Could the Monday Night War have Worked?

[jccool420]

I was just thinking about the Monday Night "War" period of TNA and it got me wondering...

Could they have actually gained anything from it if they didn't do all the stupid crap along with it? I mean Orlando Jordan pushing the gayness, the Nasty Boys, Val Venis, Bubba, etc...

I left Hall and Pac out because I think there was atleast some interest in them... Pac could still go in the ring and Hall was still gold on the mic, so that part wasn't too horible...

I think if they would've just stuck to what they were doing before all that crap and maybe picked up a few people that have actually helped TNA like Hardy, RVD, and Anderson they would have had a better chance of showing an increase in ratings...

I don't think they would've beat WWE because the timing was bad and WWE seems to have a loyal fan base...

They just shot themselves in the foot with the whole concept... I personally thought the idea was good and defended the move... I had no idea they were planning on making Impact a joke while I was defending the move though...

So, the real question is... Could they have done better without adding in all the side show acts?

Did you think the move to Mondays was a good or bad idea? (Before they did it)

 

[osborne79]

i live in australia and didnt see any of the advertisements but what i can attribute is the actual january 4th show was a fail, it added way too many old wrestlers back into the mix and was a huge mess, it was unorganised,
i really think the tna right now could compete with the wwe on a small level if it moved back to moday night, tna has built some stability over the last few months and i personally have gained a hell of a lotta interest

 

[Rayne]

It could have worked, they just forgot to provide the programming to justify the hype.

Last Monday run around, AJ Styles was in the middle of his "why does anyone who hasn't been watching TNA so far care?" title reign. Abyss was feeling THE POWER OF THE RING! Hall, Nash, Waltman and Young were busy confusing us as to who was on whose side, or if it mattered from week to week. Hogan was appearing in five to six segments per show.

It was goofy, schmaltzy, and they still haven't recovered. The programming is better now (although still not passable and light years from good- keep saying "they", you'll keep your die-hards along another couple months that way), but a lot of fans still think of TNA as that place where black men rub themselves with mock semen.

 

[brighamosity]

I don't know if it could have worked, but I think they would have had a better shot if Bret Hart hadn't come back. I was really excited about the January 4th show for TNA. And then WWE announced Bret would be on Raw. I watched the two shows back to back, and I thought Raw was the clear cut winner. I really wanted that January 4th Impact to be good. But it wasn't. As soon as I saw the Nasty Boys and how out of shape and awful they were, I was turned off. I managed to finish the episode, but I never bothered to watch it after that. But I did continue watching Raw.

 

[TellMeWhy]

Well I thought the March 8th episode which was the first official TNA Monday Night show was a great show. It featured the great X-div 3 way, the debut of RVD, and the Sting heel turn. The show was live and felt good to watch but it still came on the short end in the ratings. The 1.0 wasn't what TNA expected but it was one of the better rated Monday shows for TNA. Now that was probably TNA's best show on Mondays but ratings wise it went no where. TNA could have put on excellent shows from top to bottom from week to week and I don't think the numbers would've went anywhere. The problem with TNA's rating and viewership is beyond show quality. It has lots to do with lack of awareness and advertising. The hype for the official move to Mondays was no where near as strong as the January 4th Monday Night hype with Hogan's TNA debut. There just wasn't enough buzz and media blitz following their official move to Monday, therefore not too many people outside of the IWC knew about it. Yes, the Monday Night shows could have been done better but if TNA put out excellent shows it wouldn't have made a difference because TNA's problems with gaining viewers goes beyond the shows they put on.

In all, in terms of show quality, I thought anytime TNA was on Mondays against the WWE, TNA for the most part put on the better show including January 4th. AJ vs. Angle on Jan 4th >>>> Anything WWE did in the month of January.

 

[hatehabsforever]

This is somewhat of a two-fold question for me.

Could the Monday Night War attempt back on January 04, 2010 have worked? Absolutely not. It had no possibility of performing and increasing ratings to the point of making this any semblance of a war, if anything it was little more than a minor rumbling. This is not a typical TNA bash, because I think they were doing a couple of things back then that were pretty good. But they just weren't ready for a head-to-head with the giant at this stage of the game. I think they were riding the wave of the arrival of Hogan, Flair, Hardy, and others too much, expecting them to deliver way more than they are capable of delivering at this stage of their careers. So no, even if they had done things differently, I don't think the end result would have been any different. The same bottom line would have occurred, a ratings massacre.

