Jan 4th- Monday Night Raw vs TNA iMPACT

[tbp82]

If you would have asked someone a few years ago if UFC would be getting higher ratings and more PPV buys than WWE we would have said that is crazy but it happened.

As hot as UFC has been if you would have asked someone three months ago if Floyd Mayweather of Boxing would have popped a million PPV buys and beat a UFC PPV we would have said UFC is to hot right now but it happened.

From what I can tell from books, DVD's, etc people thought Nitro had zero chance against Vince at first and then when Nitro got hot people thought Vince had no chance to comeback but it happened.

My point is I know it is a long shot for TNA to become real competition for WWE on Monday Nights but right now there has to be some hope that they can.

 

[Dead-Angel]

I think for TNA the time is now they have nothing to lose it will be hard to go against wwe in mondays but it could work , why? TNA has more young talent , tag team division , x division even divas tag team division and what wwe got the same old crap the same trio in ppv main events cena,hhh rko and why you say it to soon? come on give me a break TNA is 7 years in wrestling business and now they have bishoff the guy who learns from hes mistakes and who will destroy RAW in ratings for TNA this will be step forward finaly they will go live , TNA is all about wrestling and wwe is all about horsnwagle and superman cena

 

[Randolph H]

I am have to think that all these people making statements about how Vince is going to kill TNA.. ETC... Dont have a clue of what happened back before the Monday Night Wars began.

If they did it without Bischoff, I would be up there with those people. But Bischoff knows what he is doing, since he has done it before. Not only does he have the resources of Dixie and her engergy company but also the resources of Spyke TV who have invested in TNA.

WCW got a lot of viewers by using washed up talent with established names and used them to push Sting, Goldberg, and DDP. TNA is doing the same

 

[Pedro08]

I'm intrigued by the thought of TNA running a second show against RAW, but let's slow down a bit. Nothing official has been announced yet and I imagine that it will take a couple of months to put together all the logistic of creating a second show. It's not like they are going to start the second show after the next PPV. I would be shocked it they manage to pull it off.

Once the second show starts up against RAW, you have to realize that it could take awhile before TNA beats RAW in the ratings, if they ever, do. At first RAW will kill TNA in the ratings, but eventually it may happen. TNA has to run a strong 1st hour and have great matches that can hold people through the start of the 9 o'clock hour. They certainly have the talent to pull it off and a second show gives TNA the ability to use the most of it's talent, like Lethal Consequences, The Moror City Machine Guns and other X-division guys who can have strong, entertaining matches.

TNA would have to go live on Mondays, whether from the Impact Zone or from an arena. My guess is that they start live from the IZ then move out into arenas once they have more money, because it will cost huge amounts of cash to go up against Vince and his billion dollar corporation. I don't know if Dixie has that kind of money.

Vince will pay attention, but won't acknowledge TNA on Mondays until he starts losing money or viewers. Then you might see some changes to the WWE product, but at this point, I don't think he's too worried.

However, once it this does happen, I think one company that should be worried should be ROH. If TNA expands, I think your going to see a talent raid of ROH by both companies looking to find the next big thing. Ultimately, the talent wins as this should lead to bigger paychecks and more work available.

 

[johnbragg]

Wait a minute. Wait a minute.

STOP.

The source for the TNA Monday Night Show is Mark Madden. Let's calm down and look at the quote.

The big fallout of Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff signing with TNA hasn’t yet been announced, but TNA will ultimately debut a second show on Spike TV. It will air 8-10 p.m.Eastern time on Monday nights. Has a familiar ring, doesn’t it?

Does that sound like Madden has been burning up the phones talking to people who actually know what's going on? Not really. Sounds like, just like us but with more background knowledge of the players involved, Madden is speculating.

For those of you too young to take SAT prep classes yet, "speculating" is when you imagine logical possibilities for what could happen. It sounds better than "guessing", and it's usually based on a little more information and logic than a pure guess, but it's just speculation. It's not even anonymously sourced rumors.

So this is not news. It is not even a rumor from someone with inside information. It's someone who knows the business speculating. Or, to be honest, guessing.

