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This week TNA Wrestling had its biggest night in company history, where they went head to head with WWE Monday Night RAW for the very first time. They had a 3 hour special that was full of surprises and delivered one of the best main events on Monday in a long time. In this week’s column, I will review the show looking at what happened during the 3 hour broadcast. I will give my opinion about what the show had; looking at some of the good segments and bad segments they did in the show. I will look at how the Hulk Hogan debut went down and look at how effective it was, when competing against RAW. This column will also look at the Rating, the show got and what this could mean in the future for TNA?
On January 4th TNA Wrestling went head to head with the WWE for the first time on Monday night, to bring back the Monday Night Wars for one night. This was the biggest night for TNA and they needed to produce a really good show, up against WWE RAW. They knew from the start they would not win the ratings war and knew it was unlikely they would get a huge rating for the show. The idea of this special was to offer something different on the same night for the wrestling fans and to give TNA more awareness on National TV. Spike TV have be great to TNA since they started on the network in 2005 and have given TNA a lot of time to develop. They have been happy with the ratings that TNA has been getting on Thursday’s and wanted to get a similar rating of a 1.0 on Monday Night.
This show featured the return of Hulk Hogan on National TV and the show was built around him. The idea was during the show to work out why he has come to TNA and what his plans are in TNA? Hulk Hogan signed for the company on October 27th 2009 in a partnership with Dixie Carter. TNA started the show with a Steel Asylum match that featured 8 members of the X division. I didn’t see why they had to produce this match because it did not mean anything and was a match that did not make sense to why they were doing it. The match itself only went 4 minutes and ended in a no contest when Homicide got disqualified for using a baton, hitting all 7 wrestlers in the match. He then climbs the cage and got stuck at the top and was meant to climb out but failed to do so. Jeff Hardy came out from the crowed and made his debut for TNA Wrestling hitting the twist of fate on Homicide and basically making a statement by sitting on top of the cage.
I thought the debut was not very well done and he would have been better debuted in a different way. But it got the fans interested and was a massive shock to see him appear on TNA, considering that he has been on good terms with the WWE, and they were expecting him to return sometime this year. So it was a massive debut to have one of the biggest names in the WWE in 2009, join the company.
The TNA Knockouts match between Tara and ODB was not very well done. It got only 3 minutes and Tara lost the title to ODB. I think it would have been better if they did not do the match at all and should have saved this for PPV, rather than throwing the match for free on TV for just 3 minutes. They then made a massive debut on the show, which also was a shock to see because people were not sure if and when he would show up in TNA. But Ric Flair made his return to wrestling on January 4th in TNA and was a massive coup for TNA. From a history stand point he is one of the most well known wrestlers ever and in my opinion one the greatest wrestlers ever. I think it will be interesting to see what they do with Ric Flair and would be good to see him not wrestle too much, but be more of a manager type role for the younger talent. I think he would be better served as a leader of a faction group that he leads having wrestlers like Beer Money and Desmond Wolfe to establish them as legit top stars. I am pleased to see him in TNA even though he is 60 years old, he is going to wrestle a little bit but hopefully not too much that damages his retirement in 2008.
Bobby Lashley made an appearance on the show, straight after Ric Flair arriving in the Impact Zone and the storyline they have given him is that he wants his release from TNA. This is according to his wife Kristal Marshall, who is speaking on behalf on him. This is a silly storyline, but does make sense, since he has signed a contract with Strikeforce. I fully expect him to stay in TNA for a long time and work in both MMA and TNA for a while. I think that it was strange that we did not see Scott Steiner on the show, but they could not fit all the wrestlers on the show.
During the night they featured the debut of Val Venis, Orlando Jordan, Shannon Moore and The Nasty Boys. I thought they were not bad surprises, but not sure where they can all fit into TNA. I don’t have much interest in Orlando Jordan joining TNA and don’t know where they can fit him in. Val Venis is someone that has a good place in TNA because he is a good worker and can help the younger talent in matches on TV. I don’t see much interest in The Nasty Boys; they have been around for a long time and are really not worth coming in. I think they don’t offer much, if they stay for only a month or so and feud with Team 3D then it makes sense. Shannon Moore is a good addition for the X division and looking forward for to seeing him wrestle in TNA.
Hulk Hogan made his debut just before the top of the hour, just before RAW was about to start. This was the right call because it kept the fans to stay tuned on Spike TV and was the right idea to debut him just before the start of RAW. Hulk Hogan, got a huge reaction when he came out into the Impact Zone and was one thing that I never expected to see happen ever in TNA. This is because TNA and Hulk Hogan never seemed to be able to strike a deal and I did not believe he would debut until he was on the screen.
The segment for Hulk Hogan was he was in TNA to make TNA bigger and better. He said his goal is to make TNA the number one wrestling company in the world. In this segment it featured the return of the band, the New World Order that was in WCW in mid 1990’s. This featured the return of Scott Hall, Sean Waltman, Kevin Nash and Eric Bischoff. The problem with this segment is this has been done too many times, but it was good to see them all back together. I liked how this segment was done because it outlined that Hulk Hogan was in TNA to help develop the younger talent and was a second chance to make things right for the business. But Kevin Nash, Scott Hall and Sean Waltman thought it was a chance to reform the group and party again, like the old days. Eric Bischoff return was very well done and thought the way he explained what he and Hulk Hogan were doing in TNA made the segment make more sense. I liked the twist where Kevin Nash said they will see them later.
