Jan 4th- Monday Night Raw vs TNA iMPACT

[Mitch Henessey]

This could Vince sending a message to TNA that he really doesn't give a fuck what they do by allowing his biggest face in the company to go do something else. Maybe Vince believes DX, Orton, an possibly The Rock will be enough to beat out TNA for this one night.

I don't think Raw will suffer. HHH and Shawn will come out, throw some glow sticks around, Orton will go on a rant and be pissed off about something, and the live crowd and people watching at home will eat it up.

 

[Cena's Little Helper]

This could Vince sending a message to TNA that he really doesn't give a fuck what they do by allowing his biggest face in the company to go do something else. Maybe Vince believes DX, Orton, an possibly The Rock will be enough to beat out TNA for this one night.

I don't think Raw will suffer. HHH and Shawn will come out, throw some glow sticks around, Orton will go on a rant and be pissed off about something, and the live crowd and people watching at home will eat it up.

I definitely agree with you that McMahon either thinks that TNA isn't a threat in the least or that he has something up his sleeve. McMahon's a pretty business-savvy man, however, and I have bolded The Rock's name in your post because my money's on him hosting RAW on January 4th.

Although Hogan is undoubtedly the biggest professional wrestler ever, I believe that his joining TNA will. at most, raise ratings for only a month or two. Currently, The Rock has more star power than Hogan, and he's still more of a valuable commodity than Cena. If anyone can provide an incentive to not watch Hogan's TNA debut, it's The Rock.

 

[codebreaker212p]

Cena will somehow be on WWE TV that night, if not live, it will be a pre-taped segment. I don't thinkVince is gonna leave Cena off TV. I wouldnt be surprised if Vince scraped Cena from going to that game and wanted him to appear on Raw. Whether we hate Cena, (like me) or like him, he is a ratings grabber. Somehow one way or another Cena will be on TV that night. I have no doubts

 

[Poop Master Flex]

If anything the ratings for RAW will go up because Monday Night Football wont be on the air by that time.

Hate to say it but TNA is not real competition, RAW wont suffer at all with Cena being gone for a week, besides, although Cena is the WWE's biggest star right now, he isn't the reason people watch WWE, he's not like Hogan, Austin or the Rock in that sense.The last 2 injuries that Cena had didn't affect the ratings one bit so I don't see how him missing 1 show will hurt the WWE too much. I just don't see too many people jumping ships on January 4th (IMO, WCW had a much better product when nitro started up than TNA does right now and that's why they were able to split the audience. TNA is no where near the WWE right now)

 

[Kenny Powers]

I don't think Raw will suffer if they have a strong guest host like The Rock or Austin. However, it sounds like from reports that The Rock and Austin are tied up with movies at the moment. I would expect to see Austin before The Rock but again I wouldn't get my hopes up. Raw will probably do better since their lowest rated show for Raw is a 3.2.

TNA might be able to get up to 1.5 or maybe even 2.0. Raw could have nothing but 2 hours of DX and Hornswoggle and they would still get a 3.0 out of it. Hopefully though Raw will have something special for us on the 4th. Even if TNA wasn't competing with them, they should at least pull something special since it is the first Raw of the new year.

 

[Little Jerry Lawler]

If the ratings for TNA are higher than the ratings for WWE on January 4th, it could go either one of two ways:

1. Vince doesn't see it as much as a problem because their top guy Cena wasn't there and he will go about business as usual.

2. TNA sees this as a positive and will continue to do more Monday night shows which could worry Vince some and will hopefully start to put on better shows.

I see it being more the first way right now but that change depending on who they get as the guest host. If it's the Rock, then I see WWE coming out on top. If not, it's a crapshoot.

