Will Monday Night Impact Ever Return?

[CM Steel]

TNA/Impact Wrestling tried to bring back the old "Monday night war" with bringing Impact to monday nights during the time WWE was displaying RAW. They even said during the Impact intro that "the war is on again". But the "war" only lasted for a few weeks when Impact went back to Thursday nights with their tail tucked between their TNA legs.

After that there have been talk within TNA that if the time comes their up to take TNA Impact to Monday nights again. But if they do, will they atlease be on Monday nights longer than 5-6 weeks? And what should TNA do differently than before?

 

[NotoriousMEAT]

I'm pretty sure TNA has accepted their role as #2 in the wrestling world. And for the better. I'd say accepting it and going forward with that mindset has contributed to a quarter of some of TNA's recent momentum. I'd rather watch TNA flourish for years being the absolute best #2 they could be instead of drowning and losing their TV spot trying to compete with WWE. If their ratings get high enough, they may try competing with SmackDown on Friday nights. The only time I ever see them trying to compete against RAW is if they have the ratings before hand to back up such a big move.

 

[Mr Mikey Mike]

After that there have been talk within TNA that if the time comes their up to take TNA Impact to Monday nights again. But if they do, will they atlease be on Monday nights longer than 5-6 weeks? And what should TNA do differently than before?

I don't know where you heard that there have been talks to possibly move the show back to Mondays? I've heard no such thing about that, but anyways to the main topic there's no reason in hell for Tna to move back to Monday nights. They tried to compete with raw and failed miserably, they scored some of their lowest ratings in years on Monday night. Tna is absolutely fine with what they're doing now which is airing live on Thursdays.

 

[Mr Mikey Mike]

If their ratings get high enough, they may try competing with SmackDown on Friday nights. The only time I ever see them trying to compete against RAW is if they have the ratings before hand to back up such a big move.

Why in the world would Tna move to Fridays to compete with Smackdown? Friday's a terrible tv night and Smackdown still usually does double the amount of viewers that Impact does. Again leaving Thursdays would be a dumb move for Tna when they're doing so great now in their current spot.

 

[gers09]

if they want to kill tna then yes but if they don't then no they will never b able to beat wwe apart from the 84 weeks wcw was beating it wwe has been top wrestling company for well over 20 years and that won't change anytime soon. is wwe putting on the best shows it can right now no but it still better than tna. tna do have some better wrestlers yes of course but it not just about there wrestling ability they need to put on a show and tna just cant do that where wwe can vince has been doing that for years training shane and steph how to and now steph and hhh is taking over you can see changes being made for the better

 

[NotoriousMEAT]

Why in the world would Tna move to Fridays to compete with Smackdown? Friday's a terrible tv night and Smackdown still usually does double the amount of viewers that Impact does. Again leaving Thursdays would be a dumb move for Tna when they're doing so great now in their current spot.

Don't get too wound up my man. I NEVER said they should. I said they might if the ratings were right. The assumption would be there fans would follow them to Fridays and they'd out rate SmackDown. The majority of my post stated I like TNA where they were at. Not everyone's the enemy pal.

 

[shooter_mcgavin]

Why in the world would Tna move to Fridays to compete with Smackdown? Friday's a terrible tv night and Smackdown still usually does double the amount of viewers that Impact does. Again leaving Thursdays would be a dumb move for Tna when they're doing so great now in their current spot.

Plus even if Smackdown! is the B-Show, WWE can beef up Smackdown! to compete with Impact. If TNA were to air on Fridays expect the WWE to start putting more top stars on Friday night Smackdown! Were talking about more Triple H, Cena, Orton, Punk or even Lesnar. This would give Smackdown! higher ratings and make TNA bleed even more.

 

[Mustang Sally]

if they want to kill tna then yes but if they don't then no they will never b able to beat wwe apart from the 84 weeks wcw was beating it wwe has been top wrestling company for well over 20 years and that won't change anytime soon.

At least WCW had the financial wherewithal to go head-to-head with WWE on the prime night for pro wrestling. Yes, WCW didn't utilize what they had very well, but at least they had the means, and by spending humongous sums of money, they were on top for a long time.

TNA has no such luxury. We have no idea whether they're a profitable operation (despite a number of folks on this forum who claim to "know" that they are). At present, there are some major stars leaving (mostly women) and I seriously wonder if their investors aren't starting to tap out, bringing the financial problems to the forefront.....but I have no true knowledge of the situation, either.

