Is TNA's Move To Monday Night A Mistake?

[Tugboat77]

I want to know if anyone else besides me thinks that the decision to move Impact to Monday night is a huge mistake? All during last night's episode of Impact, Taz and Tenay kept talking about how they are going to conquer Monday nights starting March 8th. How is this going to happen when they can't even conquer Thursdays? That's a big statement for them to be making already and is in my opinion very premature and is going to come back to bite them in the butt.

I have my reasons for thinking this. A lot of TNA's audience are people like myself who are fans of wrestling and watch both shows. If people are going to be forced to choose between the two, going by ratings of one program on Monday compared to the other on Thursday, the WWE is going to win hands down. So looking at this logically, won't TNA's ratings go down instead of up? Eric Bischoff claimed in an interview that he isn't concerned about ratings right now but instead taking a chunk of Raw's audience. If people who normally watch both shows are going to be made to choose, won't this take away from Impact's audience instead? This just seems like a logical conclusion to me.

I guess to sum it up I feel that if TNA thinks they are going to come to Mondays and take WWE's audience they are going to be disappointed. If I'm forced to choose, I'll no longer be a viewer of TNA and I have watched it religiously for a long time now. Impact barely gets a third of the ratings that Raw gets right now. How is this going to increase when fans of both programs choose the more popular show?

The only factor that may change this is if people dvr one and watch the other. The problem with this is that Monday is a big night for television year round and I would venture to guess that most WWE fans are loyal to other programs on Mondays as well.

This isn't a TNA bashing thread. I want to make that clear. As I've said, I have watched Impact religiously for a long time now. And I sincerely hope that each program does great because that will only benefit the wrestling fans and force both to produce great programming. I am just being realistic.

 

[wylieb0y]

TNA are going to play the "PG" card when it comes to this.

Like they did on the Jan 4th edition, there going to use storylines/segments to pull in the adult/teen viewers. Such as the strip poker segement etc. When they say they want a chunk of RAWs viewers, they mean the adults. The people that cant stand the pg crap that gets shoved at us. Although i think its a minority hitting the majority, the larger audience is kids. Therefore the best TNA can really hope for is that the diehards stick to TNA, and the people that want WWE to step up there game, tune into TNA!

You also have to consider that with it being Wrestlemania season, and the Bret Hart storyline going on just now, TNA have to do something special to retain viewership on monday nights.

 

[trendkiller]

You also have to consider that with it being Wrestlemania season, and the Bret Hart storyline going on just now, TNA have to do something special to retain viewership on monday nights.

WrestleMania season, yes. The Hart storyline...? Not so much.

In my opinion, the WWE botched the Hart return so bad it's not even funny. I don't know if it is that they haven't given it enough air time or if it's just because they try to implement it in a PG environment, but if someone screwed ME 12 years ago, then I came back to make peace and I get spat in the face, beat up and all that jazz... well, I wouldn't let it stop at "bring your ass to the ring" as far as explicit language goes. I'd be pissed.

Hart's been acting more like someone accidentally bumped him in a crowd, he's all "oh, s'alright, no problem dude". Then he goes and wrecks some sound equipment in slow-motion and we're all going to buy that now he's REALLY mad...

Problem with the Hart angle is, as someone else put it in a thread more closely related to the storyline, the WWE is trying to cater to the fans that were part of that era. Isn't that good? No, because they've pushed that very demographic to the side for the past five years and focused on the kiddies. The Hart angle is a mid-card feud at best - the MVP vs Hardy angle on SmackDown a couple of years (?) back was much more interesting than this debacle.

Going against the WWE heading into WrestleMania, well... TNA will have to pull out some big stops for it to work, but I'm pretty confident that they will thrive and grow in this new, hot environment.

They've got the wrestlers and they've got the creative minds, now all they need is a catalyst.

