Nothing says you’ve made it like a Rumble exclusive, right?
Dana White hasn’t been pleased about the reception his new business venture has been getting. UFC boss has attempted to copy UFC reality series format and apply it to the world of slap competitions.
With several glaring flaws. Slap competitions are generally much more benign thanks to an actual ruleset – one which Power Slap doesn’t enforce in order to practically manufacture knockouts in every episode.
Twitch streamer and Slap competition fan Moist Critical explained it:
Everyone knows it’s stupid and they do everything they can to make it as safe as possible, except in Dana White’s power slap. ”
“…it’s just a fun, over-the-top, goofy sport. But he has a set of rules that keep it as safe as possible for the athletes. Rules that aren’t being followed by power slap, even though they do borrow some of the best slappers in the world for the show.”
“Now, to the untrained eye, this seems like business as usual for slapping sports, but there’s actually some very key differences. The first and in my opinion, one of the biggest problems is the absence of the no stepping rule. Now, to be fair, they do have stepping listed as one of the fouls, but it’s not enforced in the actual show, so it might as well just not have even been written down in the first place.”
“It basically is absent in normal slapping tournaments. You’re not allowed to step into your slaps. It’s all just upper body rotation. You can’t be like, you know, do them like a happy Gilmore up to the barrel and then slapping them on the way by with a drive by. Because obviously when you’re stepping into a slap, you’re generating significantly more power with it.”
Despite the fact they’re compromising the long-term brain health of competitors, Power Slap has been stagnating in the ratings and is likely to get cut from TBS at some point. Week to week ratings for Power slap paint a damning picture:
Week 1: 295,000 viewers, 0.10 share, No 45. rated program for the night.
Week 2: 413,000 viewers, 0.13 share, No. 30 rated program for the night.
Week 3: 284,000 viewers, 0.09 share, No. 51 rated program for the night.
Week 4: 275,000 viewers, 0.08 share, No. 68 rated program for the night.
Week 5: 275,000 viewers, 0.09 share, No. 55 rated program for the night.
And White was active on social media, promising to ‘show the haters’ with a new announcement.
The announcement turned out to be moving Power Slap finale from PPV to rumble. But poular MMA account, FullContactMTWF highlighted that while Power Slap has been promoted across many media channels the promotion hasn’t translated into fans for the contest participants indicating passing social media fad.
By the looks of things, Power slap is on route to join Dana White’s The Ultimate Surfer show in the graveyard of failed ventures.
Interestingly, taping of Power Slap finale that was to be PPV caused UFC Vegas 71 card featuring Petr Yan against Merab Dvalishvili to be moved to The Theater at Virgin Hotels in Las Vegas.