The younger company started the modern-day Monday night war by hiring Hulk Hogan and proclaiming they would soon take over as the #1 wrestling company. That wrestling fans weren't going to follow Hogan wherever he went seemed obvious to everyone except TNA (and Hulk himself, apparently). That they wound up crawling back to Thursday night with their tails between their legs should be enough to convince them not to try such a foolish move again.

After all, while some people on this board feel that TNA will "catch up" to WWE in time, it doesn't seem to be happening.....not even a little. Before Hogan (and his presumably huge salary) came along, the program was doing TV ratings that hovered around 1.0.....and that's what they're still doing. Yes, of course, if merchandise sales have soared through the ceiling, that's a different story, although I wonder if selling t-shirts and masks can truly turn an unprofitable venture into a moneymaker.

So, where's the progress? Where's the evidence that a return to Monday nights for TNA could possibly result in anything different than what happened before?

I can't see it.....and can't imagine what could possibly happen to change it. Let TNA be #2....and let them not even acknowledge that secondary standing: if they have to designate themselves as anything, let them call themselves an "alternative" to WWE.......and keep that alternative on Thursday night.

 

[Jack-Hammer]

If TNA ever does return to Monday nights, I don't expect it to happen for MANY years to come, if ever. The thing is that TNA just doesn't have the audience or the general brand recognition & acceptance among wrestling fans and non-wrestling fans. Even people who've never watched a pro wrestling program in their lives know about WWE and generally what it is. Part of that is because they've been around for so long, part of it is because they've generated the VAST majority of huge stars in wrestling during the course of my lifetime thus far and part of it is because they've been able to gain some degree of acceptance by the mainstream. Whenever WWE reaches out to stars from mainstream media, some of the biggest stars of movies or music or television show up. The biggest star TNA has had on their show has probably been J-Woww from Jersey Short. WWE has had people like Donald Trump, Shaq, Ozzy & Sharon Osbourne, Hugh Jackman, etc.

Also, an actual Monday Night Wars might not be the best thing for either company in some ways. Let's say that TNA does increase the size of its audience in a few years and goes head to head with WWE. A good number of viewers that watch TNA currently probably also watch WWE. If TNA is able to bring in fans to watch their shows that don't watch WWE and gain an audience of similar size, then there might be something. If TNA's audience continued to be people that watched both brands, then a head to head show on Monday nights might wind up splitting their audience, resulting in both shows drawing less viewers as a result.

Last Thursday, TNA drew an audience of almost 1.6 million viewers. For them, that's a strong number and it's a number they haven't reached for quite a while. For most of this year, TNA's viewership has averaged in the 1.3-1.4 million range, which is mostly where they've been for the past 4 or 5 years. Over most of this year, Raw generally averages somewhere in the mid to upper 4 million viewership rage with occassional leaps into drawing over 5 million.

If TNA is able to increase its US audience by about 3 million viewers, the majority of which are new fans to wrestling, then it has a legit shot of moving to Mondays to oppose Raw. Otherwise, it'll be a repeat of what happened back in 2010.

 

[Dagger Dias]

Highly doubt it. TNA was not ready to go up against Raw 2 years ago and it got squashed like an insect. Similar results would take place if they did it again today. I'm not saying it will NEVER happen again, but certainly not anytime soon. WCW was a lot closer to the then WWF's level than TNA is to today's WWE. Not to mention there are two main brands, TNA would need a second brand to compete with Smackdown in order to seem like a bigger deal and a more significant threat. They are not at the point where they could build a secondary brand to go up against Smackdown, Impact itself is closer to Smackdown's level than to Raw's, which says something.

Would I like to see both shows on mondays again? You bet. Not at the expense of TNA getting squashed again though. We all know what happened to WCW and I would not want to see WWE become an even bigger monopoly by defeating yet another federation. TNA is on the right path with their live shows and they should stay in their live on thursday format until they become a bigger deal, then and only then should they consider another monday battle with Raw. Most fans desire another monay night ratings war, but we have to be patient for the competition to arrive. It can still happen someday.

 

[It's Damn Real!]