 

[luis_is_king]

Well I'm from the philippines so obviously I don't know much about the ratings of the shows in the USA but I've read that TNA averages about 1.2 and during Jan.4 they got a 1.5 while raw got 3.6(in january 4) and I've read that they average 3.5 atleast so I think TNA is rushing a bit here because they're focusing on really competing against the wwe rather than being an alternative like Mr.bishcoff did w/ WCW. I also read some posts in other sites and some TNA fans admit that when it comes to presenting storylines TNA kinda sucks in that area, and I've also read that their current arena still looks like a minor league compared to the WWE's. So how could they attract people that are not hardcore wrestling fans such as kids and casual fans to watch their show when it seems like only wrestling purists, wwe fans from the 90's and attitude era watch TNA faithfully and some of those fans even turn to WWE programming once in a while to check wwe and here's the troubling part many people say that WWE's current product sucks but it can't be even beat by TNA so what if WWE decides to put out their A-game? So to conclude, I think it's a mistake by TNA to rush in the battlefields. That's just my opinion

 

[Reddannihilation]

I want to know if anyone else besides me thinks that the decision to move Impact to Monday night is a huge mistake? All during last night's episode of Impact, Taz and Tenay kept talking about how they are going to conquer Monday nights starting March 8th. How is this going to happen when they can't even conquer Thursdays? That's a big statement for them to be making already and is in my opinion very premature and is going to come back to bite them in the butt.

I don't see how they aren't conquering Thursdays. TNA's been beating Superstars for months and it was beating ECW for months as well before it ended. So, yeah that's where I'll start.

I have my reasons for thinking this. A lot of TNA's audience are people like myself who are fans of wrestling and watch both shows. If people are going to be forced to choose between the two, going by ratings of one program on Monday compared to the other on Thursday, the WWE is going to win hands down. So looking at this logically, won't TNA's ratings go down instead of up? Eric Bischoff claimed in an interview that he isn't concerned about ratings right now but instead taking a chunk of Raw's audience. If people who normally watch both shows are going to be made to choose, won't this take away from Impact's audience instead? This just seems like a logical conclusion to me.

Your logical conclusion is devoid of any objectivity. You've immediatley assumed everyone who watches both TNA and WWE will immediately support WWE. When it comes right down to it a lot of people admit to watching TNA due to interest and Raw out of habit. In that regard I believe you'll find people are more likely to watch what interests them over what just happens to be on at the time.

I guess to sum it up I feel that if TNA thinks they are going to come to Mondays and take WWE's audience they are going to be disappointed. If I'm forced to choose, I'll no longer be a viewer of TNA and I have watched it religiously for a long time now. Impact barely gets a third of the ratings that Raw gets right now. How is this going to increase when fans of both programs choose the more popular show?

Again you're assuming every wrestling fan who isn't a TNA purist, is exactly the same as you. A lot of people who watch both prefer TNA, a lot of people who watch WWE aren't aware of TNA yet and therefore don't know if they'll prefer it or not. So yeah try not to make blanket statements without any back up beyond your personal preferences.

The only factor that may change this is if people dvr one and watch the other. The problem with this is that Monday is a big night for television year round and I would venture to guess that most WWE fans are loyal to other programs on Mondays as well.

Seriously you're not even trying to hide the WWE fanboyism at this point.

This isn't a TNA bashing thread. I want to make that clear. As I've said, I have watched Impact religiously for a long time now. And I sincerely hope that each program does great because that will only benefit the wrestling fans and force both to produce great programming. I am just being realistic.

It's funny because you say it isn't a bashing thread and then you pretty much run down the company and make blanket statements that everyone is going to choose RAW instead. Your essentially trying to hide the fact that your prefer RAW to TNA by your choice of words, but it's still very obvious that you've got it in your head that somehow RAW is better than TNA and that everyone who isn't Anti-RAW knows this and agrees with you. A little objectivity and the consideration of other perspectives might assist in having others take your posts seriously.

