A look at All the details on the Tito Ortiz/QuintonJackson feud in TNA and Bellator!

Bellator will be holding its first PPV show, and it will be like nothing ever attempted in the U.S., in the sense there will be a synchronized merging of promotion between an MMA and pro wrestling company.

The 11/2 show at the Long Beach Arena, headlined by Tito Ortiz vs. Rampage Jackson, will be promoted by Viacom, the owners of Bellator, and will include a level of multi-platform promotion on PPV that in the past has been limited to only the biggest boxing matches.

Viacom will be promoting the show on all its cable channels, including Spike, MTV, MTV 2, Comedy Central, BET, CMT and other outlets. The prime promotion will be on Bellator television and on TNA Impact, where Ortiz was introduced as a secret addition at the 8/1 tapings in Wichita Falls, TX.

Without going into detail, Bellator MMA CEO Bjorn Rebney said that a storyline is in place regarding Ortiz and Jackson for TNA wrestling, that would build to the PPV match. He indicated, but didn’t outright say, that TNA’s Bound for Glory PPV in San Diego will be part of the build.

There had been teases of a Bellator PPV that would be headlined by a boxing match with Roy Jones Jr. vs. Jackson, put out to end up as a surprise when Ortiz was announced.

According to Jackson, he had been in talks with Bellator and believed he would be boxing against Jones on the first PPV, until he found out from Ortiz, who is a long-time friend, that he was coming to Bellator for a match with him.

Ortiz said that he opened up negotiations for the match on 7/7, essentially the day his one-year legal matching rights period with UFC ended. He said the two sides had a meeting on 7/8 and got the deal largely agreed to within a week, and finalized shortly after that.

On the 7/31 Bellator television show, they announced early on that there would be a big announcement. They actually went so far as to fly Jones to Albuquerque and put him on the screen to swerve the viewers.

The announcement came with Jackson in the cage talking about his next show, talking about how he would love to fight Roy Jones Jr., but not to believe the Internet, and that his opponent would be coming out. Ortiz then came out and the date and location of the PPV was announced.

On TNA, they had promoted, starting on 7/26, that there would be a mystery August surprise who would debut on the 8/1 show. Why they chose to announce it on the Internet as opposed to on their own television show the night before is one of life’s great mysteries. As it turned out, the ratings for the taped show on 7/25 were slightly higher than for the live show, which hyped the surprise big for two hours but there was no real last quarter pop.

During the show, Taz, who didn’t announce, was shown outside the arena, and opened up a door to the van to find out who was in it, and acted shocked when he opened it. But when the cameras went in, it was just a computer playing the video.

At the end of the show, with the Main Event Mafia and Aces and 8s brawling, the lights went on. Suddenly, walking down the ramp was Ortiz. Unlike when Jackson debuted, which had been promoted, and there was a huge live reaction and it came across like he was a superstar, for Ortiz, arguably a bigger star in MMA, there was no reaction at all.

Part of it was that with his shaved head instead of his trademarked dyed blond hair, most people likely had no idea who he was.

The angle got an immediately and almost universal negative reaction. MMA people didn’t like the idea of a pro wrestling storyline-created MMA match, even though many MMA storylines are also created. Pro wrestling fans resented another MMA fighter with no pro wrestling background on the show. Whether TNA, which does have 1.0 to 1.5 million people watching weekly but hasn’t been able to convert all but a minuscule percentage to buy its own PPVs, will be able to create a storyline that will help an MMA show is questionable. The PPV crossover between MMA fans and TNA fans can be debated forever. The only thing this year has proven is that Bellator did 808,000 viewers from 10 p.m. to 12:30 a.m. on Thursday after Impact on average in the spring, then without a TNA lead-in, did 480,000 viewers on 6/19 for a normal show with King Mo (one of its signature stars) and 679,000 viewers for the most loaded up show in company history airing earlier in the evening.

The main event was also criticized, given Jackson and Ortiz are both past their primes as fighters. But from a Spike standpoint, the two are proven ratings winners and PPV draws. How much that means today is another issue, and can the nostalgia pop that is definitely a proven part of pro wrestling and entertainment carry over into MMA in 2013. In 2006, with Ken Shamrock and Royce Gracie, it did. But part of that was because most viewers didn’t realize Shamrock was past his prime and had no idea how much the sport had evolved from the Gracie heyday. In 2013, everyone is fully aware that Jackson and Ortiz are not top guys. Whether they can be marketed successfully in spite of that, is a different question.

Rebney didn’t go into detail on what programming would be done to hype the fight, but the hints were of a multi-week series since he noted that both fighters lived in Southern California so they could follow them almost 24/7 as they counted down to the date.

