March 8th The Monday Night Wars are back

This is the report from TNA's big anouncement from about an hour ago

- The feed started at 2:38PM ET. At that time, we got a spinning TNA logo for a few minutes and some music. Finally at 2:44PM Mike Tenay appeared to welcome us.

- Tenay announces Dixie Carter, and hey, she gets entrance music and comes out to video. Hell, you're in the Impact Zone, use it all. She discusses their history on Spike TV, and how they have taken a dream into a reality. She says January 4th was a big night, as they went live for three hours, and the ratings were good. She says they peaked at 3.4 million viewers, and says that Spike and TNA decided that there was potential to move to Mondays.

- Starting March 8th, they move to Monday nights at 9PM. Carter discusses the company's growth, and the addition of Hulk Hogan to the company. She puts over their great talent and fans, and that Hogan was the last thing that they needed to get over the top.

- She introduces Hogan to the conference, and he says that this is amazing. He has been around the block, but he had no idea that with the TNA family, how quick that they would be making such amazing strides. He says the momentum is amazing, and they has so many positive things happening, and he is honored to be here. Being here is something he never expected, and this is big for him. He thought his career peaked and was over, but now, he is getting ready, with TNA, to make history. TNA has everything they need to get to the top, the talent is dedicated, the old mentality is gone, and everyone is working as a team. He feels young again, and is proud. He thanks Dixie and Bob Carter, and the hard work of the guys that have been with TNA all these years. Without their work, this would not have happened. The commitment in TNA is amazing, and the team works so well together. He says it isn't about him, he didn't make it happen, he just helped.

- They are asked how long this is happening, and Dixie says the move to Mondays is permanent. She says some weeks are live, like the 8th, and taped other weeks.

- When asked about the timeslot, she says it is what it is, and Hogan says that from the wrestler's point of view, you want the fans to make the choice, so he wanted to go from 9-11.

- Hogan is asked about being with WCW when the first wars began. Hogan talks about growing with WCW, and he says they are going to war, and they will win. He says TNA has a better product, better talent, and better everything. He thinks they will win the war and prove that they are better. They will not repeat history, they will make history.

- Dixie says there were no talks to go three hours but that there have been talks of additional programming.

- Hulk says that he expects no reaction from Vince publicly. But he has friends there, and they want TNA to succeed so that there is another option for the boys. But the corporate side is panicking. And that's the scoop, brother.

- Dixie expects the ratings to grow over time. They have the passion to succeed, and they want to make people proud to be a wrestling fan.

- Before Tenay can close things up, Hogan says that people are excited to work here, and that is why this will work. The bar is being raised, and he says that the guys work so hard, that they don't have a scale of where they want to go. He is hanging on for the ride, and the company is fresh, and it is going places and it will happen fast.


WWE spokesperson Robert Zimmerman said WWE isn't too concerned about the move.

"We're not too concerned," Zimmerman said. "We're in good shape.

There you have it, MNW returns. For me its the beginning of the end for TNA. They'll do well for a while, then get murdered during football season and that'll be the end of them.

Please, it's not a war if TNA is the opponent.

It's More like Kong is WWE and Bubba the love sponge is TNA.

Kong will squash the sponge every time.

Well, while I doubt TNA will ever kill WWE, I actually think Hogan 5 week stint at TNA has been pretty beneficial. He got rid of the 6 sided ring, has seemingly increased match times, given the X division more focus, and maintained TNA's effort to make some new stars, as was seen with D'Angelo Dinero winning that No.1 Contender's tournament last night. Also TNA's ratings in the UK have TRIPLED, so you know, he must be dong something right.

ratings in the UK dont mean shite. They dont even show RAW live, and their primary money source is the US market. If TNA didnt perform at all in the UK I dont think theyd be worried.

Ha, you're so ignorant. They do show RAW live, but considering that's at 2am at night the replay shown on the Tuesday does a lot better.

The Celt wrote:

Well, while I doubt TNA will ever kill WWE, I actually think Hogan 5 week stint at TNA has been pretty beneficial. He got rid of the 6 sided ring, has seemingly increased match times, given the X division more focus, and maintained TNA's effort to make some new stars, as was seen with D'Angelo Dinero winning that No.1 Contender's tournament last night. Also TNA's ratings in the UK have TRIPLED, so you know, he must be dong something right.

Now, I still don't watch either product that often anymore, especially not TNA, but let me say a few things.

The six sided ring, at the very least, set them apart. It doesn't change matches very much, and I believe several prominent people (included JR, if I remember correctly) mentioned that the six sided ring isn't that big of a difference, but if you're flipping channels and you see the six sided ring, you stop and look at the different structure, because it's different, it's not the norm.

But whether Hogan was the catalyst for the longer match times/spotlight on the X Division, most people don't notice the positive things because what overshadows that is the fact that the core members of the nWo continue to make appearances. Now, I could be extremely ill-informed, but last Thursday (or the week before that, I can't remember) every time I flipped past Spike TV I kept on seeing either Hogan, Hall, Nash, X-Pac, or any combination of those four. No matches.

This could just be wrong place/wrong time, but people see that, and they think, "Hey this looks familiar, didn't the company that did this before get bought out?"

And low and behold, they did.

Eh, I think Hogan himself made a good case for changing from 6 sides back to 4, although he didn't articulate it that well. Hogan felt that the six sides really wasn't a major posistive when it came to drawing fans but it was a major negatitive for the boys. See, very few of the boys can just work a 6 sided ring, they're all used to 4 sides. Not only do you have to be retrained and to have to readjust to the extra sides, you may never be as good in the 6 sides as you are in the 4. It's use easier for wrestler to have the 4 sides as it allows them to work to their best with out fuck ups.

I mean, when you look at it, the 6 sides are a bitch when you're trying to build up speed or run around. The extra corners mean its quicker to go to the top rope but you're covering less ground in the air and thus it's not as spectacular as the 4 sides.

As for more time for the X-division, there's rumours an upcoming PPV will be entirely or at least 50% X-Division matches, in the style of the old Destination X PPV.

Also I'm surpised you feel that way about the last iMPACT considering they've been doing a tournament the last two shows so the majority of the focus was around that, not "The Band"

I'm a lot more interested in WWE's announcement of what the new NXT project will be than TNA's announcement to move to a 9-11 time slot.

I never watched ECW as it plays at a stupid time in Canada, but I will definitely be PVRing NXT! Yes... I'm that stoked!

The idea is that NXT will be a mix of what WWECW was like mixed with Tough Enough. You'll see next superstars for the first time on NXT as they try and make into the big leagues of the WWE not only in the ring, but out of it. They're be behind the scenes looks at the new men and women of the WWE so you can get a reality TV style attachment to them.

EDIT: Among the new stars of NXT will be the former Low Ki Kaval and "Not Bryan Danielson" Daniel Bryan.

Sorry if I lead to believe I didn't know what the announcement, I meant that I had actually heard teh announcement and I am very stoked at what they are doing with it.

I love the idea.

Which will finally lead me to PVR a WWE tv show so I don't miss.