 

[Y 2 Jake]

Of course it's a bad idea, TNA have poor ratings unopposed on a Thursday, now they're going up against WWE weekly. Their last Monday iMPACT! got a good TNA rating, not a good wrestling rating. WWE still kicked the shit out of them and that was with TNA's trump card, Hogan, who's not as much of a rating draw as the overrated Knockouts right now.

 

[wylieb0y]

WrestleMania season, yes. The Hart storyline...? Not so much.

In my opinion, the WWE botched the Hart return so bad it's not even funny. I don't know if it is that they haven't given it enough air time or if it's just because they try to implement it in a PG environment, but if someone screwed ME 12 years ago, then I came back to make peace and I get spat in the face, beat up and all that jazz... well, I wouldn't let it stop at "bring your ass to the ring" as far as explicit language goes. I'd be pissed.

Hart's been acting more like someone accidentally bumped him in a crowd, he's all "oh, s'alright, no problem dude". Then he goes and wrecks some sound equipment in slow-motion and we're all going to buy that now he's REALLY mad...

Problem with the Hart angle is, as someone else put it in a thread more closely related to the storyline, the WWE is trying to cater to the fans that were part of that era. Isn't that good? No, because they've pushed that very demographic to the side for the past five years and focused on the kiddies. The Hart angle is a mid-card feud at best - the MVP vs Hardy angle on SmackDown a couple of years (?) back was much more interesting than this debacle.

Going against the WWE heading into WrestleMania, well... TNA will have to pull out some big stops for it to work, but I'm pretty confident that they will thrive and grow in this new, hot environment.

They've got the wrestlers and they've got the creative minds, now all they need is a catalyst.

While many people (like yourself) find the Hart angle to not live up to its expectations, Mainly because you expected Bret Hart - The Purple and black attack. The Bret Hart we have now doesn't ooze of Charisma like he used to. He cant sell like he used to and im pretty sure he cant wrestle like he used to either. But what makes this whole program work,
and puts it way above your "mid-card" feud, is the nostalgia behind it. The birth of the McMahon character and the end of the Bret Hart one (for WWE of course) It pushed the attitude era that bit further into bringing together a ruthless Mr.McMahon. It all started with Bret Hart - The man who got screwed.

 

[nzubeagha95]

i personnaly think that tna moving to monday Is in fact a big mistake eric bischoff said that there interested in audience not rating ok but look what happens on thursday nights supersters get more audience and its not on the same hour which gives people chance to watch tna without tuning into supertar and tna is out-numbered audience and viewer-wise and think about what would happen to tna if viewers and audience have to choose i cant speak for others but i will watch wwe

 

[Ambiguous Turd]

If I was working for TNA, I'm sure glad that I wouldn't have some of you guys on my Staff.

TNA moving to Monday nights is a fantastic move and I will tell you why. I hear your talk about TNA not having the best ratings on Thursday and why move if they're ratings aren't good, and all that nonsense. It's irrelevant. It's irrelevant because research shows that the bulk of the wrestling viewing audience is on MONDAY NIGHTS ... and not THURSDAY NIGHTS.

Therefore, the bigger opportunity to reach more wrestling viewers is on MONDAY. Pro wrestling fans have conditioned themselves to set aside Monday nights as their night to watch wrestling. Many aren't happy with WWE, but they still watch it anyway, because that is their night set aside to watch wrestling.

If these viewers don't branch out of their little habitat, which they won't since they are lazy, like I discussed elsewhere, then you have no choice if you want to grow your organization, except take the product to them when most viewers are watching.

TNA has shown that they can hold their own against the WWE with the January 4th experiment. The still maintained the base of their viewers throughout the broadcast, and even gained some. Those are viewers who know what WWE has to offer, are aware of TNA, and decided to check out and see what the competition has to offer.

Believe me, you aren't going to see TNA's viewing audience flock to the WWE on Monday Nights. Raw is a terrible product at the moment, and it offers absolutely nothing new from what the fans have seen for years. When something new and refreshing is offered, much like what occurred when WCW Monday Nitro was formed, people generally get interested in checking out the new kid on the block to see what they have to offer.

