a fight on a show that you are also promoting and I wouldn't recommend it. Jeff Blatnick did the announcing and there was talk of the 14-match show airing at some point on PPV.

There was also a UWFI style pro wrestling match on the show, and the people loved it. It was clearly called "exhibition fighting" so there was no catcalls about it being predetermined, and they worked far stiffer than most pro wrestling matches. I don't even know the guys, but they did a hell of a job as it was better than every match except one on Smackdown that I saw live two days earlier...

# ¿ Sep 6, 2022 13:19

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Sports Argument Stadium > The Hammer House: Stinger Splash Zone > WEC