Jan 4th- Monday Night Raw vs TNA iMPACT

[Jack-Hammer]

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.

The thing is, I find it very difficult to believe that fans of professional wrestling are unaware of TNA's existence. TNA does need to advertise the crap out of the show to be held Jan 4th but they really haven't done that. As far as advertising on channels the WWE has programming on, I don't think it'll happen. It wouldn't surprise me if the WWE had some sort of clause in their contracts with those networks stating that they can't advertise other wrestling companies during commercial breaks during WWE programming timeslots.

As I said, I know that TNA needs to advertise a lot, but it probably just doesn't have the kind of money to launch an aggressive advertising onslaught or they probably would have done so long before now. Still, I do believe that there is probably more that TNA could do. If nothing else, I'd print out tons of fliers and just put them up everywhere. There's no such thing as too much advertising after all and any little thing could help.

 

[Da Prophet]

With Cena not there, it may be a hit in the ratings but not by much. You still got DX,Orton, Jericho (if he retains his titles) and maybe the Rock. How could people not watch this? They might lose people from the ages if 5-10 but the others will still tune in.

I will be watching it and not hogan. He's not going to interest me as much as Jericho, Orton or Rocky. Even DX in my opinion.

That's just me.

 

[King Douche]

I think it will be low ratings that night. Cause every time Cena does not appear on RAW they have low ratings, so WWE will probably have low ratings that night but still remain in the 3s. They should be able to beat TNA, even though I'd like TNA to beat out RAW that night so TNA can prove that they are legit and a serious competitor to the WWE. But I doubt it.

 

[Daedalus]

There's a large percentage of fans (tons of kids) who do not follow wrestling news and probably will have no idea Cena won't be on the show. WWE would be smart to keep this on the down low (not on the WWE website or announced during the show) and I doubt many Cena fans will know and still watch. It seems like a majority of the folks who follow wrestling news or websites dislike Cena anyways and that will be a positive for them not having him on the show (They will have a taped segment or two I'd bet though).

 

[The Doctor]

I don't think it will affect them much at all. They will probably use The Rock (if he hosts), Kofi Kingston, or D-X as their main faces of the night, and not make mention of Cena not being there. If they do, it'll just be a throwaway mention. They've had shows that are missing their top faces before, and I doubt it will be that big of a deal, especially if they get Rocky in.
I'm going to that show and I'm still going to enjoy it, Cena or no Cena.

 

[King Douche]

I heard The Rock will not guest host that night cause he has to start filming on his new movie The Tooth Fairy which is coming out sometime next year. So they will proably have to get someone esle who is big to guest host. Maybe get a legend like Steve Austin to guest host RAW that night. That should keep the ratings the same or higher. But if they can get The Rock to guest host that night then for sure Cena will not be missed for that one night. And TNA will be doomed that night aswell.

 

[BigAdz]

Would anyone else be surprised if Vince intentionally sets up for Cena to not appear on the 4th? Possibly as a way to further push Cena turning heel and building his heat just that little bit for the sake of the 15+ demographic?

I'm probably suffering from wishful thinking here but Vince would know that Cena is unpopular with teenaged and older fans who are either fans of newer stars on his brand as well as TNA's or aging Hulkamaniacs. If Cena's not on RAW, maybe his smarks will have a reason to check out his show.

Yeah, this is definitely wishful thinking. But a guy can hope that his vision for a heel Cena and Vince going back to playing the game that won him the Monday Night Wars will come to fruition.

 

[Toroc102]

TNA is not on WWE's level period. When Hogan went to WcW they didn't automatically start winning the war, nope, it took two years a Hogan heel turn and the nWo to do that. Also like someone else said, I think Hogan has become a joke over the past couple of years. His persona used to be cool, but even when I was watching him promote TNA on UFC you could see the look on Rogan's face as he said brother every other word, he was like man this guys ridiculous.

Basically, even if Hogan we're a draw, how many people outside of the TNA viewers even know that he's going to be debuting? I mean outside of Spike I haven't seen any promotion for him or TNA so who outside of their normal viewers and some of the IWC are going to tune in?

