It's Official: The Monday Night Wars are back
 

From PWInsider:

In tomorrow's edition of Variety, the entertainment trade publication confirmed that the Monday Night Wars will return again starting Monday 3/8.

On that date, SpikeTV will move Impact to Mondays at 9 PM Eastern, putting the series permanently head to head with WWE's Monday Night War. The show will air live one week and taped the next.

We've always wanted to go on Monday nights," TNA president Dixie Carter commented to Variety. "That's where the wrestling viewing audience is accustomed to being."

WWE's Robert Zimmerman shot down the move. "We're not too concerned. We're in good shape."

LOL, wow. It should be interesting to see how long they can survive before either being forced out of business or to go back to Thursdays.

<font color=goldenrod>lol only live every other week. Gonna tank.</font>

Straight up head to head? I don't like that a bit.

8-10 or 8-11 (if they could manage) would be much better IMO.

Sweet, this is the day after my 21st birthday so I'll be able to DVR both while I recover from my hangover.

lol "War"

Poor choice of words right there.

They are dumbasses for going head-to-head from 8-10 CST. They'd be smarter to go from 7-9 CST.

They should have gone to war with NXT first.

TNA0 is doing great against WWE Superstars. TNA iMPACT! is what caused ECW to fold and turn into NXT. [/Dixie]

TNA Tuesday ImpacT

they would do better vs NXT and probably boost their ratings over Thursdays and they could still do a live show.

"The Monday Night Fails"?

I just have a feeling Hogan, Bischoff, Dixie, and TNA are trying too hard to capture lightning twice. The world is completely different than it was in 1996.

LOL:lol:

The most we can hope to come from this is WWE potentially stepping their game up a small bit for a few months before they decimate TNA for good.

Hey, maybe we could finally see Styles, Angle, Pope, and some others in WWE after it's all over!

I will admit that it gives me something to switch to when RAW is doing something ridiculous. Though there would be a high chance that TNA would be doing something even more ridiculous at the time.

Should have waited until after Mania at least, because the buildup is usually when RAW is actually good for a change.

Yeah, doing it before Mania is a huge mistake. This is WWE's strongest time.

But really, what does Hogan and Bischoff care? Not their money.

AGREED... Should wait until AFTER WM...

Why am I picturing MadTV trying to move to Saturday Nights next?

...Is MadTV still on anymore?

"Monday Night War"...

Sounds more like "Monday Night Meet Me At The Flag Pole At 8:00 So I Can Beat You Up And Steal Your Lunch Money Kid."

Their arrogance is astonishing here. You're going to move your program to a DIRECT time slot competition with the company who has been #1 for the last 13 years, and who week after week pulls in top 10 highest cable numbers for any demo? You couldn't atleast start yours an hour earlier? Gives you the first hour to build to the final hour that you can hype as "can't miss" while WWE farts around and gives us Chavo vs. a Midget for the 20th week in a row on their first hour. NO. That's not the way to do it BROTHER! Let's not even address the fact that RAW is live and Impact will be alternating to taped and live events. Then you think, well, we're taking the fight to a much stronger program, and totally playing into their hands already...what the hell, why not begin this venture during what is historically their strongest part of the year. It's like have a pair of deuces and going all in with your last couple of chips.

The fact is, from what little I have seen of either TNA or WWE recently, I'd personally most likely take TNA to RAW, and even IF they have the better show, it doesn't much matter if the majority of the audience has already decided they want WWE. When Nitro did it, they went live vs. RAW's taped schedule. They gave away results...can't be done here. WCW had Ted Turner not only pump money in, but OWN the network the show was running on - there was some wiggle room for the company (not for Eric, his ass was on the line, but on a whole, the company wasn't at risk). Not this time in TNA.

It's not the nail in the coffin, cause they can always move back to a timeslot that is more profitable for Spike. And as a fan, this is exciting if only because even marginally pulling audiences from RAW might make McMahon pay attention - we all know McMahon is a fighter and doesn't like to lose an inch. This is a good thing for wrestling fans, but I have a feeling ultimately a VERY foolish plan for TNA.

TOVO Fact: Tovo use to have two VCRs record both Raw and Nitro back in the mid 90s.

I live in Australia so due to time differences we've never experianced two rival shows on at the same time, RAW is on wednesdays and Impact is on saturdays...that's an f'in 3 day gap between the two shows.

I thought that one side had to be properly armed and ready for combat to instigate a war...

TNA should invade Wrestlemania :shifty:

Is this what TNA's 'Major Announcement' was?

The major announcement is due tonight, but then this was spoiled by dumb Brooke Hogan a long time ago!

Oh well, its like the 90-day no compete clause only in a different manner- TNA files for bankruptcy 90 days after the death of ECW!

I thought Mad TV was always on Saturday night.

TNA:"go back in time"

its a 'war' over here in the uk, not a head to head one, but the ratings numbers keeps fluctuating

WWE can't kill TNA because it wouldn't be very PG of them

They'll intensely dislike it, though.

Yeah, they can't hate it because it's too strong of a word

TNA should do what Bischoff did with WCW, and strive to be the alternative to WWE, rather than the imitation.

I heard Bischoff say in an interview that he literally listed all the defining traits and practices of WWF, and then listed ways to do the exact opposite.

TNA is no doubt closer to the attitude era than the PG stuff, but it should go all the way with it.
It should provide fans with an alternative rather than a low rent knockoff. There's also a lot more they could do to be different.
I think screwjob angles, GM office meetings, and other old tricks are a mistake.

What are some things they can offer that WWE doesn't?

Realism.

Tag Team Wrestling.

Highlight the X-division as a real unique thing. Make it an equal to the other divisions, and not a lesser entity. It seems to be treated the same way WWE treated it's light heavyweight and cruiserweight titles, or at best the European belt. It should be a major feature like the WCW cruiserweights once were, or the TV title in ECW. Even the Hardcore title in WWF was special for a while.

Stables. They occasionally have stables but they never do anything with them, or they're usually retreads of old stables. MEM and Frontline was a rehash of New Blood and Millionaires Club. The Band is clearly just NWO, and so on.
There should be more stables, with more original ideas. They should be taken seriously and pushed. They shouldn't give up on them.

Unscripted promos, and personas developed by the talent themselves.

the guest hosts around that time are
Criss Angel March 8, 2010
Steve Austin March 15, 2010

you have to admit, it takes balls to go head to head with the wwe with stone cold guest hosting.

I doubt they thought about who was guest hosting.

Well they should when it's Stone Cold.

Shows balls or lack of brains?

If anything, it's the Mania build they should be worried about, not Austin.

Stone Cold audience?

Lara Emily is my hero.

I wouldn't be suprised if Stone Cold returning to guest host had more of an impact on ratings than Bret did. Not a huge boost, but probably something. As far as I saw in reports, the ratings Bret's return has been bringing in are nearly the same as they were before.

Even though Austin's only been off WWE television for a year, I still think he brings in more interest.
Bret returning after 12 years was exciting to the small group of existing fan who know/care about what happened all those years ago. The average person probably has no clue how "big of a deal" Bret being back is. They probably just react to it by thinking "that's cool" and it stirs up a bit of nostalgia.

Of course, this requires the realization that in the grand scheme of things, Austin is the bigger star.

Now it's just the waiting game until Zen comes in here and tells me off for not realizing that Bret drew more money than Austin, Hogan, Rock, Flair, and Andre combined.