We have been over this hundreds of times, so fuck it — here's one hundred and one:

For ANYONE wishing for, demanding, etc. a Monday Night Wars III, understand two very clear, very important aspects in this process that are almost assuredly why it'll never happen again:

1. The 90-Day No Compete Clause. That fancy little gem thunk up by McMahon & Associates that allows them to essentially sign all their talent to hostage deals whereby if for any reason they are ever released from said contract, they are prohibited from appearing on air for any rival (or otherwise) wrestling promotion for 90 days. In the wrestling world, that's a near death sentence, and at the very least a form of neutering, because you'll never again see Lex Lugar walk out onto a rival promotion without his former even having realized he ever left. You'll never see another invasion angle like the Outsiders ran where the fans were legitimately stumped as to how/why this was happening. This is all, almost entirely, because of the 90-Day NCC.

2. Angel Investors. They're called that for a lot of reasons, but primarily because their capital is what allows start-ups and companies looking for that extra Upmh to use said capital to improve a product they might otherwise not have the means to do. Yes, TNA is owned by Dixie Carter. Yes, Dixie Carter is the daughter to Bob Carter, the owner of Panda Energy. Yes, Panda Energy is worth millions (billions?), but Panda doesn't have a vested interest in the professional wrestling world like Ted Turner did, so the checks they cut are only going to come as a means to keep Dixie afloat (conjecture) or likely by means of them seeing a viable business opportunity presented that would actually make them money.

So long as both of these two things continue to influence the industry and hamstring companies, the Monday Night Wars will remain a wet dream.

 

[George Steele's Barber]

The fact that TNA pulled the plug so quickly on Monday nights made me think that they never had any intention on staying on Monday nights for very long. It just seemed like a publicity stunt that they could use to get more attention and recognition. Kind of like Jack Hammer said, I don't know why you would choose to give your core audience a choice to watch your behemoth competition over your product. It make no sense unless you have a ton of money and time to burn.

To the question at hand. I don't know, it's a long term thing. So much could happen and time is infinite. You could just as easily have Raw switch to Tuesdays or TNA go out of business. This is a silly question and no one here should or could have any basis to realistically answer it.

 

[ABMorales787]

TNA/Impact Wrestling tried to bring back the old "Monday night war" with bringing Impact to monday nights during the time WWE was displaying RAW. They even said during the Impact intro that "the war is on again". But the "war" only lasted for a few weeks when Impact went back to Thursday nights with their tail tucked between their TNA legs.

After that there have been talk within TNA that if the time comes their up to take TNA Impact to Monday nights again. But if they do, will they atlease be on Monday nights longer than 5-6 weeks? And what should TNA do differently than before?

First, let me ask 2 things:

*And get what out of it?

*What the fuck is the appeal?

The first time it happened, they measured how they could stack up to Raw. Quite frankly, I just don't see the reason to go for it again. Contrary to popular belief, making people choose between shows just causes dissension. It doesn't increase the entertainment value in wrestling. It causes people to become biased with their favorite product. Quality goes up because the product increases it. Not because there's another show with the same thing on another channel.

 

[Kizzani]

1. The 90-Day No Compete Clause. That fancy little gem thunk up by McMahon & Associates that allows them to essentially sign all their talent to hostage deals whereby if for any reason they are ever released from said contract, they are prohibited from appearing on air for any rival (or otherwise) wrestling promotion for 90 days. In the wrestling world, that's a near death sentence, and at the very least a form of neutering, because you'll never again see Lex Lugar walk out onto a rival promotion without his former even having realized he ever left. You'll never see another invasion angle like the Outsiders ran where the fans were legitimately stumped as to how/why this was happening. This is all, almost entirely, because of the 90-Day NCC.

3 months didn't seem to affect the likes of Jeff Hardy,RVD, Matt Hardy, Chavo and etc. They all waited there 3 month period and made a splash as soon as they hit the market after 3 months. If RVD and Hardy could kick drug habits they might be higher up in the company. If any star leaves the WWE the fans all assume he is on his way to TNA.
The real killer is the knowing, Fans now know that when a superstar leaves the WWE company they are likely headed to TNA, so the surprise is all but shot down. Unless they come in as masked men and people keep their mouths shut ( aces and eights)

2. Angel Investors. They're called that for a lot of reasons, but primarily because their capital is what allows start-ups and companies looking for that extra Upmh to use said capital to improve a product they might otherwise not have the means to do. Yes, TNA is owned by Dixie Carter. Yes, Dixie Carter is the daughter to Bob Carter, the owner of Panda Energy. Yes, Panda Energy is worth millions (billions?), but Panda doesn't have a vested interest in the professional wrestling world like Ted Turner did, so the checks they cut are only going to come as a means to keep Dixie afloat (conjecture) or likely by means of them seeing a viable business opportunity presented that would actually make them money.