 

[Rated_R_Superstar2010]

there is no way in hell TNA will be able to compete with WWE on monday nights. i love TNA but this is a stupid idea. RAW ratings may go down very very little but TNA wont get anywhere near RAWs ratings. vince is laughing right now and he should. did any1 else see the buy rates for Bound of Glory. they were shit. apo****e shit. and bringing in hulk. really??? do they really think hulk will help. he's old news. hes just embarasing him self.

WWE probably has 10 times the regular audiance that TNA has. there is 0 chance this works. TNA is going to kill itself. i watch TNA because its not like the WWE and now they bring in Hulk Hogan. talk about a waste of money.

i for one will be watching raw on mondays because thats were the big boys play. not some random collection of decent x division style wrestlers and wwe rejects like TNA

i have lost all respect i had for TNA

 

[Suneeboy]

I told you that if you want to succeed at everything you need to think BIG, no matter how small your company is. Its either you go for the kill, or you be #2 for ever. TNA is doing the right thing by creating this show. EVEN if it is a major flop who the fuck cares at least they went for the gusto.

Smart move, and I am so happy I will have another option on Monday soon so I don't have to watch C level guest hosts, and a fake Italian screaming and saying corny ass jokes.

 

[Derekjt]

This is the biggest news that I've heard since Nigel premiering in TNA, haha. This is great. I'm all for the 8 -10 timeslot. Raw should be forced to put on some good main events. This is great for the business. I am one of those guys that has had enough of the McMahon product. It's bad, really bad. Maybe once TNA's show starts rolling things will change.
It's got to be an exciting time for wrestlers that have no work. I still think there are quite of few talents that would be cool to see, seeing how they weren't good enough for the WWE, b.s. All of us TNA fans need to stick together and spread the word more than ever. Hopefully Bischoff takes control asap and hopefully good bye TV- PG.

 

[Baximus]

I think that TNA moving to Monday Nights is extremely smart. Why?

1) What negative impact would this have on their ratings? They're only drawing 1.1s right now. If they go to Monday Night, their fans will still watch the first hour, at a minimum. But, there's a whole new audience that hasn't even heard of TNA yet that would be flipping through and see another wrestling show on before Raw. Don't change anything and your ratings still go up.

2) Things ARE changing. Hogan is worth an immediate bump in the ratings. A new alternative on Monday nights is worth a bump in the ratings. Actually advertising for TNA outside of the Impact! time slot is going to result in a bump in ratings.

3) TNA will highlight the X Division. The WWE does nothing with their cruiserweights, so that's a major alternative that a lot of fans will tune it to watch. This was proven back before Nitro started beating Raw: Their highest rated slots included the lightweights more often than not.

4) TNA actually has a tag team division. The WWE has the belts o JeriShow and hasn't cared about tag matches for most of this decade. Meanwhile, TNA has Team 3D, the Motor City Machine Guns, Beer Money, the British Invasion, Lethal Consequences and Kyoshi/Bashir already put together to create an exciting tag division. All of them have established characters and face time. That's another major alternative to the WWE.

5) TNA's women can actually wrestle. I HATE WWE's Divas. They suck at wrestling and honestly I either turn the channel or fast forward through. Meanwhile, TNA actually has women with characters that aren't just a set of boobs. That's another advanteage TNA has as an alternative

6) One of the biggest problems I have with TNA is the fact that they're always in the Impact Zone. This will force them to go live and actually create a big event atmosphere. They'll probably run shows at 5,000 seat arenas in the South and get a big audience thanks to the Hulkster and major audience reactions are going to do wonders for the likes of AJ, Morgan and Joe, none of whom have ever really wrestled in front of a huge north american audience.


Combine all of this together and you have the potential for a damn good show. I could EASILY see TNA jumping into the 2.0-2.5 range within a few months of Monday night Impact.

They need to be careful though with their programming. Make Impact a 2 hour live Monday show then tape an hour long show for the Thursday slot at the Impact Zone. Don't go overboard with content.