As far as it being Wrestlemania time and that being a concern, it isn't. Because that is when more casual wrestling viewers tune in and start watching wrestling again. So that is even more people to reach out to. Plus, any people converted over to TNA while this is going on is a potential loss on WWE's part when it comes to PPV buys ... if they refuse to buy Wrestlemania because they are happier with the TNA product in general.

They may figure "you know what? I usually purchase Wrestlemania each and every year, and each and every year it keeps getting more expensive and now it's about $60. Why should I pay this when Impact is actually more interesting than watching Raw?"

So in that case, Mission Accomplished.

 

[neildittmar]

Anyone (including TNA) who thinks iMPACT is going to start broadcasting on Monday nights against a VERY established program, win a ratings war in a few months, and be done is kidding themselves. This didn't happen when WCW began airing Nitro against RAW and it certainly won't happen now. It takes time to establish a program, especially in the face of solid competition. My biggest concern is Spike not giving TNA sufficient time to establish themselves... thinking short term (why aren't we beating them in the ratings yet?) vs. long term (sustaining and incrementally gaining ratings over time).

However, TNA moving to Monday Nights, although quite late in my opinion, is one of the smartest moves the company could make. The time is NOW! The talent is there, the leadership is there, and the money is there. In my opinion, it should've been announced at the 1/4 show that iMPACT was moving to Monday permanently. They had a lot of momentum going into and coming out of that 3 hour live iMPACT. Why let it cool, just to try to get the ball rolling again later?

If TNA is going to succeed now (ie; really compete with WWE) then they need to get into the fight. That means broadcasting a competing program against the established competition. Likewise, if they're going to fail then they may as well do it now and be done. What's the worst that could happen? The core TNA audience absolutely despises WWE not unlike the original ECW audience of yesteryear. They're not going to start watching WWE just because of a failed attempt at competition.

The worst I can see coming out of this (barring a screw up of monumental proportions) is that TNA remains the other wrestling program and makes a return to Thursday nights. Essentially, back in the same position they are in now.

 

[The Con Volt]

I don't think TNA picked the wrong time to go head to head. It's my belief that WWE would have stepped it up like they have been in recent weeks no matter when TNA decided to go to mondays. It's no coincidence that Bret Hart showed up out of nowhere after a 12 year absence.(Not counting his HOF induction.) Vince heard that TNA wanted to finally go head-to-head, and he was like, "OK, I'll push a young gun into the main event, bring back Bret Hart, and replace WWECW. Anything else you guys have been wanting for years now?" That's what this all comes down to really. In the last year, TNA has been slightly more enjoyable than WWE was. And that was ok for Vince because he was still ahead in ratings, merchandise, etc. But the second TNA started hinting at going permanent on mondays, Vince started burning on all cylinders, trying what I am assuming is his damn near best to actually improve the WWE product.

I of course am going to watch both promotions starting March 8th just like EVERYONE ELSE, but if Flair and Hogan's tag match happens to be on at the same time that say, A Miz promo, or a Christian match is on, sorry TNA, but WWE may have won the war on the first night. TNA is seriously gonna have to shine if they're thinking about going head-to-head with WWE on the road to Wrestlemania. But not all hope is lost. There are plenty of ways IMO that TNA can easily match, if not beat WWE in ratings by this time next year. How, you may ask? Well, let me explain.

1. Continue to show blood as often as possible. Last night, Hogan did a blade job.(No surprises there.) And I gotta admit, by the end of his promo, I had a very attitude era feeling in my bones when I saw the intensity he delivered with blood literally IN HIS EYE. It's not entirely impossible for 2 people that can't really keep up with today's standard for wrestling to still have an incredible "moment" inside a ring.(see Bill Alfonso vs. Francine) And if Hogan and Flair can deliver along those lines, then I don't care how often they wanna wrestle in TNA.

