by:  Jack Bratcher

Dave Meltzer from The Wrestling Observer has this report:

“We don’t have a rating yet, but the news is very encouraging.The half-hours in the 18-49 demo were 1.4, 1.6, 2.1 and 2.4. The first hour was nothing impressive but the second hour was the highest rated in the demo on television for any show. The level of growth was spectacular. This is only from 9-11 p.m. so we don’t know how the last 50 minutes did but at least in the demo it handily beat the NHL playoffs.”

The actual ratings number will probably be in by tomorrow but after speaking with a few people who I knew weren’t traditionally fans of Mixed Martial Arts I had a strong feeling the event did better than any of us may have imagined. First of all, my brother who is 52 has never ordered an MMA pay-per-view event. He may have seen a couple of fights from the UFC on Spike TV in passing but is by no means a “fan” of the sport and has no knowledge of mma. But he told me today that he watched the entire show last night and he thought Gina Carano and Kaitlin Young was the best fight of the night. He did say however, “You could tell who they wanted to win.” But he also said, “It’s going to be bigger than boxing.” And that is a huge statement coming from a guy who grew up loving boxing. I asked him how he knew about the event and he said “well it was on mainstream TV and alot of people were talking about it coming on.” The other person I talked to about the EliteXC show on CBS was a 74 year old gentleman friend of the family. He watched the entire event also and seemed to enjoy it. 74 years old! That’s amazing! Not quite the target audience but any viewer is a good viewer as far as I’m concerned. So even though the hardcore MMA fans know what was really going on there, the average Joe TV at home seemed to be entertained by an event that was a few levels above a “tough man contest”. Hopefully, the shows Elite XC produces will improve and the viewers will keep coming back.

(Here’s the link to the Dave Meltzer report: http://www.wrestlingobserver.com/wo/news/headlines/default.asp?aID=23020)

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