 

[jrocc4dub]

Seriously, the many disgruntled fans you talk about are mainly located in the iwc. Like it or not, we are a small percentage of the WWE's fans. I don't think it's a smart move. They're sure to make a splash at first, but TNA doesn't have the money to start any wars with WWE. Their production sucks compared to RAW. The Impact Zone looks like what it is, a television studio. This makes TNA look like a minor league program. The lighting sucks. It's super dark in there and things arent as sharp as they appear on WWE produced shows. That's just the cosmetics of the show too. There's already reports of Styles and Joe being unhappy about the way their characters have been booked. What are they going to think when Hogan is pinning them clean after a body slam since he cant do the leg drop anymore, apparently. Unless Hogan's had some sort of ephiphany and now wants to put over people in TNA but not WWE. Sure. Hogan does what's best for Hogan. So now you have a shitty show, bad production values, not near the financial backing WCW had when they were beating Vince, and a locker room of guys the company was built on being jobbed out to a 56 year old half crippled man. Hogan is a legend, the biggest name of all time. He will cause the ratings to jump for a few weeks; until he's back hogging the main event or destroying World Elite so he can be the American hero that saves TNA. That's the kind of shit that's gonna be on TNA tv. So, no way do they have any business going head to head for even an hour against Raw. Raw is pretty bad, but the majority of fans are going to still watch Raw over any TNA show on Mondays. I'm just hopeful the intial impact of TNA being on Mondays lights a fire under WWE creative. It can only benefit fans if TNA does go on Mondays. It's just not a smart business move for TNA as a company.

 

[Jack Tunney's Ghost]

I love it when people do the, "This promotion has wrestlers like, Joe Blow, John Smith, Tommy Twotone, blah, blah, blah..." argument. Especially when the wrestlers, sure, may be good workers, but, in the big picture, don't have great marketability to put their respective promotion over another promotion. Unless they're a Hogan, Flair, Rock or Austin, in the big picture, not enough tune in to see "good no-name" workers to make a huge impact in the promotion's TV ratings. I'm not discounting those who DO tune in, but, there just ain't enough of you. And, I hate to say it, but, both TNA and WWE aren't really too worried about the die-hard hardcore fans like you. They know you'll tune in no matter what. Your numbers have been "capped." Their focus is on casual fans and non-wrestling types. They're an "untapped" market and they want to expand their numbers with these people. Attract new blood, if you will. So, basically rattling of a list of your favorite wrestlers on a promotion's roster in an argument thinking that those guys are going to make a difference is just a waste of time. Besides, who says that those wrestlers are going to be around by the time TNA gets a Monday show anyway?

It's been pointed out that TNA's Monday show is just mere speculation and that's a valid point. But, there have been rumblings from the TNA camp for quite sometime on how they want to get a new show for TNA... and it's all about ego in the business and it's pretty much a given that they would do Mondays. Not only because it's about ego on how they feel they can take on McMahon, but, it makes sense from a business standpoint to try and cash in on the reputation of Mondays being "TVs wrestling night." Even if this latest rumor proves to be false, TNA will eventually have a Monday Night show. It's not "if," but rather than "when."

And again, when they do, it's going to have a very, VERY limited immediate impact on WWE or it's product. WWE isn't going to start doing anything different now or for years because of TNA. Even if TNA were to have a Monday show next week, it'd take years for TNA to gain enough momentum to be any consequential threat to WWE. Again, TNA simply doesn't have the brand power at this point to impact WWE. As I said before, unless they do something HUGE to garner attention, Vince ain't sweating... yet.

Comparing UFC to TNA is a neat comparison but doesn't really reflect well in this argument. The difference here is that UFC was a unique enough product that filled the void of something that wasn't already widely offered (MMA) in the world of PPV. UFC struck at the perfect time and was able to offer fans something that was truly unique and more importantly, branded it as their own.

The best that TNA can do is offer their version of a product that has been dominated by WWE for years in not only PPV, but, in TV as well. They have a helluva challenge ahead of them to convince WWE fans as well as the casual fan that they're better than WWE. And that requires MONEY. Not only money for well known and established talent, but, marketing alone is a bitch for cash. Not to mention the general overhead and everything else that's not so much fun to talk about here. But, basically, it's a long road ahead for TNA. A long, long road.