I say this is just business as usual for TNA, they'll bring in Hogan, they'll say its the biggest thing to ever happen to TNA, and in two months they'll change directions yet again.

 

[makeitvab]

My standpoint is...

I don't give a fuck what hogan did in the 80s, I started watching wrestling in 2003ish and when I did see him I saw a pathetic old orange man clinging onto his past and making an ass out of himself, his partners in the ring, and the business by not hanging it up.

Now I typically watch TNA, haven't watched anything WWE since punk dropped from title scene after bragging rights, and before that I hadn't watched raw in about 6 months, not out of some "dur wwe sucks tna rocks!" mentality. I just felt it was in a slump, happens to any tv show, they have bad seasons.

However, I will NOT be watching tna until hogan leaves, or dies. I feel there are plenty like me who feel the same way, and I'm sorry but hogan won't save tna wrestling. The people who use to watch him and quit watching wrestling, yea they might tune into Impact but who cares? They wont buy PPVs, they wont buy merch, and they'll probably tune out after 1-2 weeks of realizing just how old and broken down hogan is anymore.

I may start watching raw again just because

1) it's a new year

2) it's the royal rumble, the one match I feel always delivers on just being plain ol' fun to watch.

so yeah...

 

[Mr-excitement]

I hate the guest hosts too, probably more than anyone since I devoted my signature to making fun of them.... but even if everyone who posts on this forum were to join you and not watch Raw that night, Raw would still do better than Impact because people have the option of just catching a rerun a few days later on thursday.... and because of that, Raw will end up doing a lot better that night in terms of the viewers. If you had the choice between a show you can see that night only, or a show that you can see on two different times that week, most people would go for the one they can only see that night. See what I mean? Exactly.

That means NOTHING, nitro ran repeats early on when they were kicking Vince's behind. Just because they have a repeat feed, it doesn't mean people WONT watch it live.

 

[Raul4510]

You know, I've been thinking a lot lately about TNA's Monday Night option. Has anybody considered maybe Ted Turner is secretly helping Dixie Carter with funds? I mean who was more upset at the demise of WCW than Ted? He really wanted to beat Vinny Mac. So I've started to wonder especially with Hogan coming on board out of nowhere and suddenly TNA wants to do Monday Night Wars II? I mean this would make so much sense because if Hogan isn't just bullshitting he wants to bring in some big names like Stone Cold and The Rock. So if Turner was secretly helping TNA there is a certain logic to it all. Dixie Carter doesn't have unlimited funds and with the help of Billionaire Ted TNA could at the very least be in a financial position to battle WWE. Also Turner's no compete clause with WWE expired in 2005/06 so this is as good a time as any.

 

[Jack-Hammer]

According to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter. WWE Hall of Famer Bret "Hitman" Hart has just signed a short term deal to work with the WWE. The deal is set to begin on New Year's Day and is said to extend several weeks after WrestleMania. Bret Hart is the WWE's response to TNA bringing in Hulk Hogan for the live 3 hour Impact.

For me personally, I can't wait to see Bret Hart. People have been screaming for the guy to return for years, and he's literally been gone from the spotlight for over a decade now. Hogan going to TNA is something that's interesting, but I've got no real interest in the guy to be honest. Hogan has never really "gone away" I suppose you could say. In one form or another, Hulk Hogan has thrust himself onto televisions since his last match with the WWE several years ago. Even after the fall of WCW, Hogan has still remained a pretty consistent force known to wrestling fans whether its through reality shows, radio and television interviews, etc.

Both TNA and the WWE have proven that they can put on atrocious shows. This past Monday's Raw and Last Thursday's Impact were prime examples of just how shitty both companies can let a show become. However, Hart signing with the WWE has pinned down where I'm going to be on January 4, 2010.

 

[CenaFan]

I’ll be viewing Bret but considering that it has not been confirmed yet that on 01/04 he will be a guest host, I am not getting my hopes up. Even though he signed with WWE that does not mean that he will be a guest host on 01/4. So I just don't want to be disapointed in the end.