 

[Rated_R_Superstar2010]

tis really not a big deal at all. is some1 gonig to not watch raw because cena isnt there?? no. is someone going to not watch tna because the rock is on raw?? hell yes. tna will get its usually fan base and a few ppl who want to see hulk but very very very few wwe fans will switch over. i mean really rock is coming to raw fo one night. whos going to miss that. tna will reair mondays show on thursday so your really not missing anything and hogan is going to be in tna for awhile so again you really not missing anything by watching raw instead

 

[mral82]

It won't hurt the WWE at all cause it's gonna probably have The Undertaker, Christian and whatever other big names from SD! and ECW as It'll be Rumble seaon and they will have all 3 brands there most likely. If TNA wants to be a threat they've gotta to try and beat ECW and superstars ratings put 2gethr first as I used to care about Hogan as I was a "hulkamaniac" but that was then. So Cena missin this Raw live won't hurt it any as they might have a Cena segment taped for Wrestlemania advertisement as the Fiesta Bowl takes place at the same place as WM26 so i don't think it'll hurt any as I'll watch Raw and turn 2 Impact durin commercials for curiosty.

 

[Tyler44]

tis really not a big deal at all. is some1 gonig to not watch raw because cena isnt there?? no. is someone going to not watch tna because the rock is on raw?? hell yes. tna will get its usually fan base and a few ppl who want to see hulk but very very very few wwe fans will switch over. i mean really rock is coming to raw fo one night. whos going to miss that. tna will reair mondays show on thursday so your really not missing anything and hogan is going to be in tna for awhile so again you really not missing anything by watching raw instead

I somewhat agree with you. I feel not many viewers will tune out if Cena isn't there because think about it, Cena's fanbase is mostly made up of younger children and early teens. These children will most likely not know that Cena won't be there since most likely they don't come on the internet and read these sites giving away spoilers and news which means they will still tune in. But also, if wwe advertises a shitload of the Rock and TNA advertises a shitload of Hogan, I still feel wwe will win that battle. WWE right now still destroys TNA in ratings, add in the Rock and those numbers will increase. Now add Hogan onto TNA and put TNA on Monday to compete with the Rock and WWE, I still feel TNA's ratings will decrease. Think about it, people who watch TNA on a daily basis on THURSDAY might still watch RAW on MONDAY, so they may be more interested in the Rock and RAW.

Honestly though, I feel I'm with a bunch of people who will watch RAW, and when a commercial or diva match comes on, I will switch the channel to TNA to see what Hogan is doing. But there's one thing i want to make clear to people (if any) who think this: TNA on January 4th will not beat WWE in the overall cable rating. Hogan will not attract that many people that RAW will score a 3.6 and TNA will score a 3.7. I feel the cable ratings will look like this: RAW 3.9, TNA 1.4.

 

[AMH]

I think that even if Cena wasn't there and the Rock wasn't hosting, Raw would beat TNA in the ratings. They don't need a blockbuster host to beat Impact. TNA is already beating themselves by letting Hogan run the show. As we can see already his ego is getting the best of him. Impact competes with Superstars and ECW, not Smackdown and Raw. They need to improve their product first and foremost before competing on Mondays. Hogan alone, won't do it. But then I got to thinking; if The Rock or Austin couldn't host, who else would could compete with their blockbuster status. And only one name came to mind....Bret Hart. Now, I know it's far-fetched and perhaps even stupid to think that. But, judging my what Bret Hart has said about Hogan in the past. His little quibs about him and mid-card guys having the matches then the thirty second Hogan/Andre matches and what not. Not to mention, that I don't think they much get along, that Bret Hart would come out of nowhere and shove it down Hogan's throat. I say this, not only for that thought, I must admit, but also because I've been DYING to see The Hitman back on Raw if only for one last time. THAT would draw more ratings than anyone. A sharpshooter on Vince, anyone? One can dream....

 

[Suneeboy]

After watching Impact this Thursday, if the show's leading up to that show are anything like the one I just saw, the WWE has absolutely nothing to worry about at all. Its 3 hours, and it'll be a supershow. TNA's mistake is re-airing it on Thursday. Why watch it Monday, when you can watch it Thursday and still see RAW? Kind of silly if you ask me.

RAW without Cena will sting a little but it won't cause a huge dip in ratings. I think the Undertaker is a bigger draw than him. If Rock guest hosts, he'll definitely be the major draw for the evening.