Having said this, had TNA been more patient, and not rushed foolishly into the head-to-head war which they clearly weren't ready for, and deferred their move to Mondays for a while, I think the results would not necessarily have been tremendously different, but the situation would have been way better. The bottom line is that in my opinion, with all due respect to the iMPACT players and all of the other TNA fans out there, TNA will never have the ability to mount a formidable challenge to WWE. WWE, whether you like it or not, is just too far ahead, and in the world of the internet/IWC, 90-day no-compete clauses, etc., there can never be a duplication of the WWF/WCW Monday Night Wars, it simply cannot happen.

But had TNA waited and put out a better product with a better roster, had they been more organized, and had they had a situation whereby they didn't blow their whole load in one show and have nothing left to sustain it in future weeks, I think TNA would have drawn better and had a better showing. They still would lose, but not get massacred as badly. Had TNA waited to the point whereby they could have put out a quality second choice, they could have increased their audience and done better, but not to WWE ratings standards. Instead, they foolishly took the war to Monday nights, claiming they were going to own Mondays, and they're still lickings their wounds, 9 months later.

 

[Poop Master Flex]

Honestly I didn't think it would have worked even though I was really hoping it would. I badmouth TNA a lot (and I mean a hell of a lot) but its only because I want them to get better and be on a level that can compete with the WWE because all it will do is elevate both companies, both creatively and inside the ring.

First and foremost it wasn't good timing for TNA to try and compete with WWE, the company isn't nearly as well known as WWE and bringing in someone like Hogan isn't going to change that because for the most part people are sick of Hogan and want to see something different, frankly hiring Hogan and Bischoff was a huge mistake (not that I overly blame them because of both men's track records).

On top of that they didn't seem to have a long term plan in place and for some reason thought going to Monday nights was all they needed to get on the same playing field as WWE, they obviously didn't think it through and they obviously didn't have a plan in place, which was a huge mistake. In any business a long term plan is necessary and things don't happen overnight. It would have been a better idea to build the company for at least a few more years and then gave it a shot.

Lastly I wasn't a big fan of the booking around that period of time (although I must admit I have seen improvements over the last few months) and instead of building stars, they basically went to the garbage dump and got a bunch of wrestlers who were once popular but know can't cut it in the ring (like Scott Hall, the Nasty Boys, Val Venis, ect.). In most cases a superstar is as good as the promotion allows them to be (case and point Jeff Hardy) and the reason a lot of these stars were big was because of the people behind the scenes. It doesn't matter how big a superstar is/was, if you don't know how to use them they aren't going to do you any good. It seemed like TNA brought these guys in without a plan on how to use them and hoped that just because these big superstars are here it will help them garner more attention. WCW tried this with Bret Hart and it failed miserably, just like Hall, Knobs, Saggs and Venis failed miserably. Its not the superstars fault, its the people behind the scenes not having any plans for them.

All in all the pieces of the TNA puzzle weren't put together well enough for the Monday night wars to work, and it never will until they figure out the puzzle better.

 

[Rasha]

To answer this, let's remember what gave WCW its boost and sparked the original Monday Night War; Hogan's heel turn and the birth of the NWO. Does TNA have any chance at replicating that? Not really. Kurt Angle and Sting are the only active guys on the roster with the fame to pull of something like that, but neither is in a position to. Sting probably wouldn't be active enough to become the focal point of a company-changing storyline, and Angle has flipped between face and heel too many times for it get much notice.

TNA's play to start a war failed because they forced it. They have to continue to build their base and let things happen naturally. The ratings for Impact now are still only about a third of what RAW gets, and that needs to improve before another Monday night move is attempted.

 

[MrHashasheen]

To answer this, let's remember what gave WCW its boost and sparked the original Monday Night War; Hogan's heel turn and the birth of the NWO.

The Heel turn of Hogan happened a while after Nitro got on Monday.

As for what TNA should have done in relations to going on Monday nights, I think they should have waited a year or two. First they should have moved Xplosion to a slot on Tuesdays to compete with ECW/NXT while Impact dominated Superstars for another two years while getting stars like Anderson, Hardy, RVD, etc... before even considering a move to Monday Nights to challenge the WWE. With a much more stable and larger fanbase, they should have been able to reap some benefits on the move with a larger cross-base as well as minimise their losses in the early going.

 

[Rasha]

The Heel turn of Hogan happened a while after Nitro got on Monday.

Right, but the "war" didn't really happen until The Outsiders showed up and the NWO angle began. RAW and Nitro went neck-and-neck for a little while in 1995, but the WWF was kicking WCW's ass in ratings in early '96 up until the NWO arrived. Without the NWO, we wouldn't be talking about a "war" of any kind all these years later.