2. Give the TNA fans EXACTLY WHAT THEY WANT TO SEE. The biggest issue every single WWE fan has in common, is that Vince has been practically force feeding us what HE wants us to see. And that's never sat well with me. I think the one time that Vince actually made a decision based on viewer demand in this century was to make Jeff Hardy a world champion. Which would have never happened if Jeff wasn't the #1 superstar for god knows how many months in merchandise sales. TNA is already on a good roll with that. Cuz think about it, we've got Pope as the #1 contender for the world title.( He's basically the people's champ over there.) We have Abyss returning to his old self, with Hogan wanting him to be an "unstoppable force." Kudos, I miss "the monster" Abyss. And you've got Rob Terry, who IMO has been held back and literally was made out to be useless, as your second tier champion. *CLAP CLAP CLAP CLAP* bravo. You really need big guys as prominent figures in your company no matter what age of wrestling you're in. And with your global champ, and tag champs as 3 proverbial giants, you automatically quiet the notion that TNA is like ECW with a bunch of midget wrestlers. But at the same time, as previously mentioned, you have 2 guys fighting it out for the world title that would've been out of a job as soon as the cruiserweight title was axed in the big E.

3. Keep the Knockout's devision competitive. I had a little bit of fear for the knockouts that when Hogan and ATM Eric showed up that for some reason the knockout's devision was going to suffer. Now, I see that is not true. One of the best things that TNA has going for them is fact that when a WWE "diva's" match comes on, I go out for a smoke. But when I see an ODB vs. Daffney match, I remain glued to the screen. THATS HUGE. WWE fans will take a break at least once a night, but in TNA, I never left my seat. Keep the Knockouts prominent.

4. And this might be the most important thing, surprise us! Nothing boosts ratings like an unexpected angle or a match that we didn't expect to be so great. When wrestling fans are surprised, the first thing we do is call our friends and tell them to turn on such and such promotion, cuz, "you gotta see this!" That happened with "The Third Man", and another good example is from the season finale of the first "Ultimate Fighter". From the beginning to the end of that 15 minute fight, I think the show's ratings practically tripled, because the fans were calling all their friends and saying, "DUDE. Turn it onto Spike RIGHT NOW." No one advertises better than your own viewers.

If TNA can honestly deliver on all of those points, It should truly be a walk in the park to the number 1 spot. If you can provide me personally with those, I don't even care if you guys stay at the Impact! zone. Not that I wouldn't love to see an episode of Impact live, but if they want that to happen, sorry, you're gonna have to come to me. I ain't flying to orlando. haha

 

[Travaje]

I don't think it's going to matter. I don't think either program's ratings are going to go up or down.

If TNA is making a mistake, I think it's this: WWE's main audience is kids 8-17. TNA's main audience is males 18-34. In general, kids don't like TNA and adults don't like WWE. And right now, unless you're a longtime diehard like many of you are, it's not very cool to watch wrestling. It's much more cool to watch MMA. You see Affliction T-shirts everywhere, but not as many DX and Beer Money shirts. Wrestling is not "in" right now with the casual audience that might have watched when Stone Cold, The Rock, and Goldberg were around.

So, if TNA thinks they're going to steal some of WWE's audience, they're not, because it's a different audience. If TNA thinks they're going to attract new fans, they're not, because the casual watcher doesn't care much about wrestling. TNA keeps saying it's about choosing between the two, but I don't think there's a lot of people that watch both. And here's the biggest point: The few people that do watch both, can watch the other show at any time the next day on the internet, or DVR one show and watch it later, and both shows will get a rating.

So, I predict, that neither companies ratings will increase or decrease very much, and because more kids watch wrestling, TNA will never come close to beating WWE. The only chance they have is to create a character like The Rock, Stone Cold, and the such that will break the mainstream and pull in casual viewers. Which they haven't been able to do in their whole existence, and which Vince Russo has never been able to do in his existence. So I think they're reaching.