 

[Jack-Hammer]

I have a feeling that Raw probably won't suffer from John Cena not being there that night. It's still several weeks off and the WWE has lots of times to come up with something in place of Cena's absence. Who knows? Maybe Sheamus will wind up winning the WWE Championship at TLC. I know it doesn't seem all that likely at all, but I like the potential message that could send to TNA. The message being: We know you've got Hulk Hogan and we don't really care. You can have the past, we're looking towards the future.

It's also quite possible that Vince simply doesn't give a rat's ass about TNA at all. Vince was said by some to be pretty pissed since Hogan held his press conference at MSG. But, when the press conference turned out to be the least viewed segment on Impact that same week, I think a LOT of anxiety left Vince.

If the WWE can put on a strong show, the absence of one wrestler isn't going to damage the show. Even if that wrestler is John Cena. I'm sure that there are a fair number of fans that would probably be thrilled with a Cenaless Raw.

 

[vicd71]

The following remarks are mine and mine only and are not testament to anyone else's feelings. But, you know what? Maybe they should be. And as a matter of fact, they probably are!

My worry here is that a real good rating for the Monday Impact could end up being counter-productive for TNA. TNA's still in their infancy and still in no way capable of going head-to-head against WWE week after week. They're just not that good yet, but the question is: do theyrealize this yet? I want TNA to succeed. Yet, with Hogan around, they may be just a bit too enticed to try and and keep up with him. Remember, Hogan's got nothing to lose here. None of his own money is at stake here and nobody above him has knowledge of the business comparable to Hogan's. And even if, or when, he fails you just know he'll know just how to spin it to the media. For what it's worth, I can't see how TNA can work with Hogan at the helm. Look at Jarrett. Look at Foley. Remember "Bash At The Beach" 2000 when Jarrett layed down for Hogan and then Vince Russo publically fired Hogan on live tv? Guess what! These guys are working in TNA right now, and they've both been there for quite awhile.And what exactly is Hogan going to do? His success has been as a wrestler, but he can't wrestle any longer. He just proved that in only 3 matches against a 60 year old man who should also hang it up for the last time. TNA, right now and for the long term, is our best hope for a true alternative to WWE. I just hope someone's keeping a good eye on it!

No John Cena on Jan. 4th? Vince doesn't need him. Vince is getting exactly what he wants by having Cena working with tne NCAA - mainstream exposure. This alone is more valuable to Vince than anything he could lose because of TNA at this point. And why should he be worried about TNA? They're way too small to do any serious hurting to his company. And who knows Hogan's limitations, weaknesses, and shortcomings better than Vince? Vince knows he doesn't have to necessarily beat TNA. Just like he knew that he didn't have to beat WCW. Vince learned a very valuable lesson from those 83 weeks WCW "Monday Nitro" beat WWF "Monday Night Raw" (it was still WWF back then) in the ratings war. And that lesson was? Give Hogan and/or Russo enough time, unchecked, and whatever either are in the middle of will eventually self-implode. And when it does he (Vince) can just swoop right on in and snatch up any remains of what was once his competition and send it into exile (think WCW and the TRUE ECW).

 

[Jack-Hammer]

I just remembered something that I read a few days ago. I don't know what suddenly made me remember but TNA will be showing a replay of the 3 hour live Impact the following Thursday on Spike. In a way, TNA could well have made the choice of some viewers a lot easier. Now, all they have to do is wait another 3 days and they can watch Impact like they normally do.

This seems like a stupid move to me because, potentially, it could eliminate the whole competition aspect of it for certain people. The whole point of this is an experiment to see how Impact stacks up against Raw and how TNA stacks up as competition for the WWE in general. And, by doing so, TNA would force viewers to choose between TNA and WWE. However, by airing a replay just a few days later, it kind of makes the whole thing seem a little bit pointless really.

I suppose TNA could be doing it this way so that, if Impact completely flops against Raw, they might be able to salvage something by airing the replay on their usual night in the hopes that they're usual viewers tune in.

