When it was announced that Eric Bischoff and Hulk Hogan are coming to TNA, the world of professional wrestling was abuzz. After all, the two head honchos in WCW had taken over the #2 top wrestling company in the nation — a scenario that sounds all too familiar to those who have followed the sport for a while. While we all got lost in the shuffle and excitement of the possible renewal of the Monday Night Wars, we probably got carried away. TNA put Impact on a Monday a few weeks ago as a test. SpikeTV was sold on the idea that the shows needs to move to Monday night and go head-to-head with RAW. I can’t put into words what has happened since the arrival of Bischoff and Hogan and since that Monday edition of Impact. My frustration and disdain of the company are at a new-time height. Here’s why.
First, let’s start at the very basics – the idea of moving to Mondays. There’s no doubt that it’s something the company had to try. There have been plenty of arguments over this, but I definitely do agree with TNA’s thinking here. You got Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff and signed quite a few expensive deals only with one idea in mind – to get SpikeTV to move your show to Monday night. Why, you might ask. Historically, that’s the night for professional wrestling, and that’s a proven fact. Fine. Let’s say, for a minute here, that we all agree moving to Mondays is a good idea, even if you don’t feel this way. If that’s the case, why do it on March 8th? You have the opportunity to make the biggest and most radical change in company history, and you choose to do so during the month in which WWE is in the finale of hyping up what will be their best PPV in years. Have you looked at the WrestleMania card and build this year? After completely dropping the ball last year, Vince McMahon decided on 6 main huge matches for this year’s show and for once stuck with his plans, the result being long-term booking with tremendous storylines. To say WWE is on fire right now would be an understatement. A quick look at the top matches for WrestleMania in my opinion, in order of importance:
1. Shawn Michaels vs. The Undertaker — This storyline has been done brilliantly and to perfection.
2. John Cena vs. Batista — This has been one of those “dream” matches the company tried to save for a long time. They rushed it the first time for SummerSlam and realizing their mistake have kept Batista and Cena apart as much as possible. If that’s not enough, Batista’s work as a heel on last week’s RAW was the best I’ve seen in his entire career.
3. Vince McMahon vs. Bret Hart — They screwed it up, but by the time WrestleMania rolls around it’ll be buzzing.
4. Chris Jericho vs. Edge — It’s been booked well on SmackDown! and everyone knows this has the potential to be a great in-ring bout having in mind two of WWE’s best workers are involved.
5. Money in the Bank Ladder Match — Always good.
6. CM Punk vs. Rey Mysterio — Two legit workers who also have had a great run on SmackDown!
Do you want to know how good WrestleMania’s build is? Let’s just say Triple H is in the 7th most important match on the card and Randy Orton is going to be involved in a secondary, non-important bout. Neither of these guys is in the 6 top matches above.
So explain to me why TNA would choose to move to Mondays now? In March? Only three weeks before WrestleMania? Why not the night after WrestleMania? Why not in April? If your answer is they had to hurry and use Hulk Hogan and Ric Flair while hot, then they should have made the move in February, or even January. Hell, even in 2009!
That’s not the only problem with the timing of this move. The most idiotic decision has to be that TNA decides to move Impact to 9 PM on Monday. You have got to be joking me. A part of WCW’s huge success was the decisions to move Nitro to 8 PM and get a head-start on WWF at the time. It worked. If your reasoning behind moving to Mondays is that it’s the night for wrestling and you must capitalize, why are you going head-to-head with an already established company when you can get a head start on time by an hour and keep your viewers involved?! Not only that, but if you’ve been following wrestling news, the USA Network has been pushing WWE for more three-hour shows and even wanted RAW to become a three-hour program. By moving to 8 pm, don’t you think if you’re TNA you’re adding more fuel to the fire of your opponent?! It seems so simple!
Looking just at the above is enough of a reason to drive me crazy about this move. But there’s more. A lot more. You see, the whole line of thinking within TNA’s move is that the company wants to get some buzz by being involved in a Monday Night War. I can see and appreciate that. But here’s my question to you TNA — what are you offering me that I don’t already get?! Why should I care?
This Monday on Impact, you’re going to see Rob Van Dam, Jeff Hardy, and Sting. You know what’s depressing? The company didn’t mention that one single time on Impact this past week. Not a single time. You see, the men that used to live by ratings — Eric Bischoff, Vince Russo, and Hulk Hogan — must have lost their mind. They should have built up to the Monday debut by advertising what TNA has and WWE doesn’t. If you’re going into this with the idea that it’s a “war,” then treat it like one.
