In January, the Monday Night Wars returns for one night only.
Dixie Carter and Hulk Hogan announced on Saturday night that a special 3-hour TNA Impact will be aired live on Monday, January 4, 2010, and will feature the TNA Impact debut of Hogan. The last two hours of the show will go head-to-head with WWE Raw while the first hour of the show will go head-to-head against Ring of Honor Wrestling on HDNet.
It will be interesting to see how Impact does in the ratings against Raw. For years, Raw has been the flagship show in all of professional wrestling in the United States, helped by the fact that it is nearly always a live show where anything can happen. In my opinion, shows taped in advance lose the anything can happen feel as most of the results are reported online before the show airs.
I am a faithful follower of WWE and I have to admit that Raw has lost some of its appeal ever since Donald Trump “bought” Raw and the concept of the guest host was born last summer. Since then, Raw has become a sketch comedy show of sorts and has lacked a real focus on great stories or any sort of actual wrestling. As a matter of fact, the last episode of Raw featured a total of four matches that lasted less than 20 minutes total. Even Impact puts on more wrestling than that each week.
If anything, TNA should see a little rise in the ratings for the first hour and I hope they plan on stacking the deck to keep the viewers tuned in. Having Hogan’s debut on the show should help, but I have my doubts about the ratings holding once the 9:00 EST hour starts. One has to think that WWE will take notice and put forth their best effort, which in all honesty has been lacking in recent months.
This renewed war won’t quite have the magic as the original Monday Night Wars did from 1995-2001, but it should make for an interesting night of television.