 

[M-Rey845]

if anything i think the ratings will go up. one thing is that if all those cena-haters that are so passionate bout hating him they dont watch raw anymore found out that he wont be on raw that date then they would watch that episode of course, another reason is that since most of cena's fan base is kids and since most kids dont really kno of this kind of news them they would still be watching, and lastly the rock is just a major ratings catcher, he alone has his own fan base and if they find out of his coming then they of course would watch raw

as for tna i dnt really think hogan will draw many people to watch, bcus well its not really that exciting, imo the tna ratings will be the same or a little bit better, but nothing compared to wat raw will get

 

[It's...Baylariat!]

Raw can't get much worse. The ratings are nearing the high 2's, which is not good. We're taking pre Monday Night War days and the dying days of WCW kind of ratings. Cena doesn't help at all and may be the lowest drawing Main Event this decade as far as ratings are concerned. So I don't see Cena being a big difference on Raw. I see him hopefully dropping the belt at TLC and putting someone like Sheamus over. That's only if he's leaving for the movie. Title changes need to be a rare commodity and shouldn't happen on free TV. Of course it'll probably happen on TV because the WWE wants to see Raw have a spike in the ratings.

But the guest host concept has backfired. Fans are tuning away because there's just not enough wrestling on the show. It's more or less people who have no business being in a WWE ring trying to host a show that they should not be within 10 miles of. But Cena's not made that much of a difference. To me, it seems as if people are tired of Cena. They've been for a while. He needs to give us the gift of missing him and we'll see where the ratings go. But I see it staying either neutral or increasing.

 

[F-5MONSTER]

Well i really think now that cena is gone vince has something big up his sleeve with the rock.I mean come on vince wouldnt let the guy who's practically bringing in all the kiddies for the wwe get away on a night like this unless he had a bigger draw.What i hope happens is that since cena is gone for the night the rock shows up and at the end of the show its a segment where the rock is heading to his car to leave and cena walks up to the rock and they have a stare down setting the stage for wrestlemania.

 

[Chicago1989]

Even though I think that not having Cena (Who is their biggest star and WWE Champion) on RAW is stupid, I still think WWE will obviously beat TNA in ratings no matter what. I think Vince isn't too concerned with having Cena away when TNA is going to try to compete with them, even though he wouldn't mind having Cena on RAW. But since rumors are that he won't be there, either having The Rock as the guest host or having guys from SmackDown and ECW such as Christian and The Undertaker would be a suitable replacement to compensate for Cena's absence.

Another factor as to who will the fans will watch when it comes to The Rock or Hulk Hogan is who do the fans truly care for the most, personally and professionally. The Rock is an A-List celebrity that does great movies for kids and adults, a phenomenal entertainer, someone who is generous and humble, and someone who anyone would consider as a role model. Hulk Hogan....a legend, probably the biggest name ever in professional wrestling, a worldwide pop culture icon, someone who supposedly carries a huge ego, who supposedly doesn't put people over and who's selfish, who has a somewhat dysfunctional family, and someone who flaunts his affairs in public and in the media. You decide who you'll support on January 4th.

 

[Wrestling_Alumni]

I highly doubt that John Cena not being at raw will be a downfall. Why because you have HHH Shawn Micheals, Randy Orton Sheamus,Kofi Kingston and alot of good talent. I think Edge may come back or something really big, Vince has no worries he can crush tna just like he did wcw..we will just have to wait and see..

 

[LikeABoss13]

In my opinion, TNA will do bad on January 4th because The Rock to me is a bigger name than Hulk Hogan. I'm not saying Hulk Hogan being on TNA will draw like low ratings in the 1's but maybe draw ratings in the 2 area. The thing though is that The Rock is coming back as a guest host for 1 night only and Hulk Hogan is staying in TNA for now, but how will WWE fair to TNA with Hulk Hogan being on TNA every week. Another thing, John Cena isn't going to be on RAW either on January 4th and I don't know if that would hurt WWE, I am guessing it might hurt them a little bit since he is going to be the champ still after TLC this Sunday. I still think though WWE is going to do good after January 4th and TNA is going to go down the tube like WCW did and that is going to suck for TNA. I do give TNA credit for at least trying to compete with WWE. What do all you guys and girls think about this?