During this segment they ripped up the original format of the show and gave them a new format of the show. This was to show they were in charge of TNA. I liked the fact at the end Sting made his return to TNA and they brought him back as the old Sting looking from in the rafters. It will be interesting to see what they do with Sting and will be good to find out in the near future what he thinks of the current situation with Hulk Hogan making his debut in TNA.
After this segment we got a really good TNA Knockouts Tag Title match between Sarita and Taylor Wilde Vs Awesome Kong and Hamada. This was a really well done match and was competitive from top to bottom. I think it would have been better if this match had started the show, in my opinion. Throughout the show, they had Mick Foley trying to find a way to get in to the Impact Zone and thought it was not very well done because they could have just had him just turn up and would have made sense if they did not have him acting stupidly trying to get into the show.
I did not like the strip poker segments as they made no sense to the show and the Beautiful People group has now ran its course and has gone stale. I think it is important they renew this act and change it a bit over the next few months. During the show the matches in the 2nd hour were not too bad, I thought the quick squash tag match between Matt Morgan and Hernandez Vs Raven and Dr Stevie was done well and thought it got over Matt Morgan and Hernandez as two big tough guys. Not sure why they are the number one contenders to the TNA World Tag Titles? I think it will be interesting to see where Raven and Dr Stevie go after this match; future does look bleak for those two. The Pope Vs Desmond Wolfe match was good for what it was, but did not help Desmond Wolf e one bit, losing the match quickly but also straight after some real good matches with Kurt Angle.
They teased during the show that Jeff Hardy was given a contract of some kind and was not sure if he was going to sign it or not. The Jeff Jarrett segment where he made a heartfelt speech to the audience was a very well planned promo. I liked the fact he brought mention to the history of the company and also like the fact he made a statement about the younger talents, who have helped the company grow over the last 7 years. I thought the way Hulk Hogan was brought in during this segment was really good and it outlined what the storyline is about. Jeff Jarrett has lost all power in the company and Hulk Hogan now has more power than him. This also made it clear Jeff Jarrett was now just a wrestler in TNA.
The final hour did also have a good match between Samoa Joe and Abyss, which went 5 minutes. I think it was important for Samoa Joe to win because he is line for a title shot down the road and is important to keep him strong. I feel sorry however for Abyss because it looks like he could soon fall down the pecking order and not have much to do in TNA soon. I think it could be a fact that a lot of talent will be leaving TNA as more and more wrestlers will be joining TNA in the near future.
The final half hour on the show was the best part of the show. This was because the main event match was a really good match between AJ Styles and Kurt Angle for the TNA World Title. This match basically allowed TNA to express themselves and show why they have the best wrestlers the world. Kurt Angle as always was superb and AJ Styles stepped it up another level too and thought it was great to see. I liked the fact AJ Styles was in the main event and also winning clean in the match, plus it puts him over as a top main event guy for the company.
In the final segment Hulk Hogan came out and congratulated both of the stars and said this is what makes TNA better. I did not like the ending much because it was sort of predictable because it made no much sense having Mick Foley go to the office when Hulk Hogan was out on the sound stage. It was quite badly done. The beat down of Mick Foley was no shock, because it showed that the NWO was back taking over TNA, but not sure if Hulk Hogan was impressed with it. The beat down was committed by Scott Hall, Nash and Sean Waltman. In the next few weeks it will interesting to see what the follow up is in the storyline. The confrontation between Bischoff and Foley was very good and really liked what they explained.
Overall the 3 hour show gets 7 out of 10 for effort because we had a lot of surprises thrown together and kept us on the edge of our seats. I think they should have had longer matches on the show, for example a match in the X division. I don’t know where they will go from here and how long the older wrestlers who joined will be in TNA for. I think it is important the older talent put over the younger talent to make sure they are ready for main event level and even be a major part of the show because it felt at times that they did not mean anything, apart from AJ Styles.
The rating for the show got a 1.5 rating, which is the biggest rating in company history and is regarded as a major step going forward. I thought a 1.2 would be something they would achieve on the night, but getting a 1.5 is a massive step. TNA for the first time had its biggest audience ever and thought it deserved to get the rating it did. The question is do the wrestling fans who watched the show on Monday come back and watch TNA on Thursday’s. I thought this was an experiment that allowed fans for the first time to choose an alternative on Monday Night. I think it worked; Hulk Hogan drew the biggest quarter hour rating, which was expected and shows he can still draw an audience. TNA did keep its regular audience that usually watches Thursday, which is a plus for wrestling.
I do think by getting this rating gives them a better chance of getting a live show on Monday Night. I think they will need to consider what time on Monday they go head to head with RAW. I think they should go from 8pm to 10pm, where they have an hour unopposed to RAW to help them build up the second hour, but also allow them to get a good first hour rating.
I think the debut of Hulk Hogan was very well done in the show and thought it worked. I think Hulk Hogan coming to TNA, has gotten them noticed and people are now more aware of TNA due to Hulk Hogan. Hulk Hogan is the biggest name in wrestling history; he has brought coverage across huge media outlets, giving TNA more reputation. Hulk Hogan has defiantly made an Impact in TNA across the company, with lots of changes and more talent coming to TNA.