TNA, again, is better off worrying about creating a better product (which they're not, and they're not) than beating WWE. If they continue that road, they could ultimately hurt themselves by creating an inferior product in the process and turning off people who once watched, but now don't want to. I am in that group, as TNA was way better in 2005-2007 than they are now.

 

[hatehabsforever]

Yes, I believe that TNA's move to Monday night, head to head with the WWE, is a catastrophic mistake. The timing of such a bold move is poor, and the move itself is not a good idea anyway.

The Road to Wrestlemania is in high gear, and it's shaping up to be an excellent Wrestlemania this year, likely one of the best in years. Therefore, the Road itself should be very compelling. It's a difficult time to try to entice away long time loyal WWE viewers, when they are more interested in WWE than at any other point of the year. Post-Wrestlemania times sometimes experience a bit of a lull, maybe that would have been a better time to try the head to head thing. But I don't think many WWE people are going to stop watching WWE in favour of TNA at this point of the year (if ever). The loyal TNA fanbase will remain, their numbers will stay the same (barely cracking the 1.0 barrier), but they won't erode away the WWE dominance of viewership at this point.

Plus, I don't think TNA is ready to compete yet anyway (if ever). TNA should worry less about competing with the WWE, and more about establishing their own niche and improving their own product. Because until they do so, they'll never be seen as true competition. This is a bold step and if TNA takes it and it fails, they're done. Guys will become disillusioned and will leave. Fans will too, sending the ratings back under 1.0. And it's going to be a tough battle if TNA, as I understand it, is live every second week and pre-taped the other week.

If I were a former WWE talent who had burned bridges along the way, I'd be very worried at this point.

 

[THE RKO ANIMAL]

I agree with you TNA is making a big mistake moving to Mondays. I think that TNA going to Mondays will save the WWE, especially since they are starting on March 8th, which is about 3 weeks away from WrestleMania. Also how does TNA expect to beat RAW in ratings when it almost gets the same ratings as WWE Superstars which about half of the U.S. doesn't get it.

 

[twentytwo]

It's a colossal mistake but what do you expect. These are the same guys who had all the money in the world, and still couldn't help but kill WCW. What makes anyone think they won't do the same (or can't see that they've already begun doing it) to TNA is a fool.

It's 2010 - Two thousand and fucking ten - and TNA is coming with Hogan vs. Flair?

RAW is a horrible product? WWE is stale? But TNA is interesting with 4 matches last night, including the Nasty Boyz, and their big money Main Event on the night they move to Monday nights is Hogan vs. Flair...?

Yeah...Good luck with that.

 

[Phenomenal]

TNA has nothing to lose by going head to head with Raw, only success. Vince Russo is doing the right thing by building up Pope like this generations new 'ROCK'.

If Raw is sucking like how everybody has been saying for the past 10 years (let's face it, its the worst TV show in history of television), then the Raw viewers are definitly in for a treat when they see a character like Pope.

 

[billm75]

If I was working for TNA, I'm sure glad that I wouldn't have some of you guys on my Staff.

TNA moving to Monday nights is a fantastic move and I will tell you why. I hear your talk about TNA not having the best ratings on Thursday and why move if they're ratings aren't good, and all that nonsense. It's irrelevant. It's irrelevant because research shows that the bulk of the wrestling viewing audience is on MONDAY NIGHTS ... and not THURSDAY NIGHTS.
Therefore, the bigger opportunity to reach more wrestling viewers is on MONDAY. Pro wrestling fans have conditioned themselves to set aside Monday nights as their night to watch wrestling. Many aren't happy with WWE, but they still watch it anyway, because that is their night set aside to watch wrestling.

You're sure people aren't watching on Monday nights because of RAW?? That's a really lame arguement. I don't sit down with my calendar and say to myself, "Hey, Monday seems like the best night for me to partake in a little pro wrestling viewing, screw the other nights of the week!" If you schedule your life that way, congrats, but I'm just not that particular.