 

[johnbragg]

The best that TNA can do is offer their version of a product that has been dominated by WWE for years in not only PPV, but, in TV as well. They have a helluva challenge ahead of them to convince WWE fans as well as the casual fan that they're better than WWE. And that requires MONEY.

And it also requires a credible argument that they're better than WWE. A company headlined by AJ Styles vs Angle title matches with MCMG vs Beer Money tag title matches, Samoa Joe vs. Morgan and an Amazing Red-Daniels-Kazarian-Homicide X division match can say they're the best athletic wrestling promotion on the planet.

A company headlined by Hulk Hogan is going to say what, exactly?

 

[Jack Tunney's Ghost]

"A company headlined by Hulk Hogan is going to say what, exactly?"

It's going to say that they're trying to reach into that untapped market of casual-wrestling fans or those people who do not watch wrestling.

As I said, fans who are tuning in to see AJ Styles, MCMG, Beer Money, Samoa Joe, Morgan et all, are basically hardcore wrestling fans... who... uh... have actually HEARD of these guys.

And as I said, TNA and WWE aren't too concerned about you ("hardcore wrestling fans") because, as I said, they know that you'll tune in no matter what. The ratings number of "wrestling fans" has been "capped." While, neither promotion wants to lose you, but, they're not going to really focus on trying to get people to watch who are already watching.

They want to attract NEW viewers to increase the company's viewership numbers. That's where the so-called "casual" fans or non-wrestling fans come in to play. It's like an election, it's not the secured votes for a particular party they're after. They know that those who are voting Democrat are going to vote Democrat, and Republicans are voting Republican. It's the "Unknown" voters that both the political parties are going to focus on during the election campaign to try and sway into their own proverbial camp. It's the same for casual and non-wrestling fans for TNA and WWE.

And to capture their attention, TNA and WWE both want media-friendly, charismatic, intriguing "superstars" to represent their brand.

And to put it simply, you walk up to a stranger in the street and ask them who AJ Styles is... they're probably not going to know. Ask them who Hulk Hogan is, they probably will. And it's THAT stranger who the promotions want to start watching their shows... and if you told that stranger, "Well, Hogan's in TNA now..." that stranger would be more inclined to watch TNA. You tell that stranger, "AJ Styles is in TNA," they'lll say, "Who is AJ Styles? And what is a TNA?"

 

[Pedro08]

I agree with what you're saying. TNA needs to use Hogan to draw in the casual wrestling fan, but they have to use AJ, Joe, Morgan,the X-division and the Knockouts to hook them onto what TNA has to offer.

The question is whether it's enough to compete on Monday nights?

 

[johnbragg]

It's going to say that they're trying to reach into that untapped market of casual-wrestling fans or those people who do not watch wrestling.

Ok, see, those people know who Hogan is. True. They also don't give a rat's ass. They watched when they were twelve. They're not twelve anymore. And Hogan hasn't gotten any better, I guarantee it.

Tell your stranger, "Hey, Hulk Hogan is in a new wrestling company, TNA." Stranger will understand and NOT CARE. Maybe he responds by telling you that Snoop Dogg has changed record labels. You probably don't care. You both walk off, thinking "Jackass."

Tell your friend who knows that you are a wrestling fan and used to watch with you during the Attitude Era, "TNA wrestling has the most athletic wrestlers in the world in great matches. It's awesome, dude, you have to check it out." Your friend might check it out.

If he tunes in and sees Hulk Hogan and Ric Flair and Sting, he flips right back to The Office. Game over.

 

[Ambiguous Turd]

And it also requires a credible argument that they're better than WWE. A company headlined by AJ Styles vs Angle title matches with MCMG vs Beer Money tag title matches, Samoa Joe vs. Morgan and an Amazing Red-Daniels-Kazarian-Homicide X division match can say they're the best athletic wrestling promotion on the planet.

A company headlined by Hulk Hogan is going to say what, exactly?

