We Have No Idea What Hip Show Is, But It's The Best Thing On TV

What you are watching is a clip from a Russian MMA-based show called Hip Show: Arena Combat, which is broadcast in America on AXS TV. It's really weird.

What we appear to have here is a sport born out of some kind of strange mixture of The Ultimate Fighter, American Gladiators, and BattleBots. Two teams of two enter an arena filled with all kinds of weird obstacles—seriously, what the fuck are those ropes for?—and beat the crap out of each other. Basic MMA fighting rules seem to apply, although kicks to the head are apparently frowned upon. "Not cool, not cool at all," one of the announcers intones when one guy catches a foot to the head.

So is this sport awesome? I don't know, is this awesome?

What about this?

THIS IS SO AWESOME.

It gets better, though. We haven't even gotten to the names of the fighters. In the clip above, you'll hear the announcer throw out names like Gladiator, Ronin, Berz Dog—Berz Dog!—Gambit, Canadian, and my personal favorite: Boromir. One does not simply walk into Hip Show: Combat Arena!

This is what Berz Dog looks like:

And I have no idea why this guy's name isn't Nosferatu:

Also, there are fans lining a catwalk above the arena, all of whom we must assume are Russian oligarchs who plan on murdering the losers of each match.

Still wondering what's up with those ropes, though.