Ortiz peaked as a draw in 2006, with his 1 million buy effort with Chuck Liddell, a 775,000 buy effort with Ken Shamrock and his TV rematch with Ken Shamrock was the second most impressive TV ratings success in cable history (trailing only the Kimbo Slice vs. Roy Nelson Ultimate Fighter fight). Jackson spent much of his career in Japan, which he brings up constantly, with his view that it’s about entertaining the audience, and not all about winning and losing. Jackson had his own 1 million buy show against Rashad Evans in 2010 and did big numbers with Liddell and Jon Jones. The two most successful seasons of Ultimate Fighter were those coached by Jackson and Evans, building their fight, and Ortiz and Shamrock.

What that means in 2013 isn’t clear. If everyone involved does a great job of marketing and building the fight, who is to say how it will do. If this was a UFC main event next month, it’s hard to say what it would do given the Evans (who has a good drawing history) vs. Dan Henderson numbers. And how much of the UFC audience would buy a Bellator PPV? Is the dynamic more like WWE and TNA where people aren’t going to buy a PPV with Jeff Hardy and Kurt Angle in TNA, but those same guys on WWE television would do ten or 20 times more, or is it closer to boxing where the lure is the fighters, and who the promotion is doesn’t make a difference to most viewers.

It’s easy to declare this show DOA, particularly with second row seats still available at press time. But PPVs are sold in the last two weeks. We don’t know the storyline, although I’m skeptical any pro wrestling storyline will be much help. I’m also skeptical they can manufacture the grudge match aspect that is so important in selling a fight of this type, given that people know the two are close friends, nor do they hide it. However, both have historically been very good at building up fights, and in the last week, that’s going to be the make-or-break. This isn’t Affliction trying to get big numbers with no television.

Jackson started training with Ortiz early in his career, and noted that Ortiz and Ricco Rodriguez would have their way with him early on. But he noted that he got better and more competitive and they had spirited competition that nobody saw.

With Ortiz, the biggest factor is the usual Tito factor. He always says he’s healthy and in the best shape of his life, and then, after the fight, comes up with a laundry list of ailments. The ailments are real. His knees, back and neck are all shot at 38 years old. But when he says he’s healthy now, it’s hard to not have skepticism. Ortiz is only three months removed from full reconstructive knee surgery after a torn ACL, an injury that usually keeps a fighter out of serious training for nine months to a year. He also had neck surgery at the end of 2012, but said he made a remarkable recovery from that, even though it’s not his first neck surgery either. He will be fighting six months after a full ACL repair. Ortiz said the knee feels fine, that he was drilling in six weeks and that he’s got better recuperative powers now that he’s older, which goes against every law of nature.

Rebney promised the best fights Bellator has ever had underneath, and hoped to have the card done in about six weeks. He gave the impression that the card would have one or two-hours of live fights on Spike, similar to what UFC does, to push late buys.

The five fight card would be an opener, and the hint was as many as three title fights, but he said multiple five-round title fights with the idea of being a potentially longer show with all the five-rounders, followed by a three-round Ortiz vs. Jackson main event as a light heavyweight fight.

The only name he mentioned that he’d like to get on the show was Michael Chandler, the company’s lightweight champion, who has been the most impressive fighter they’ve had. In theory, Chandler should next face Dave Jansen, who earned the shot with a tournament win. One would think they will try and make a deal to bring Eddie Alvarez back if possible, which may be why Rebney wouldn’t commit to Jansen. Chandler’s title win over Alvarez on November 19, 2011, is generally considered the best fight in company history. The two at first couldn’t be rematched based on Rebney’s insistence the only way to get a title shot is winning a tournament, and Alvarez’s lack of interest in doing a tournament. However, Alvarez was promised a title shot with Chandler if he signed a new contract. Currently, Alvarez has sued to get out of the matching terms aspect of the contract.

In many ways, the real key to this show is not so much whether it gets enough buys to be profitable, but that the build-up focuses on three fights as opposed to one. If it has a chance of drawing, it is Ortiz vs. Jackson, but even so, they aren’t the future. This is where Chandler needs to be on the show. They need to get Chandler, as much as Ortiz and Jackson, on the various Viacom networks, doing the media and focused on in the countdowns with the hope that his fight and hopefully other fights become star making performances. Granted, Chandler has looked tremendous in two Spike fights already and really has no traction past the Bellator faithful. In theory, more will see him on free TV than PPV. But a PPV fight resonates stronger and is remembered better, largely because a PPV fight is hyped more coming in.

The key is to pick a few stars, Chandler as a given, and the others can be debated, and focus on them in the building of the show, and hope they perform when the lights are on.

Of the company’s other champions, heavyweight champion Alexander Volkov hasn’t fought sin