It says that the company is credible.

It's unfortunate that too many people are looking at this from an "in-ring" wrestling perspective.

Hogan will be used for major angles, and will undoubtedly be a major force on Impact as well as their second show which is soon to come. Yes, he will be wrestling occasionally.

However, TNA's primary goal will be to bring the exposure of Hogan's name to the company, with the exposure being passed along to AJ Styles and others.

Too many people are looking at this only from the perspective of the "quality of matches that Hogan can produce" perspective. Hogan can't do all that much in the ring anymore. No shit. At the same time, he never really did. What he does in the ring is tell stories and produce drama.

I could care less about Hogan being a shell of his former self in the ring. That really doesn't mean anything to me. What I do care about is seeing the Hulk Hogan personality back on TV again and on a regular basis ... to produce entertaining television.

Over the years, Smarks have really lost track of what it means to produce a comprehensive and entertaining wrestling product. Many smarks have adopted their philosophies to those of ROH in as far as judging a "good" product based solely on the "quality of in-ring action".

I have harped for years that the quality of in-ring action is really secondary to the quality of the characters and storylines involved. Not seeing in-ring action is unimportant, but you can't put the cart before the horse. If the audience does not care about the performers involved, then they aren't going to care about the 4 star matches. They have to connect to the wrestlers first. That is what has been holding WWE back, because of Vince watering down the characters.

But people do connect with Hogan. And Hogan will help connect them to whoever he is involved in a program with.

What we are seeing, is wrestling getting back to basics. Something perhaps McMahon needs a refresher course on after leading WWE astray for the past several years.

 

[johnbragg]

A company headlined by Hulk Hogan is going to say what, exactly?

It says that the company is credible.

To whom? Why does a viewer care if the company is credible?

Y'know, I've decided what the answer to my question is. Hogan headlining says "Orange Manboobs."

It's unfortunate that too many people are looking at this from an "in-ring" wrestling perspective.

Because that's the only thing that TNA is good at. Without that, all they have is Abyss bloodfests and Angle stalking Sting's kids and the Prince Justice Federation and a general non-stop crapfest.

However, TNA's primary goal will be to bring the exposure of Hogan's name to the company, with the exposure being passed along to AJ Styles and others.

Except that I've bought that line from TNA before with Kevin NAsh and Mick Foley and Sting and Steiner and Jarrett and Booker. For seven years it's been about bringing in names to pass along exposure to the young studs who are TNA's future. And until the last two or three months, it never happened. Angle and 3D helped their opposition, but the WCW retreads just sat there crapping on the young talent.

What he does in the ring is tell stories and produce drama.

But people have seen those stories. He has a limited dramatic range, people. And anyone remotely interested in "seeing Hulk Hogan" has seen Hogan the Real American Hero, Hogan the Hollywood Biker Badass, and Hogan the Aging Star. Seen it, netflixed the DVD and returned it.

What I do care about is seeing the Hulk Hogan personality back on TV again and on a regular basis ... to produce entertaining television.

Ok, maybe this is where I separate from the majority here. Hogan on TV hasn't entertained me much. Ever. I was the right age for Hulkamania v 1.0, didn't buy into it much. I checked out NWO Hogan when I started watching wrestling to follow what my students were talking about (They were calling me Kane, and I wanted to make sure that he wasn't a Goldust-type character.) and I wasn't hooked. I saw the 21st century Hulkamania reruns. I saw promos for Hogan's reality shows.

I just don't think he's bringing anything I want to see. And we all, in our hearts, assume that most people agree with us.

 

[Jack Tunney's Ghost]

Ah, johnbragg, you're still thinking as a wrestling fan!

Don't get me wrong, I'm not disagreeing with you here... but, you have to get out of the mind set of a wrestling fan.

Using your friend example, your friend would be in the "casual-wrestling fan" category because they "used to watch with you during the Attitude Era." So, they have SOME knowledge of Hogan's background etc... but, even still, you can't really assume that they won't be somewhat intrigued by what Hogan may be up to in a new promotion.