Dixie's daddy purposely created a second company for Dixie to use to build up TNA to a bigger wrestling company. This works for him also, if it does well he wins, if it flops it isn't linked with his other company. Dixie daddy is how TNA is still on the map. But the company needs a rub something that brings the fans in like prime time TV spot. Spike TV is a joke and to prove it Direct TV dropped it. TNA needs some work and maybe in 10 years if they stay on pace we can see another Monday Night wars. here are some steps

1) Make your own wrestlers top of the company ( Aries/Rhoode) are doing a great job here

2) Find a Nitch ( saying wrestling matters and having non popular wrestlers wrestle all the time is more wrestling, just not good wrestling) I like Aries, however he still seems like the little guy, and Rhoode still looks like a tag guy. Tag team wrestling could be that nitch. They are also working with AAA luche libre where matches are 3 on 3 to 3 pin falls. Bring that to TNA that is something only fans of lucha libre get to see.

3) Get attention on yourself in a good way, Pot head rvd and strung out Hardy boys are not how you do it. Use something new like WCW fall brawl, 3 ring rumble, gimmicks gimmick and more gimmicks. Not just arrogant guys.

So long as both of these two things continue to influence the industry and hamstring companies, the Monday Night Wars will remain a wet dream.

There are a lot more reason then that for why Monday night wars won't happen. TNA doesn't travel much, once they start getting out on the road they might make some real money and begin to improve the show. The first thing to do it have a friday night wars. Do live shows on friday and take down smackdown first. Smackdown is recorded. Most people already know this. So if Impact is live on friday night you do 2 things. 1 you have a never before seen product on friday v a record one you can read about. 2 you get you name out there as competition.

If you can't handle beating smackdown then you need to not ever attempt going to Mondays.

 

[It's Damn Real!]

3 months didn't seem to affect the likes of Jeff Hardy,RVD, Matt Hardy, Chavo and etc. They all waited there 3 month period and made a splash as soon as they hit the market after 3 months. If RVD and Hardy could kick drug habits they might be higher up in the company. If any star leaves the WWE the fans all assume he is on his way to TNA.
The real killer is the knowing, Fans now know that when a superstar leaves the WWE company they are likely headed to TNA, so the surprise is all but shot down. Unless they come in as masked men and people keep their mouths shut ( aces and eights)

Yes, I'm aware. I never said performers can't have an impact, despite the "death sentence" remark. I meant that they won't ever have the same impact as they did then. Nash, Hall, Savage, Luger, etc. all literally walked out on WWE on the spot and it nearly crippled the company. It's not a "war" if you aren't trying to actually kill your opponent, so do you want the "Monday Night Sportsmanship Competition", or the "Monday Night Wars"?

Dixie's daddy purposely created a second company for Dixie to use to build up TNA to a bigger wrestling company. This works for him also, if it does well he wins, if it flops it isn't linked with his other company. Dixie daddy is how TNA is still on the map. But the company needs a rub something that brings the fans in like prime time TV spot. Spike TV is a joke and to prove it Direct TV dropped it. TNA needs some work and maybe in 10 years if they stay on pace we can see another Monday Night wars.

I'm not getting into this network nonsense with you (or anyone). Spike TV is not a "joke". It holds multiple spots/records in multiple ratings categories and is one of the premiere cable channels for male-oriented viewing. To believe, let alone assert, that the reason DirecTV dropped Spike is because they don't care about it is asinine. They dropped VIACOM, not Spike. Spike just happens to be owned by it. You know what else viewers aren't getting? Comedy Central. Does that mean they don't matter either?

 

[Mustang Sally]

1. The 90-Day No Compete Clause. That fancy little gem thunk up by McMahon & Associates that allows them to essentially sign all their talent to hostage deals whereby if for any reason they are ever released from said contract, they are prohibited from appearing on air for any rival (or otherwise) wrestling promotion for 90 days. In the wrestling world, that's a near death sentence, and at the very least a form of neutering, because you'll never again see Lex Lugar walk out onto a rival promotion without his former even having realized he ever left. You'll never see another invasion angle like the Outsiders ran where the fans were legitimately stumped as to how/why this was happening. This is all, almost entirely, because of the 90-Day NCC.

