On January 31, 1959 professional wrestling made its debut on WRAL-TV. From the early 60's through the 70's the matches were filmed in a studio here at the station and shown on Saturday night at 11:30.
The Nature Boy--Blackjack Mulligan--Wahoo McDaniel. Those were the names that were synonymous with pro wrestling and those were the guys who would come to the station for their Wednesday night filmings.
Former news anchor Charlie Gaddy joked that he would be reading the news about a house fire in one studio while the wrestlers were applying headlocks and dropping a back suplex in the other studio.
I give you this little history lesson as a backdrop to CBS's decision to show Mixed Martial Arts in prime time this past Saturday. It's the first of 4 Saturday night events that the network will air over the summer as CBS tries to reach the young, male viewers. Some say it's a bold move for a network like CBS but they do toe the line of showing graphic scenes in CSI: Miami.
Saturday's MMA show on CBS ended with the graphic scene of Kimbo Slice pounding the blood out of James Thompson's ear that was barely attached. It was especially pleasing in high definition. (tongue-in-cheek folks)
The MMA event was way too long with pockets of inactivity. But the ratings at the end of the event were respectable. In the WRAL market, about 66,560 folks were watching when CBS wrapped up around 11:45.
On Monday morning, WRAL did not receive a ground swell of complaints from viewers but our station did complain to CBS about the length of the MMA programming. Currently WRAL plans to show the remaining three, prime-time events. WFMY-TV in Greensboro decided NOT to air the MMA program.
The mixed martial arts that CBS showed Saturday night was much more graphic than the wrestling WRAL aired in the 60's and 70's. No worries...WRAL-TV studios will not be home to the caged action of MMA.
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