Hogan was "washed up" in the minds of many even when he jumped to WCW, but there was enough curiosity by casual-fans (even those who hated Hogan) to tune into WCW at the time which was enough to help put WCW on the radar to even the mainstream. And I promise you that is what TNA is hoping for now. TNA may be right or wrong here, but, that's their M.O. by signing Hogan.

And those who don't watch wrestling at all may or may not care about the athleticism in one company or another. It's up to both TNA and WWE to JUST draw those who do not watch wrestling in to watch their product. To keep them watching is another story... but, they have to find the right bait to put on the hook first.

And as a wrestling fan, you're assuming that everyone, is looking for the greatest athletes and great wrestling and so-forth. You're thinking as a member of the MALE demographic. Well, if that's all you're aiming for, you've just lost 50% of potential viewers. Women, while not the most ideal demorgraphic for wrestling, are still money making viewers who advertisers would just as happily take that money from those women. So, you have to make it somewhat friendly for women as well and again, I promise you, your mother has heard of Hulk Hogan and probably not so much of AJ Styles. So, SHE may tune into TNA just to see what Hulk is up to these days.

And here's something to think about -- UFC is enjoying great success at the moment with men AND women. And you know why most of those women watch UFC? It's not necessarily because of the science of the sport, or because of the great competition. It's simply because women think that the fighters are "sexy." Whatever! UFC will still happily take their money as well!

 

[Randolph H]

The signing of Hogan isnt about wrestling it is about getting a wider audience. The hiring of Bischoff shows that TNA is in it for the long haul because he is the only promotion specialist outside of Vinny Mac that knows how a world wide wrestling company works.

The problem I have with the thread title is the word "BRAND" because the word is apart of WWE lameness. There never was such things as Brands until Vinny introduced the word as many different terminologys he has changed because he had ZERO accountability by any real competition since 2000. I think the WWE audience needs to be deprogrammed to crack their mindless zombie thoughts of how if it aint ran by Vinny... it will never work. Vince has been defeated before and he can still be.

 

[johnbragg]

So, you have to make it somewhat friendly for women as well and again, I promise you, your mother has heard of Hulk Hogan and probably not so much of AJ Styles. So, SHE may tune into TNA just to see what Hulk is up to these days.

I don't know about my mother, but I know very well that my wife reacts poorly to floppy man-boobs and orange-leather faces.

She also cannot believe that Kevin Nash, who she used to love ten-fifteen years ago, is still hanging around.

UFC is enjoying great success at the moment with men AND women

If UFC ran a season with George Foreman, Mike Tyson, Darryl Strawberry, Tony Gwynn, Jose Canseco, Troy Aikman, Keith Hernandez, and Joe Namath shirtless and in trunks, their female ratings would be pretty close to zero.

 

[tap-out]

I have to agree with some of you. Those of you who believe Hogan was brought in to further name is spot on. The buzz around Hogan and Bischoff already has ignited a spark that will explode into fire storm if done right. I am a WWE follower and have not been this excited in a long time. I do believe this is not some small, short program. This was kept so hush, hush, that they have big plans for TNA. With Bischoff back, you have to be crazy to believe anything excpet the fact he wants one more shot to stick it to WWE.

Now with everything happening, and supposedly this is just the tip of the iceburg as the homepage stated, i believe there are some interesting people and decisions that are going to be made here in the near future:

1. RVD, huge counter if WWE signed him quietly and introduced him back to the fans through some program as a swerve. However, with the recent meetings with Dixie, one might believe he may return to wrestling in a six sided ring.

2. TV-PG, this will have to go if Bischoff does take his shot at beating vinnie. No chance in hell wwe can and wil compete with the crap they are shoving down our throats. Expect...or hope, for the shock and awe factor on raw again.

3. Highly unlikely but...Go back to one roster and have storylines continue through both shows. That was great during the attitude era. Having the scrubs gone and roster combined COULD produce some great feuds and entertaining television.

these are just my .2

 

[johnbragg]

Here's a thought.

TNA is moving their taping time up to 5:30 pm. That would have a two-hour show over by 7:30, giving them some time to tweak things before an 8 p.m. airtime.

