When World Extreme Cagefighting officials first announced they would be holding a pay-per-view event, many MMA pundits didn't know what to expect.

That event, "WEC 48: Aldo vs. Faber," wound up as one of the most entertaining in the promotion's history and was a decided hit with pay-per-view buyers according to company officials.

With that event now on DVD, WEC general manager Reed Harris said it's performing well in retail outlets, as well. But the unbridled success of the April fight card hasn't changed the philosophy of the fight promotion.

"The first step was doing the show, and the WEC pay-per-view in Sacramento was an absolute success," Harris said. "The DVD has been selling really, really well. It's got some behind-the-scenes stuff, which is interesting, but also it's got obviously the (Urijah) Faber and (Jose) Aldo fight.

"The whole event, it put WEC on the map. We were on the map before, but a lot of new eyeballs came to the show."

Those new eyeballs saw an entire night of entertaining fights, but Aldo walked away as perhaps the biggest star after handily defeating Faber with a steady diet of damaging leg kicks. Faber, "The California Kid," has long been the posterboy of the organization. So how did Harris feel about the destruction of one of his most marketable athletes?

"Actually, I think it kind of helped our business because now we have two guys instead of one," Harris said. "Jose Aldo is considered pound-for-pound one of the best fighters on the planet. That's never a bad thing for an organization to have that guy as our champion.

"Obviously, Urijah Faber, I don't really think he's lost a lot of stock. He's still very, very popular."

Faber was scheduled to drop to bantamweight for a fight in September, but injury forced him out of the contest. Despite the setbacks, Harris said he doesn't believe Faber will play any less of a role in the promotion moving forward.

"Obviously we were going to have [Faber] on this upcoming card, and he got injured, but the demand is there. People are saying to me, 'Gosh, we really wanted to see him fight, especially now at 135 (pounds).'

"The thing I've learned from doing this so long is that it's not good to put all of your apples in one basket. Diversify – and that's what we're trying to do as an organization. I think it's worked out pretty well."

Pretty well, indeed. The WEC now has more recognizable stars than at any time in the company's history. In September, WEC 51 will see Aldo, former champion's Miguel Torres and Jamie Varner, and "Fight of the Year" candidates Chan Sung Jung and Leonard Garcia all featured on the main card. It's the type of talent-laden card that could facilitate a return to pay-per-view, but despite the success of the first venture – both in buys and DVD sales – Harris insists the company won't run away from it's Versus-broadcast roots.

"[Another pay-per-view show] is on the horizon, but we put a lot of effort into that Sacramento show," Harris said. "We had kind of decided internally, I think, that once we did that, we'd see how it went, but for the end of this year, we'll just keep it as is. We still have a commitment to Versus, so we'd actually have to add a show to do that, and we just didn't feel we were really in a position to do that.

"The September card I think we could have done a pay-per-view with and been successful, but we have a commitment to Versus, and you can't just take. You have to give. We're giving them a dynamite card, and they understand that. They know that we're providing them over and above what we committed to them."

And over-delivering on expectations has become the WEC's hallmark. So while stars like Faber may struggle, Harris is always ready with a few more options, such as Faber's Team Alpha Male teammates Joseph Benavidez and Chad Mendes, who will feature heavily at next week's WEC 50 event.

"I am so proud of the guys – the fighters – which is really at the end of the day what we look at," Harris said. "It's not really our thing, it's how did the fighters do. I'll tell you, nine times out of 10, we're really happy with what they're doing.

"[WEC 48] was a great event. It's kind of catapulted us."

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