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Welcome to this week’s edition of the Greenfield Review, in this week’s column I will be previewing TNA wrestling’s move to Monday Nights for one night only on January 4th. This is now regarded as one of the biggest shows in TNA history and is considered to be the biggest night in wrestling, since the last time two wrestling promotions went Head to Head on Monday Nights. This was when WCW and WWF went head to head for 6 years in a big ratings war during the late 90’s. This Monday night, will be one show of surprises and is going to see the return of Hulk Hogan on national television.
In this column, I will look at what TNA needs to do on the show to keep its audience and possibly gain some of the RAW viewers as the night goes on. I will also look at what WWE has announced for Monday Night RAW against the 3 hour TNA Impact show. I will look at what type of rating they could get and what is considered to be a success for TNA on Monday night.
TNA wrestling will have a 3 hour live show, up against RAW a 2 hour live show. TNA will start one hour earlier and this could give them a bit of an advantage to gain a strong audience when going head to head with RAW later in the show. TNA needs to make sure the first hour is going to set the rest of the show. They have not announced any surprises that they have promised, that are going to happen during the show. So it is important they kick off the show with at least one big surprise at the start of show, to get the wrestling viewers excited and keep promising more is to come!
There are a lot of rumours going around about who could be coming to TNA for the show!? I think the best way to open to show would be to have someone like Ric Flair come out and make a statement. The rumours going around suggest a lot of free agent talent are being looked at to come and debut for TNA. Scott Hall, Sean Waltman, Mr Anderson, RVD, Goldberg and Jeff Hardy are all possibly rumoured to have joined TNA. I think that with a few top matches added to the show, to showcase the present and younger talent in TNA would be a good idea. I think they should have Desmond Wolfe and Samoa Joe in a match that showcases both of their talents and give new viewers a chance to see what the TNA wrestlers can do. I think it is vital TNA provides some really good wrestling to get viewers to stay and get an idea of what TNA is about. They are still yet to announce any big matches for the show, but they will have a TNA Knockouts match between Tara and ODB. Plus they have the TNA Knockout Tag Titles on the line and the return of the Steel Asylum for the X Division stars to compete in.
I do think Hulk Hogan should debut, when WWE RAW is about to start, to try and keep viewers from switching channels. I think this will be interesting to see what audience they get in the first hour, and will be good to see how TNA can keep that audience. TNA will not beat WWE in the ratings, but they do have a good chance to get a good number in the 1.2 range, but only if the show is consistent and no wacky stuff on the show.
I do think bringing back the Monday Night Wars for one night is good for the wrestling business because lately there is a lot of buzz again and it is good to see wrestling fans old and new gain a interest. I do expect that TNA will bring back Sting on Monday and have him come face to face with Hulk Hogan, during the show.
WWE have loaded there show up with the return of Bret Hart as the guest host and have also announced a strong line up for the show with DX Vs Big Show and Chris Jericho and Randy Orton Vs Kofi Kingston. WWE and Vince McMahon won’t acknowledge TNA during the show and will likely not even be worried about what they do. I do think the return of Bret Hart is one to tune in for and this is the first time he has been on WWE RAW for 12 years since the Montreal Screw job in 1997.
I think it will be interesting to see what type of show they do produce because they have lately produced some very bad RAWs, but I think on Monday they will make sure, they don’t lose any viewers to TNA during the 2 hours. I am excited to see Bret Hart return to the WWE and will be interesting to see the confrontation between HBK, Vince McMahon and Bret Hart. It will be hard to drag viewers away from WWE RAW and will be hard to keep their own audience when Bret Hart appears on the show because wrestling fans will want to see the return of Bret Hart.
As a wrestling fan, I am excited to see two wrestling shows go head to head. I think it will be great and is one of the best things to happen in wrestling in a long time. TNA won’t win the battle because they don’t have a big audience like WWE and they have not established themselves yet as a brand. TNA is the number two wrestling promotion and they all have to start from somewhere when competing with the WWE. This is the first taste of what could be more to come and TNA needs to take the opportunity to make a statement.
This is an important step for TNA and Dixie Carter. The reason it is important is because for the last 7 years they have slowly grown at a steady pace. Since the beginning they have made steady strides each year since from the Nashville days producing weekly PPV’s in the TNA Asylum, to producing a national weekly 2 hour show each week. I just hope they don’t follow the same route that WCW went, when they decided to make themselves a competitor to WWE, by spending endless amounts of money on talent and only having short term success with older bigger names. TNAs target should be to use the older stars, to help establish the younger talent.