 

[Father:_Polley]

Hulk Hogan will draw big for a few weeks, then it'll slack off and he'll get bored of TNA, the roster will get tired of Hogan feeding off his reputation and pushing himself to the top.

He's going to be champion within a few weeks or months and he's going to draw. Like him or not he's still a big name and creates talk no matter how rigid, unexciting and monotonous he is.

Other side of the coin is that Rock is Hollywood star and the first truely international host that has any idea of how to handle himself in the ring. To have an Attitude Era legend will appeal to fans who have drifted away, in the hope that they'll come back for one night.

A few extra ratings for TNA for a week or two, but the status quo will remain unchanged for the most part. Hogan won't attract many commited WWE fans, and the ones that remember the great Hogan won't be interested in current WWE product.

 

[a0161613]

Polley, I'm surprised you think Hogan will push himself. He can barely move and I reckon his pain after the Aus tour will have made him realise that.

That isn't to say that Hogan won't push his buddies at the expense of TNA's younger, superior talent.

I think WWE will pushfor a strong Road to WM, so an important Rumble winner/WM maineventeris crucial for them. No Way Out (EC) will be big as well.

TNA will see massive change but I think Hogan will intend to make a statement with his booking decisions. So iMPACT and the first 2010 PPV will be interesting. There are some things I hope he helps/changes and some things that don't need changing, just a little direction and application.

 

[Jack-Hammer]

Hogan has come right out and said that the Jan 4th show will draw a 3.0 rating, which is absolute nonsense. However, I wonder if Hogan actually believes his own hype and if he's somehow got Dixie Carter thinking it's going to happen. IF that's what Dixie is expecting, then she's going to be severely disappointed when the ratings come out the next day.

As for how each company will do, well that's hard to say really. As of right now, the WWE hasn't reacted one bit to TNA's announcement that it's going to do a 3 hour show, live on Monday January 4th. Raw has just been going about business and I don't think the WWE really considers TNA to be much of a threat. I'm hoping, however, that the WWE decides to make Raw more serious in some ways. DX needs to stop the corny skits and even cornier merchendise plugs, Hornswoggle needs to go back to being a mascot for Finley and I don't think it'd hurt Raw at all to include some more matches on the show.

As for TNA, I think it has a lot riding on the show. Dixie Carter is someone that is so focused on being #1 and beating the WWE that she's put actually developing a rock solid TNA product at a distant second. Hulk Hogan isn't going to be the mega draw that Dixie Carter is hoping for and I hope she comes to realize that she's going to have to focus on building young talent and developing a good, solid and coherant product. That's what Carter is going to have to do instead of relying almost completely on bringing in much older and well established wrestlers and just hoping/counting on their names to pull in ratings. She needs to stop that anyway because it hasn't worked.

 

[King Douche]

All I canreally say is I hope this is the beginning of a new era in wrestling. WWE needs competition, cause once it gets it then they will be back in buisness in producing good stuff again and not lackluster stuff they are doing at the moment. TNA needs to put on good wrestling matches that night so they can show the people that they are indeed a wrestling alternative to the WWE. If they can do exactly that, then I do not see why TNA cannot be successful that night. Of course they should be advertising the hell out of this show on other networks, not just Spike television. They should advertise on USA during RAW, Sci-Fi during ECW and MyNetwork during Smackdown. Other networks they should advertise this is ESPN networks, ABC, NBC, CBS, FX, TNT, TBS, ect. So they can let people know their is a 2nd wrestling company and so it will get them interested to watching the show.

 

[F-5MONSTER]

Of course they should be advertising the hell out of this show on other networks, not just Spike television. They should advertise on USA during RAW, Sci-Fi during ECW and MyNetwork during Smackdown. Other networks they should advertise this is ESPN networks, ABC, NBC, CBS, FX, TNT, TBS, ect.

Vince would never ever let anyone else advertise another wrestling show on raw.I mean come on they advertised their ppv's on during impact.And if they do a highlight of wrestlemania on NBC do you think vince is gonna let that happen.Even if vince isn't gonna respond to tna i dont think he would let them slip under his fingers and advertise.