September 12, 2005 Observer Newsletter: UFC & WWE rivalry heats up, Hurricane Katrina and pro wrestling in New Orleans
It’s on. It’s really on. Ten years ago this week, the Monday Night Wars began and turned around the fortunes of what at the time was an industry deep in the hole with every major promotion running at a loss. UFC, with no television, was doing PPV numbers equal to wrestling.
Over the past decade, we’ve seen wrestling reach new heights, and then, with the death of WCW, become an industry where it was harder to get full-time work than ever before. WCW became the hottest wrestling company in history within a few years, and then died. UFC all but died, and was then resurrected. WWE set records that blew away what WCW had accomplished. And then the popularity came tumbling down. Then UFC came back from the dead. The business changed an incredible amount over the past decade in the U.S.
And we knew the business was going to change again next month. But until this week, we just didn’t realize how much.
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Dave Meltzer is the founder and lead writer on the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, the weekly constant when it comes to news and reviews in pro wrestling and mixed martial arts for more than 40 years. Dave also co-hosts Wrestling Observer Radio with Bryan Alvarez and had had bylines for The National, Yahoo Sports, MMA Fighting and others.