What If...Thursday Night Wars

[Harddyboy77]

Watching some old episodes of Smackdown recently and thought, What if Smackdown moved back to Thursdays?

In my opinion, both Smackdown and Impact would step their game up trying to out do each other. I honestly think it could work.Impact would most likely be put out of business or move to a new night within 2 years. Vince could buy the bankrupt company. And it would be like WWECW all over again.

What if Smackdown moved back to Thursdays?

 

[prush80]

Interesting topic. It would have been a better move for tna to go against Smackdown then go against RAW. They still would have lost, but maybe not by as much. Now I am an anti-tna guy, I like other independent shows, I go to Indy shows when I can. I did watch tna when they were on Fox Sports, but when they became this anti-WWE show and thats all they were doing, it quit being an entertaining show IMO.

 

[LegendKiller_RKO]

I don't think they would put TNA out of business just from being on the same night. There are loyal TNA followers especially in places like the U.K and other parts of the world plus with things like TVO people can record one show and watch the other. But as a wwe fan which I'm assuming you are too, why would you want TNA to go out of business? If anything we should want TNA to flourish! The better TNA does, the better quality product wwe puts out. For example the whole monday night wars in the late 90s early 2000s. The wwe had to constantly pump out interesting stories to keep up with TNA and vice versa.

 

[Defekt]

It would be interesting.

USA is the top cable channel. USA averages three times the viewers Spike does. Syfy averages less than twice the viewers of Spike.

Alot more people watch TV on Thursday night. In fact, Smackdown's timeslot on Friday, is commonly referred to as "The Friday Night Death Slot." However, there is also much more competition on Thursday. Many high profile shows air at that time.

I imagine Smackdown's rating would get a mediocre ratings bump, and Impact's ratings would decrease slightly.

Many people would watch Smackdown over Impact, but more wrestling fans watching TV at one time, switching back and forth between the two shows, might lessen the blow.

I guess at the very least, Impact and Smackdownn going head to head would motivate both companies to produce a better show.

 

[IHW]

I've been thinking for a while that if TNA really wants to "compete" with the WWE then they should star with SD!

It would certainly make each show push out better product.
I would like it.

 

[Mustang Sally]

Even aside from considering the impact on Impact , I don't know why Smackdown ever moved to Friday in the first place. After all, Friday is the weekend and many folks would rather go out and spend their paycheck than sit home and watch TV. I'll never understand Vince's thinking on that one.

Now, if they ever decided to go back to Thursday, TNA is standing in the way.....and it would look horrible if WWE went head-to-head and didn't do well. At the same time, if Vince were to make this move, he wouldn't want to simply co-exist with the competition; he'd have to be damn sure he'd knock them out. It's probably not worth the risk to try.

One thought: If Smackdown had stayed on Thursday in the first place and the Jarretts decided to open a wrestling company, which night would they have picked to air their weekly show?

One other thought: If WWE was still using the Spike TV network and the Jarretts decided to open a wrestling company, which network would have picked them up? USA?

 

[Dagger Dias]

Smackdown moving to thursdays would change nothing because they would still get much lower ratings than Raw, and would still struggle to get as many people to watch the blue brand. The main problem isn't that Smackdown is on an evening that most people do not spend home watching television. The problem is that Smackdown is taped. The spoilers for a thursday edition of Smackdown would get found online just as they do for the current friday editions. Thus, those of us with DVR's will still just tape it to catch later on, and anyone who reads the spoilers still won't see the point in watching when they know all the results beforehand.

Smackdown competing with Impact sounds better on paper than it actually would be. Raw destroyed Impact in the second monday night battle. Granted, Smackdown may be viewed by a much smaller group than Raw is, but WWE have the advantage of using a more known brand. TNA would need to figure out a way to get Smackdown fans to watch their show instead. They never were the best company out there when it comes to advertising, so they would have to step up their game significantly or else they would not stand much more of a chance than they did against Raw.

 

[shanezam203]

I'd love to see SOME KIND of Ratings War. SO yeah Thursday night TNA vs. WWE, I'm IN for that and I think Smackdown is a good start for TNA. Weren't there some weeks the Saturday wwe show got higher ratings than Impact?

I wish for this business we had competition, where are ratings at right now between Monday night Raw, Impact & Smackdown? Is there still a website that has a running weekly list of ratings?

 

[Dmbfantomas]

Smackdown would obliterate the "fringe" wrestling viewer block of fan. Guys who watch both promotions would almost all go watch Smackdown on the more consistent basis, because it's the better show.

Now, if they wanted to lay the death knell to TNA (And frankly, right now, I really don't think they care about TNA hardly at all), they would put Smackdown! on LIVE on Thursday night.

 

[shanezam203]

yeah I don't think Vince wants to take out TNA like he did WCW because he doesn't see them as a threat... what are their ratings at now compared to WWE?

 

[xoxo French Kiss xoxo]

Remember that time TNA tried to compete with Monday Night Raw, and it failed?

The same would happen if Smackdown was on Thursday instead of Friday Night, they would dominate TNA as they've dominated TNA in the past.

Smackdown is fine where its at, on Friday Nights. TNA isn't competition to the WWE, so there's no point in changing their time slot to "compete" with them.