That’s exactly what should be plugged for Monday. How bizarre is it that they have Jeff Hardy and Rob Van Dam for Monday’s Impact and they failed to plug this on TV once. It’s simply unforgivable. It shows that people in charge have the old-school mentality of believing in surprises and shock-value. We have all been down this road with this group of head honchos and it ended badly. It was called WCW. In fact, Jeff Hardy as a surprise worked. You know when? When Impact aired on Monday, January 4th at 8 PM. You know, because you had a one-hour head start on RAW and EVERYONE was watching your show, thus having Ric Flair & Jeff Hardy show up unannounced made some sense. But you don’t have that for March 8th, TNA, because you chose to start your show at 9 PM when everyone will be watching RAW. So you need all the help you can get. Why the hell you didn’t advertise this is beyond me?
TNA Wrestling built dedicated fans such as the owner of this site, my good friend Joe, by offering a product that WWE didn’t. Joe loves the company so much that he started a site — TNAStars.com — which I encourage you to check out, where he posts TNA news and his opinions. I remember having talks with him back in the day where he would be very excited about the product he was watching. AJ Styles was one of his favorites. To other hardcore TNA fans who have been nothing but loyal, names like Styles, Samoa Joe, Bryan Danielson, Abyss, even Eric Young, and Awesome Kong, and all of the X-Division is what TNA is all about. This is why they tune in. This company used to beat WWE on PPV every month when it came to actual quality of wrestling. I guess this is what happens when you put certain people in charge who weren’t around to see what worked. They go back to the old format they know (which worked at first, years ago, and then failed miserably), thinking appearances of the likes of RVD — a former WWE Champion whose work everyone has been after for the past few years, and Jeff Hardy — another former WWE Champion who’s been gone long enough so that his return means something, should be kept surprises, instead of being plugged to get viewers tuned in. Vince Russo and Eric Bischoff are under the impression that the people want to see 15 segments with Eric Bischoff, Hulk Hogan and a heel Ric Flair (in 2010), a down-right embarrassing Mick Foley, and yes — Scott Hall, Kevin Nash, and Sean Waltman. Why in the world is this what you’re plugging? Abyss and AJ Styles were treated as the secondary part of the main even plugged for Monday, while Hogan and Flair were the attraction. Guys that helped make TNA what it is today weren’t even advertised. And Awesome Kong? Well she took off because of a radio reporter to work for you whose only qualification was that he knows Hulk Hogan. Oh and remember Kurt Angle? Neither does TNA.
The bottom line is that minus the Hogan interview at the end of the last wretched Thursday Impact (what a horrible show!), the company did absolutely nothing to promote the move to Monday. Forget the fact that they’ve done absolutely nothing to promote their next PPV either. It’s not like that’s important. That is inexcusable if you’re in charge.
And speaking of that, let’s look at the situation there. Vince Russo is still the head writer for the company, while Eric Bischoff and Hulk Hogan are calling the shots and working with him. Have you asked yourself why that is? Did Dixie Carter expect Bischoff & Hogan to just forget their negativity and hatred of Russo and work together? Do you wonder what these meetings are like where the three get together to work on the shows? I can’t even imagine the kind of pressure Vince Russo is under. His writing isn’t exactly amazing to begin with as witnessed before the changes. But now the guy has to worry about keeping his job, which means making Hogan and Bischoff happy, which in conclusion has sadly transferred into pushing Hogan through the roof and forgetting about the rest. Just horrible.
I planned on telling you my thoughts about this past Thursday’s Impact, but I think I’ll skip. The show was beyond bad and missed on making all the important points it should have made. It took me five minutes to list them above — they couldn’t do it in 2 hours. So here we are. Tonight is the beginning of the new Monday Night War. WWE is continuing their rare streak of excellent shows building up to what will be one of their biggest PPVs ever and TNA is advertising things you don’t see on the other show — blood, violence, Ric Flair vs. Hulk Hogan in 2010, and a Kevin Nash promo. That’s all that’s been announced, at least. I don’t know whether to laugh or cry.
In conclusion, my main frustration with TNA comes from the fact that they have a very unique opportunity. There are many independent companies out there who want to get an opportunity to be on a nationwide cable network like SpikeTV. Not only that, TNA has the financial backing of a person stupid enough to put millions of dollars in. On top of ALL that, they have amazing talent who’s different, unique, and interesting to watch in this day and age. They have all the right attributes to take it to Vince McMahon and WWE. And as someone who’s watched professional wrestling for a long time, I know very well that competition is good for “the business.” We need TNA to be great. We need them to really try. And to watch them fail so miserably in the hands of people who obviously haven’t learned from their mistakes in the 90’s is just a felony. It’s depressing. I hope the face of the company changes forever soon — either go back to what you do well, or get off the air altogether. We certainly don’t need what you’re offering now!
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