 

[Loveless]

I have to laugh at this really. TNA and Hogan looked at how bad the WWE has been at times this year and thought to themselves "Hey we can take these guys. Let's have a go" to which the WWE has stood back, chuckled to themselves and then decided they were going to crush TNA into oblivion. No matter how bad the WWE are (and RAW was absolutely abysmal on Monday) all it takes is a little push and they come up with something like this. I'll be watching RAW, as I expect will everyone else, not because of Bret Hart, but because of everything else WWE will throw at that show.
Don't get too used to the idea of a new war. Come January 5th it will be over.

 

[Jsaturn14]

IF Bret does Guest Host on the 4th, I know exactly which show I am gonna be tuning into. Bret signing with WWE is 100000000000 times a bigger deal than Hogan to TNA. Yeah, Hogan to TNA is big, but its not that big. As the original poster pointed out Hogan has been shoving himself down our throats since 2005 with his crappy reality show, and all the reports about his son, and his wife, and crap like that. TBH, I am sick of Hulk Hogan. The man should have stepped out of the spotlight after his match with HBK in 05, but Hogan is a bitter old man who's EGO is bigger than any sense you try and put in him.

Again, Bret signing with WWE is 100000000 times a bigger deal. Yes, he did the Hall of Fame, but I think that was more for the fans than anyone else, and just to let everyone know that he was good, and WASN'T coming back. I never ever expected Bret to sign a deal after Montreal. Yes, that was 11 years ago, but any interview you ever read or listened to with Bret, and you know that he has never ever let go his anger about what happened that night. So for him to actually sign a deal to work under Vince again, yeah, that is way more interesting, and if he does Guest Host, at any time, I will most definitely be watching.

 

[xXSlater420Xx]

According to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter. WWE Hall of Famer Bret "Hitman" Hart has just signed a short term deal to work with the WWE. The deal is set to begin on New Year's Day and is said to extend several weeks after WrestleMania. Bret Hart is the WWE's response to TNA bringing in Hulk Hogan for the live 3 hour Impact.

For me personally, I can't wait to see Bret Hart. People have been screaming for the guy to return for years, and he's literally been gone from the spotlight for over a decade now. Hogan going to TNA is something that's interesting, but I've got no real interest in the guy to be honest. Hogan has never really "gone away" I suppose you could say. In one form or another, Hulk Hogan has thrust himself onto televisions since his last match with the WWE several years ago. Even after the fall of WCW, Hogan has still remained a pretty consistent force known to wrestling fans whether its through reality shows, radio and television interviews, etc.

Both TNA and the WWE have proven that they can put on atrocious shows. This past Monday's Raw and Last Thursday's Impact were prime examples of just how shitty both companies can let a show become. However, Hart signing with the WWE has pinned down where I'm going to be on January 4, 2010.

I just said the same thing on another thread. Hogan cant draw for shit anymore because he makes so many piss poor apperances all the time, Bret hasnt been seen in a real capacity in wrestling in over a decade, who is the obvious draw there? We already know what Hogan is going to do the minute he shows up on screen. But with Bret the possiabilities are endless.....

 

[WWF Wrestling Fan]

I wanna see Bret Hart more then Hogan, Hogan has been in the news for a while with the divorce from Linda the whole debacle with there son Nick and Bret Hart has not been seen sense 2006 at the WWE Hall Of Fame and Bret Hart has been one of my all time favorites in wrestling history so I will be watching Bret Hart on WWE RAW.

 

[Mitch Henessey]

This is not even hard for me. I have been dying to see the Hitman in a WWE ring again for the longest. When Montreal first happened, I was way too young to really understand how big it was, but overtime I learned how huge it was.

You have to remember, Hogan has always been on TV, and in the limelight. During his final days with WWE, we had Hogan Know's Best, and he's been all over TV the past couple of years with the whole Nick Hogan saga, Brooke's reality show, andthe messy divorce from Linda. Yeah, he popped up on the 15th anniversary Raw show, but who really remembers it?

Bret on the other hand, has been far away from any spotlight of any kind. Sure, he had those few appearances on ROH, but not everyone(except for die-hard wrestling fans) watches ROH. This is huge. So, I guess Vince did have a trick up his sleeve after all.