More people tune in on Mondays for wrestling because of Raw. If it was aired live on Wednesday, I would be willing to bet they'd, as you said, "set aside Wednesday night for watching wrestling". They like the show, they like the product, and I'm not talking about the handful of jackasses that bash the WWE on these forums either. They're irrelevant in the big picture. I'm talking about the entire viewing audience, the people that create the ratings by tuning in.

I've watched TNA, I enjoy some of the wrestlers and their movesets, but they still feel very low-budget to me from a viewer's standpoint. Will it change with time? Perhaps, but they might just run themselves into the ground going head to head with the 800lb Gorilla that is RAW.

Obviously you're not the viewer that WWE is coveting. They want the widest exposure with the deepest pockets. There's no shame in that, it's business. You can argue about tradition, pride, etc...but there's a bottom line and that's profitability. If you're doing this for the "love of the sport" you're likely going to be remembered as a very noble person, but also a very short-lived, bankrupt one.

 

[Poop Master Flex]

TNA doesn't have anything to lose but everything to gain from this move. Its a good idea for a lot of different reasons.

First and foremost their experiment on January 4th proves that their ratings are not going to drop at all, if anything the only way their ratings can go is up. Right now they are only pulling in a shade over 1.0 in the ratings and that isn't gonna drop because of this move, which right then and there shows that this isn't a bad move.
Secondly their January 4th show did a 1.5, which is their best rating to date, TNA is always gonna have their loyal viewers, but for the simple fact that its on at the same time as RAW, they can basically clean up on the viewers who aren't impressed with RAW and still want to watch wrestling, whereas before your only options were to suck up the lackluster RAW or turn off the television (I know I watched a lot of terrible RAW's just for the simple fact I wanted to watch some wrestling, now if I don't like whats on RAW, I can just watch Impact).

WCW had pretty shitty ratings until Nitro started up, and less than a year later they were the #1 place to be (that only went out of business because of horrible business decisions and an AOL/Time Warner merger). As long as TNA spends their money wisely, makes good business decisions and don't make the same mistakes WCW did (like spending ridiculous amounts of money on stupid stuff because RAW had better ratings), and most of all focus on expanding your audience rather than trying to defeat WWE, then I can only see TNA growing from this move.

 

[marcez27]

I dont think that TNA is making a mistake. All the things that everyone is pointing out saying that it is, im sure TNA has considered. I think the reason they chose to do it now is because they want to START building an audience on mondays leading up to wrestlemania because WWE storylines always die down and get kind of boring after mania. I think this is when TNA expects to make a splash in the ratings war, they are just starting now so they can be established for their big run after mania.

 

[Brady12]

Having this Monday Night War is brilliant, not a mistake.

FACT: When TNA competed with WWE on January 4th, TNA had the highest ratings of its history.

So how is that a mistake? The name of the game as of right now is not the beat the WWE, but to take advantage of the WWE wrestling viewers. If you can increase ratings, then that is all that matters until TNA starts to catch up. After that, then the goal should be simple. Beat the WWE in the ratings.

It's brilliant and I'm looking forward to the March 8th ratings results.

 

[Tugboat77]

TNA moving to Monday nights is a fantastic move and I will tell you why. I hear your talk about TNA not having the best ratings on Thursday and why move if they're ratings aren't good, and all that nonsense. It's irrelevant. It's irrelevant because research shows that the bulk of the wrestling viewing audience is on MONDAY NIGHTS ... and not THURSDAY NIGHTS.

That's because Raw is on Mondays and TNA is on Thursday. Also Smackdown is on Friday yet they soundly beat TNA. What's your explanation for that?

TNA has shown that they can hold their own against the WWE with the January 4th experiment. The still maintained the base of their viewers throughout the broadcast, and even gained some. Those are viewers who know what WWE has to offer, are aware of TNA, and decided to check out and see what the competition has to offer

.

