Look, many of us are lamenting the state of mainstream wrestling in 2017, but let me take you back to a time when one wrestling company mortgage its future in the name of national recognition, and end up with a bill they’re still trying to pay off seven years later. It’s one of the biggest LOLCOW moments in TNA history: their move to Monday night.
Before we begin talking about The Great Monday Night Disaster of 2010, let’s go back to October 27, 2009. On that day, TNA announced their biggest signings in company history, or at least their biggest ones since nabbing a fresh-from-WWE Kurt Angle: wrestling legend Hulk Hogan and wrestling legend in his own mind Eric Bischoff. This… THIS… was going to be the thing that finally put TNA over the top. In December during the finale of The Ultimate Fighter: Heavyweights, Hogan announced that Impact would leave its Thursday night timeslot and go heads-up with WWE’s Monday night show, RAW.
For what it’s worth, then-TNA president Dixie Carter wasn’t expecting a full-on miracle. All she wanted was TNA’s Monday night show to at least maintain the rating of their regular Thursday night slot, with then Spike president Kevin Kay saying that if the January 4 show was a success, they would consider moving Impact to Monday on a more permanent basis. So what does TNA do to lock down this Monday night spot permanently?
They threw everything at the wall at once.
In addition to Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff’s TNA debuts, Scott Hall came back. Sean Waltman came back. Jeff Hardy came back. Shannon Moore came back. Jeff Jarrett came back. Sting came back, though I’m pretty sure he never really left. Sean Morley debuted. Orlando Jordan debuted. The Nasty Boys, who haven’t been seen on a mainstream wrestling program in more than a decade, debuted. Bubba the Love Sponge, a Howard Stern ripoff based out of Orlando, got a job and was actually the first new face to appear on the show.
The January 4 Impact, which looked a hell of a lot like the April 10, 2000 reboot of Nitro, did its job. A record 2.2 million people on average watched the show, with a peak of three million for Hulk Hogan’s debut. It got enough people to watch and it got TNA a Monday night timeslot beginning in March.
To quote video game reviewer Kim Justice, whoo boy.
Eric Bischoff said in an interview with Bubba the Love Sponge that “history is repeating itself”. Never have more prophetic words been spoken. He also said that they weren’t concerned about beating WWE right out of the gate, but taking a share of WWE’s audience and growing what they had. They did neither.
The March 8 Impact featured the televised in-ring returns of Hulk Hogan (last seen in a WWE ring in the fourth match of the Summerslam 2006 card) and Ric Flair (last seen being kicked into retirement by Shawn Michaels at Wrestlemania XXIV) and the TNA debut of Rob Van Dam (beating Sting in ten seconds, only to have him beaten down for 10 minutes by Sting soon after). I mean, you’d think that would get somewhere close to that 2.2 million viewers they got back on January 4.
Yeah… no. Let the LOLCOW begin. 1.4 million viewers, 0.98 rating. In fact, the Thursday replay of the show did a better rating (1.0). The next week: 0.84 rating, the lowest rating for an Impact since November 2006. This show was airing on Saturday nights at that time. In fact, no quarter-hour from the March 15 episode could reach the March 8 overall rating.
March 22: up against the final live show before Wrestlemania XXVI, Impact improved to a 0.86. Things are looking up, TNA fans were probably thinking. March 29: 0.62. Oh dear. Oh dear. I mean, yeah, this episode was up against the post-Wrestlemania fallout and the retirement ceremony for Shawn Michaels, but… oh dear. Oh dear. Spike decided to move Impact from 9pm to 8pm.
The move worked. 0.9 rating for a show best remembered for the Knockouts Lockbox Challenge. 0.8 the next week, followed by a 0.95. April 26: up against the 2010 WWE Draft, the show does a 0.56 rating, the lowest of the Spike TV era at the time. Spike TV had seen enough.
After the May 3 episode, the network moved Impact back to its old Thursday home… where they would soon return to the ratings they were seeing prior to the move.
The Monday night move was a disaster. It won the Wrestlecrap Gooker Award for 2010. Of everyone brought in for the second Monday Night War, only Bischoff, Hogan, Ric Flair, and Jeff Hardy were still around at the end of 2011. Bischoff and Flair would be gone in 2012 (under very different circumstances); Hogan left in 2013, and Jeff Hardy remained until earlier this year.
It was also a financial disaster, as the company had to cut away most anything and everything frivolous, from talent to entrances to enmities. Amazingly, they survived, but it took a change in ownership to do it. Even still, seven years later, the company formerly known as TNA is paying for its many, many, many mistakes.
Like deciding going heads-up with Vince McMahon was a good idea. You’d think these people--many of whom were in WCW during their gradual demise--learn their lesson the first time.
They learned nothing, Jon Snow.
