More Monday Night Wars in the Future?

January 4th, 2010, will be an important date in wrestling history as it will be the first time in nearly nine years that there has been two wrestling shows from two different promotions running at the same time.  TNA is throwing down a challenge to WWE and packing in a loaded (and live) edition of Impact complete with former-WWE superstar Hulk Hogan.

WWE isn’t taking things lightly and appears to have secured Bret Hart as a special guest host of their flagship Raw show.  Wrestling fans from a decade earlier know very well that competition brings out the best in wrestling programs, and this will bring fans back to a time when WWE was competing with WCW before it ended abruptly on March 26, 2001, when WWE bought out their competition.

The competition won’t last long, however, as TNA will be returning to their regularly scheduled Thursday night timeslot the following week.  With that said, it has already been stated by SpikeTV network president, Kevin Kay, that they are already planning on bringing TNA Impact to Monday nights again.

In an interview with Multichannel News, Kay stated that they are looking at doing quarterly Monday night TNA specials in the future.  If they are successful, the network would consider a permanent move to Monday nights for Impact.  Kay also mentioned that he felt TNA can hold its own against WWE in January.

I, for one, am all for the specials as long as they are aired live.  It doesn’t take much to realize that taped shows fare less well than live ones and although Kevin Kay believes that TNA can hold its own, a taped show will not draw the same numbers.

I am also supportive of the quarterly shows as it gives wrestling fans a choice and will hopefully bring out the best in both promotions.  For example, for the second week in a row, Raw on Monday night was horrendous.  Not only was it bad, but the special Slammy Award show was 3-hours bad to the point that it was barely watchable.

Bret Hart can bring in the viewers, especially with his history and rocky past with WWE, but if they go with their usual sketch-comedy routine with little actual wrestling, I have a feeling that some fans will be tuning in to TNA, some maybe for the first time.

Before a full-time switch, though, I would test the waters some more.  Watch to see if the Impact rating numbers increase the following week when it returns to Thursday nights.  Also, watch the numbers after other Monday night specials to see how they compare to the January show.  Hogan will no doubt be a huge selling point, but will that hold once the sight of him becomes the norm?