You probably should go back and check the ratings breakdown for Jan. 4th. Impact LOST viewers as the show went on. They peaked at the 9:00 to 9:15 quarter hour when Hogan finally showed up (even though he screwed up and said he had been backstage all day, but that's another story) but viewership significantly decreased after that. The show opened with a 1.58 and ended with a 1.3. The quarter hours of 9:45-10:00 and 10:00-10:15 did abysmal numbers of 1.16 and 1.17 respectively. How is this "maintaining viewers and even gaining some"? It certainly doesn't show that they held their own. You should research before you post or at least don't assume that someone else won't do the research and call you on your bs.

Raw is a terrible product at the moment, and it offers absolutely nothing new from what the fans have seen for years. When something new and refreshing is offered, much like what occurred when WCW Monday Nitro was formed, people generally get interested in checking out the new kid on the block to see what they have to offer.

TNA is offering Hogan and Flair which you apparently think is new and refreshing. That's all I have to say about that.

 

[luis_is_king]

TNA has shown that they can hold their own against the WWE with the January 4th experiment. The still maintained the base of their viewers throughout the broadcast, and even gained some. Those are viewers who know what WWE has to offer, are aware of TNA, and decided to check out and see what the competition has to offer.

.

wELL the reason why TNA recieve a "high rating" was because people wanted to check TNA out and I expect TNA will get a "high" rating for them come March 8 but that will happen because of people's curiosity but when they finally get to see what TNA really is then their ratings will go back to their "normal" ratings.

For TNA: their normal ratings=can't even beat Superstars.
their high ratings=finally beat Superstars but it still damn close!

 

[Maikeru_1979]

why would ANYONE think that right now is a bad time to go to Mondays. let's look at wrestling over the last 20 years. wrestling used to be a Saturday morning or night show. then in 93 WWF introduced us to Raw Is War. two hours every Monday always new yet not always live. in 94 i believe WCW introduced us to Nitro. Two hours prime-time always new and LIVE every week. rating war begins. Both company's expand and WWE gives us Smackdown and WCW gives us Thunder. both taped shows and on Thursdays. AOL Buys out Turner and WCW is dead. so Thunder is gone witch leaves us only Smackdown on thursday nights...and guess what happend..the ratings tanked they got a new night in Fridays and a new channel.

now for the last 17 years Mondays has been the mainstay for wrestling. If you want a wrestling company to succeed you need to be on Monday nights.

Now people are saying that the mistake is they are making the move during the road to Wrestlemania. PERFECT! Every wrestling fan that has any knowledge of wrestling knows that Mania is coming and maybe started watching again the night after R.R. so the audience might climb for a few weeks until the returning viewers realize that Vince and the WWE haven't changed anything so they are about to give up for another year when they see and add During Raw promoting TNA Mondays Beginning March 8th. they ones that are unsatisfied with Raw will turn over and start watching Impact. they may like it they may not. but I'm willing to believe that there will be more people that will continue to watch after the move because of the new names in conjunction with the old established stars.

It will take time for the audience to increase. It's not going to be 3.0 beging March 8 and stay at least right there. but 6 months to a year if they do things right this time next year we will have Raw running about a 3.5 and I'm sure that TNA will have at least a 3.0

 

[Alex]

TNA have done pretty much all they can on Thursday's (They've been there for years) and the ratings haven't budged much, perhaps moving to Monday will be what gives them a boost. If you don't try you'll never know

 

[DexVendetta88]

The move to Monday nights for TNA has come at a really bad time. Going un-opposed on Thursday nights and getting higher ratings in recent months with Hogan and Bischoff taking over basically doesn't make TNA "battle ready" for the WWE at this point. I do admit that the WWE really did drop the ball on the whole Bret Hart angle, but since this is WrestleMania season their ratings jump higher than usual since the buildup to WrestleMania is quite important for the WWE to hype up their biggest and trademark show of the year; so the WWE isn't gonna pull any punches just because TNA is gonna start competing with them on Monday nights.