By the way, sescoops.com reports both that Hogan's contract makes him the head booker (their source: Bubba the Love Sponge's twitter) and that TNA and Spike TV executives were scheduled to meet today to discuss moving Impact to 8-10 Mondays.

So now we have a source besides Mark Madden's speculations. Respect to Mark Madden and all, but sescoops is phrasing this as something that they have knowledge of, not just speculation.

 

[johnbragg]

Assuming the Monday Night Wars are on. The next question is what moves Vince will make. I believe that his first reaction will be to try to cripple his competition rather than improve his own product first. Put another way, improving the WWE product will be a side-effect of moves made to cripple TNA.

Step one, give Kurt Angle a call. (No one seems to know if he's resigned yet.) WWE wasn't chasing you before because you wanted out and you wanted the lighter schedule. But Kurt, if there's going to be a war, we want you on our side. The number on that contract is going to be very hard for you to turn down. I know loyalty to TNA would be an issue, except that Jarrett is screwing Karen and then the Carters screwed Jeff. And as for the schedule, we're implementing an initiative where top veterans can get half pay and only work 100 days per year. (Note: 100 sounds like a lot, but start with 50 weekly TV shows and add 15 or so PPV, and you're talking about doing 30 or so other shows during the year.)

So Step 1 is poaching Angle. What is Step 2?

 

[DarkAngel]

I really don't think TNA would get "destroyed" TNA has A LOT of loyal fans that will continue to watch TNA, especially over Raw. I for one have turned Raw off for Monday Night Football....now that TNA is hopefully heading to Monday nights, I will be turning Monday Night Football off for TNA.

This is a GREAT thing for the wrestling business in general. It creates competition...which is NEEDED in the business.

Plus, moving to Monday nights will help TNA gain more of an audience.

After all this good news today coming from TNA Wrestling, I am BEYOND STOKED!

Well said. I instantly get the feeling of Nitro Vs Raw. Now that the WCW product is way in the past, and that Hogan and Flair had major runs in the WWE, these jumps to TNA allow for TNA to have an edged advantage to a Monday Night War.

The only thing that was keeping TNA back was staying in one building and taping their iMpact! show. They had 0 publicity, and you can't expect to gain fans by taping in the same arena. Now that they will get out there with the names of HOGAN, STING, ANGLE, and possibly FLAIR then this will put them on the map and audiences will take notice. Bring it on. I'm stoked as well!

 

[Ambiguous Turd]

Assuming the Monday Night Wars are on. The next question is what moves Vince will make. I believe that his first reaction will be to try to cripple his competition rather than improve his own product first. Put another way, improving the WWE product will be a side-effect of moves made to cripple TNA.

Step one, give Kurt Angle a call. (No one seems to know if he's resigned yet.) WWE wasn't chasing you before because you wanted out and you wanted the lighter schedule. But Kurt, if there's going to be a war, we want you on our side. The number on that contract is going to be very hard for you to turn down. I know loyalty to TNA would be an issue, except that Jarrett is screwing Karen and then the Carters screwed Jeff. And as for the schedule, we're implementing an initiative where top veterans can get half pay and only work 100 days per year. (Note: 100 sounds like a lot, but start with 50 weekly TV shows and add 15 or so PPV, and you're talking about doing 30 or so other shows during the year.)

So Step 1 is poaching Angle. What is Step 2?

Just like I said .... this is a classic example of a "WWE Shareholder". Of course, you have basically admitted it, to your credit.

We want you on "OUR" side. "WE'RE" implementing a talent initiative.

Who do you think you are? Hysterical, yet incredibly sad at the same time.

And we all know that Vince is not going to alter his product unless he is absolutely forced to. So I ask you, what is the incentive of cheering on Vince, if he isn't going to make any effort to improve his stale and utterly horrendous current product?

The new TNA show on Monday Nights is truly the best move possible for the wrestling business as a whole. Yet, being a loyal lapdog to Vince is obviously a bigger priority. You don't care if the product is stale, as long as Vince is happy.