The new year has begun and tempers are flying between WWE & TNA fans all over the globe. Monday night was the first time we witnessed wrestling promotions going head-to-head since 2001. Who won that overall battle back then? Oh yeah, Vince F'n McMahon! Who won this past Monday? Not Hogan. Not Bischoff. Not even Ric Flair. It was Vince F'n McMahon. TNA tried their damn hardest to compete with the global phenom of professional wrestling, the WWE, but failed miserably in my mind. Yes they had a semi ratings boost. Big whoop. They also hyped the return of Hulk Hogan and this special 3 hour Impact for over a month now. Hell they even showed commercials during Raw to promote the fact that Hulk Hogan was on Spike Tv. Hey TNA.... we've seen the Hulkster enough over the last 2 decades. If it's not him doing a special appearance on a wrestling promotion, his own celebrity wrestling show (there's a reason it wasn't renewed for a 2nd season), or him and his families' crazy drama catastrophes covered by TMZ.
I give big props up to TNA for their efforts but the fact of the matter is that they went at it all the wrong way. When I was watching Impact, I felt like I was watching the rebirth of WCW with people like Hogan, Flair, Nash, Hall, Sting, Waltman (X-Pac), and Eric Bischoff himself. Dixie Carter needs to realize that people tune in to TNA to see AJ, Daniels, Joe, Wolfe, Angle, and the X-Division stars. Fans don't want to listen to ex-nWo members talk about the good ol' days and how TNA is going to bring change. Why change a good thing? I understand that they want to bring in more viewers to make more cash but I think they are going about it all the wrong way. I mean the best thing about Monday was seeing Jeff Hardy appear from out of no where like a bad case of the chicken pox. The Charismatic Enigma was WWE's biggest star during the Summer and he wasn't even on their flagship show. I know TNA wanted to have as many surprises as possible for their cherry poppin' Monday night show, but talk about dropping the ball with not promoting one of wrestling's most charismatic stars today.
So, how did Vince McMahon win this little Monday Night war? Bret "The Hitman" Hart. Even though the WWE's ratings didn't go up, it also didn't drop from the previous week. This means to me that TNA didn't steal any of the WWE's weekly addicted fans to the dark side. That is a win in my book. I'm sure Vince was hoping that Hart would draw in some past fans but honestly he didn't hype the Hitman's return enough to bring those people in. Vince only gave people a 7 day notice of his return and I think it would have been more beneficial to have announced the possibility about a month ago. I know he dropped little hints for 3 weeks but remember only the fans who watch regularly are going to catch on. With Bret's return on Monday brings the possibility of a small role in the company. Rumor is he has signed a 3 month contract (which brings us to Mania) and could continue his little feud with Vince, but not HBK since they have buried the hatchet (I smell bullshit!). Bret could spice things up on Raw or even SD! far more than I think Hogan/Bischoff can over on Impact.
Honestly, if there had been a Monday Night Football game on I don't think we would even be having this discussion because TNA's ratings would have been a lot lower. The NFL has had its biggest ratings of all time this year and Raw has been keeping pretty steady the whole time. Even though their product isn't as good as it could be on most Monday nights they still have a loyal following, something TNA has yet to find outside the ImpactZone (they canceled another show in Australia? That's not good for publicity). Let's all hope the young stars don't get shoved to the back of the line because the old fogies are running things. At the moment, I only tune in to TNA to see 5 people; AJ, Daniels, Angle, Wolfe, and now Hamada (the chic has skillz). I do not tune in to see people I watched retire years ago. I think a lot of people agree with me.
Until Next Time...
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