A Pay-Per-View on Fite.TV

I guess the future of sports is …..PIllow Fighting?! I honestly halfway started watching this ironically – I mean who would think of making a profession pillow fighting league? I figured this would be kike those air guitar leagues you hear about and just be silly, but I was wrong. While I wouldn’t go out on a limb and consider this Olympic material anytime soon, it seems that the folks behind PFC have created an actual competitive sport that retains a presentation like an MMA league, but stays wholesome and can be enjoyed by a whole family. It reminds me of something like Ninja Warrior, Wipeout, or even Battlebots in that it’s every bit as competitive as other sports, but stays fun. Honestly, they made a fan tonight!

The Card:

• Andrew “Drew Illa” Vilma & Zach Bugarin Vs. Matt “Big Country” Ross & Danny Fallon
• Reggie Newsome Vs. Marcelo Golm-Bellator
• Kristen Froehlich Vs. Krystal “Tiger Lilly” Tait
• Sam Dillion Vs. Bruno Oliveira
• Colton “Colt 45” Cleveland Vs. Vince Edme
• Markus Eicheimberg Perez Vs. Phillip “The Dragon” Aughinbaugh
• Dani Costalonga Vs. Meriah Hall
• Leo Alves Vs. Oscar “Abel” Rodriguez
• Woodley Francois Vs. Jona “The Maccabee” Smolka

For anyone wanting to watch this, I would recommend Fite.TV. you can get some FITE credits (10 dollars I believe) with the following code: “6m6lyyn”. I’m sure there are other ways to watch it, but FITE has a solid interface and has been worth it so far.

My Thoughts:

As I’ve stated before, my methodology for this is to avoid giving arbitrary star ratings or anything resembling the typical ratings people give in wrestling reviews. I stopped awarding “grades” to things long ago, after my gig at a videogame site slid into them manipulating scores. I usually go through the show and pull a half-dozen or so things that I thought were significant or that I liked. You might think some of my choices are dumb and that’s okay – we all like different things!

Sense of Humor:

Stuff like the above image made me laugh each time it popped up – you can tell they had fun making this and it’s a bit tongue-in-cheek.

Legit Athletes:

It was somewhat interesting to note how many competitors here were actual athletes. Many were former wrestlers, boxers, and MMA fighters. I somewhat assumed this would just be a bunch of drunk guys swinging pillows at each other, and I was wrong.

Fun or Serious?!

You get a strange dichotomy here between people taking it VERY seriously and others not so much. For example, take the match between Dani Costalonga and Meriah Hall where it appeared actual hate was boiling over after Hall scored an early knockdown that likely cemented her win. Costalonga is a long tenured MMA fighter, and seemed to “lose her cool” a bit. The counter to that was Markus Eicheimberg Perez vs. Phillip “The Dragon” Aughinbaugh where the guys played to the crowd and started going shot for shot as if they were in a Dragonball Z fight. You could tell they were just there having a blast. I’m not sure which take I like better, but so far it’s interesting to see where everyone falls into place.

Overall Presentation:

It was cool to see this get the full sports treatment, including backstage interviews, commentary, and every bell and whistle you’d expect from a mixed-martial arts event. It even had “Ring Girls”.

Outreach for Kids:

There’s a couple of moments where they show an event at some kind of community center for helping kids learn the rules for PFC, get fit, and possibly stay out of trouble. This was cool, and it seems like a program that would be interesting to tour or set up affiliates for.

Tag Teams:

Aside from in professional wrestling, most sports don’t attempt a “tag team” match type, but here we go in PFC. This was an interesting idea, hopefully they can build up some solid fighters that specialize in this sort if thing – That would be interesting for sure.

Conclusion:

Overall this was fun, wholesome, and way better than I expected it to be. I can guarantee most won’t take something like this seriously, but having a sport that involves swing a heavy bag at an opponent with a referee and rules sounds less silly than other sports that get all kinds of respect. I mean we seriously have “Horse dancing” at the Olympics, so why the hell not. PFC has a big Pay-Per-View next week on Fite.TV, but I might attempt to watch PFC1 if available before I spend actual cash or points on another show. Overall, worth watching!