I presume this also effectively eliminates the concept of guys working without a contract. Wasn't that the problem with Lex Luger? Wasn't he (somehow) not under contract at the time, allowing him to leave whenever he wanted to? Come to think of it, didn't Rick Rude have the same circumstance, allowing him to show up live on Nitro the same night he appeared on tape at Raw? Man, if ever there was a disaster of perception for Raw, that was it, but didn't it happen because Rude was working on an appearance-to-appearance basis, as was Luger? After the fiascoes with those two, I imagine everyone had to sign a contract to work for WWE, even if it was a legend making a one-time appearance.

2. Angel Investors. They're called that for a lot of reasons, but primarily because their capital is what allows start-ups and companies looking for that extra Upmh to use said capital to improve a product they might otherwise not have the means to do.

This is a business concept many folks don't understand. They presume that a company must be making money if they're still in operation, but it's not necessarily so: working capital inadequacies are sometimes covered by the investor pouring more money into the company to keep it going, usually with the hope that the venture will eventually start paying for itself and yielding profits for the investor. Sometimes, it works....other times, it's called "throwing good money after bad."

One thing is for sure, though: at some point, the investor calls it quits if they believe the company will never be able to support itself. It happened with Time-Warner and WCW; it could happen to Panda and TNA if the wrestling company isn't getting it done financially. Time will tell.

 

[Lowdown]

Truth be told, Impact is fine right where it is on Thursdays. Now could another move to Mondays be successful a second time around? I really don't know. I don't really follow the points that IDR had made, that's my own ignorance, especially in regards to the angel investors. Now, I've considered the notion of when Monday Night Football returns next month. While it might effect the ratings for Raw for a few months, its only a few months. Same could be said for Thursday matchups on the NFL network. Impact will lose some viewership slightly, but not in the long run. But I think that moving Impact to Mondays again wouldn't be beneficial right now. And really, do we really need another wrestling war? The original was game changing, and it thrived for years off the competition. TNA is competition on a smaller scale; McMahon knows this. But TNA only has a few hours of TV time per week in Impact and Xplosion. I wish I was able to catch Xplosion in my area. But they're doing fine on Thursdays. If anything I wouldn't mind seeing them on Saturdays.

 

[MCMG]

Yes I think they will eventually. They need to continue to grow their fan-base and popularity first but after that they can go live and at least challenge WWE. I still think that is far away but it is a possibility.

 

[neildittmar]

Those in the professional wrestling industry know how incredibly difficult it is to recreate history. It's even more difficult to catch lightning in a bottle twice. At its core, that's precisely what I think TNA was trying to do with the New Monday Night War a couple years back.

Wrestling hit its highest consistent highs when there were two viable companies competing on the same night, week in and week out. TNA's logic probably went that even though they weren't on the same financial or viewership level as WWE, they were established enough that they could run opposite of RAW, thereby comandering the position of viable adversary, and running with things from there. Nostalgia means a lot to people, so that aspect was probably banked on as well.

Problem is, it didn't work obviously. WWE fans are fairly entrenched. They're not going to move to a competing wrestling program very easily, if at all. It took WCW quite awhile to swing the pendulum emphatically toward their side. I'm sure part of the problem was that advertisers, Spike, and TNA themselves just didn't give things enough time. The failure on Monday Nights also showed that a large amount of TNA fans are WWE fans and when forced to choose, a majority of them will pick WWE. Some, like me, chose TNA but there just simply wasn't enough.

Ultimately, TNA's move to Monday was missing a big part of the formula for success though... the part where they revolutionized or re-invigorated the industry. Just showing up wasn't enough. They had to carry something different and compelling in stark opposition to WWE to get wrestling fans to take notice and moreover, make the switch. They also needed to "make a big enough noise" so that folks who used to watch wrestling but didn't anymore, as well as casual viewers, also hopped on the bandwagon.

TNA just didn't have that two years ago. Today, the concepts for having that now (Open Fight Night and particularly Gut Check) are only begining to materialize and as such, are experiencing growing pains. That said, I don't think TNA has any plans to make another move to Monday night anytime soon.

We'll see where they are in a year or two.

 

[braveh]

I think they had one chance and they blew it. If you back and watch that first Monday-episode, it's horrible. Impact was not a good tv-show back then and they were sort given this unique wonderful chance with Hogan to make a first impression on many WWE-fans and the product they put didn't make anyone want to ever watch TNA again.