 

[Super Crazy]

I've never seen the Hitman on television before. For me it is a no brainer. I will definitely be anxious for both shows, however, I am going to have to go with Raw. Since I've seen Hogan on television since he came back to the WWE with the nWo, I've seen enough of him. Now, I'm not bashing Hogan or anything, but I mean, with his age, and all that, I can only picture what a match for him would be like nowadays. Now I know Bret probably won't make an in ring return, but I'm still excited for this. Both men mean a lot to the wrestling industry and if both are going head to head with each other, it should be interesting to see who is the bigger draw.

 

[NSL]

I'd love to see Hart...And, as much as I don't want to see Hogan in TNA,m, I'll be more interested in what happens with him. We don't know how long his contract is, and his impact (no pun intended) on TNA will be felt much more through the wrestling world than anything Hart does in the 3 months there.

Can we at least agree that neither man has any business wrestling a match at this point?

 

[Dagger Dias]

Who would I rather see more on January 4th: Hart or Hogan?

I would much rather see Hart because it's been so long since the last time we saw him on a wrestling show, yet we have seen Hogan brag for a few weeks now about how him being there will get TNA to the top. I'm not saying that TNA can't pull it off (there's still a chance that they survive after January 4th), but what could they do to cause more fan interest than the return of Hart? I honestly can't think of anything, MAYBE a Knockouts swimsuit competition or something, but there are so many fans who want to see Hart again (I'm one of them) that few things could stand a chance against that.

 

[Uncle Phatso]

Hart dude, gotta go with him. I'm sick of seeing Hogan anyways. I will flip to see how shitty Hogan looks for about five minutes, and the ultimate implosion of the impact zone. But other than that... I'm gonna go with watching hart hopefull set somthing up for himself to wrestle at mania? Maybe Bret vs Taker, i'd sure love to see that. Maybe it could happen. Hbk and Bret wrestle to see who wrestles taker.

 

[Jack-Hammer]

I'd say that it's probably a gimme that Bret Hart isn't going to wrestle and I'd say that's probably a good idea. The guy has had a couple of strokes after all and when one suffers something like that, it's a pretty safe bet that their athletic endeavors are pretty much over. Aside from just seeing the guy, I'm curious to see what sort of role he'll play in the WWE.

According to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Hogan's role in TNA is going to be something along the lines of a mentor to the young guys of TNA against the older guys. Sounds exactly like the type of angle that TNA just got finished working with the Main Event Mafia. I wasn't that wild about it the first time and I've got no real interest in seeing it again. There are also hints of the various nWo members getting together, given Nash's getting the band back together comments that he's made. Sorry, but I've got no interest in any of that. Doing something they just got finished doing, only adding Hogan does nothing for me.

 

[Tastycles]

Cena's absence over one week won't have any affect at all. It won't be announced, so people will still tune in, thinking "I wonder when John Cena will be on?". The WWE doesn't need Cena to beat TNA, that will be acheived pretty easily, and if anything this will make TNA's efforts look even more futile.

Cena will definitely feature at some stage in the proceedings, even if he isn't there, and even if he were completely absent, over one week that won't make a difference.

 

[tarheelhutch3]

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.

I agree with you. As someone who watches RAW on Monday, ECW on Tuesday, TNA on Thursday, and Smackdown on Friday it hurts me to see one of my shows leaving which forces me to not watch one of them. Anyway, I will watch the first hour of TNA and then switch over to watch RAW at 9 and then do the occasional switch to see what is going on. Also, I agree with those people who say Cena will show up on that show somehow whether live or prerecorded or something. Also, adding the Rock to the show will boost more ratings from those Rock fans like myself who will tune in to see the Rock that one time! It will also be a time for the shows to come together again or at least send the big Smackdown stars like The Undertaker, Batista, or Rey Mysterio, etc, to have something to do with the show if Cena is really not there. Bottom line: WWE will replace Cena somehow with some other star power and TNA does not take major ratings away from Monday night RAW.