The new Monday night WAR?

[gobluesgo]

Well Monday January 4th starts a new chapter in wrestling as TNA and RAW go head to head with Live shows. Each is promising big things, to start with Raw bringing back Brett Hart, And TNA countering with Hogan, although rumors arew flowing that TNA will have scott HAll, rick flair and even RVD showing up on the show not to mention all of the former WWE wrestlers already there with some name reconazition. While I give TNA credit for doing this I think it will end bad for them, But that is just my oppinion. What do you guys think?

 

[JohnnyDrama]

TNA is going to get crushed. Bret Hart on wrestling tv for just the second time in a decade and obviously this is more than a taped video message like it was last time. That versus Hulk Hogan whoring himself out and probably diluting an already bad TNA product.

Flair will not be on TNA's show and I'd be flat stunned if RVD was as well. As far as Hall coming back to TNA? I'll believe it when I see it.

The one thing that puzzles me most is no Cena on the Jan. 4th show? A monster show to set off the new year and your most visible star isn't on the show? What gives?

 

[chadsexington]

Spike couldn't help lift ECW during their last ditch, and it won't help TNA (I'm guessing this is TNA's last ditch effort before they call it a day.) Despite WWE being on a cable network, I really think that if TNA wants to succeed, they need to go the route of Strikeforce and try to broker a network TV deal. CBS would seem like a logical decision, since NBC and the WWE still partner up, and ABC probably won't be interested if it doesn't involve lawyers, corpses or Jerry Bruckheimer...but who knows what sort of exclusivity fight clauses exist between CBS and Strikeforce...

If it works, then power to them. A year from now, TNA's either going to be a competitive force in the wrestling market, or dead, if not nearing financial ruin.

 

[gobluesgo]

I think the apeal of the old Monday night war was you just did not know what was going to happen or what wrestler was going to change brands, I think for that was the best thing seeing one guy one week on Raw the next week he shows up on NItro, BUt when vince altered the wrestlers contrats that pretty much kills that, as guys have a non compete claus that lasts 3 months.

 

[JohnnyDrama]

I think the apeal of the old Monday night war was you just did not know what was going to happen or what wrestler was going to change brands, I think for that was the best thing seeing one guy one week on Raw the next week he shows up on NItro, BUt when vince altered the wrestlers contrats that pretty much kills that, as guys have a non compete claus that lasts 3 months.

Not even that. It's the fact that both companies were fighting for their lives which brought out the best competition. When is the last time we saw an epic Monday Night world title change? When is the last time you had to think "man, I don't know which show I want to tune in to!"

Competition is the name of the game and I just don't think TNA is there yet.

 

[gobluesgo]

Not even that. It's the fact that both companies were fighting for their lives which brought out the best competition. When is the last time we saw an epic Monday Night world title change? When is the last time you had to think "man, I don't know which show I want to tune in to!"

Competition is the name of the game and I just don't think TNA is there yet.

Here is hoping that Vince does not even give theese guys a chance and over the next few weeks makes Raw what it use to be with top end matches. Beacuse I am sure that TNA is going to put everything out there, Beacuse as I see it right now TNA in ring action is better then the WWE.

 

[Triple B]

TNA is having MAD problems with their house show attendance and now they have the same bunch of stooges running TNA that ran WCW...right into the ground. Sorry, I don't see Hulk Hogan helping anything or anyone except himself. I wouldn't be surprised to see him as TNA World Champion before long.

The good thing about TNA going live on Mondays is that it will push the WWE to do some drastic things NOT to lose viewers (hellllooooo BRET HART!) and will be nothing but good for the fans. I wonder what competition for Upper Deck would do...?

TNA is going to get crushed.

 

[gobluesgo]

As far as Hall coming back to TNA? I'll believe it when I see it.

?

this is what Hall has been posting latley so I think we are going to see him back on TV this MOnday, Also Nash has tweeted a few times on how Hall has got his life back on track

Scott Hall is making his presence felt online as he has launched pages on Twitter (twitter.com/badguyscotthall), Facebook (facebook.com/OfficialScottHall), MySpace (myspace.com/outsiderscotthall), and YouTube (youtube.com/user/TheOutsiderScottHall). He has also launched an official website at www.ScottHallTV.com. Hall, who is rumored to make his much anticipated return to the national scene during next Monday’s live three-hour iMPACT! on Spike, teased the following on his Twitter account: “It’s in the air.. can you feel it??? something sensational is coming soon!!”

 

[chadsexington]

TNA is having MAD problems with their house show attendance

I think you could've stopped right there and it would've told the tale. I'm still reminded of the TNA House Show I attended in June. We got row 2 tickets a week after they went on sale (we would've had front row seats but we had 3 people in our group and they only had pairs left.) When I got to the house show, I saw MAYBE about 600 people sitting in the stands for the night. They didn't even fill the first 2 or 3 rows after the floor seats were filled. Though they did block off half the arena, there was still capacity for about 4000 people.

Jeremy Borash was even talking about holding a PPV here later on, and we figured with a **** crowd like that, he was blowing smoke up the crowd's ***. We later found out he was being fairly serious -- Our house show had the highest attendance of that particular tour.

These guys need to turn it around faster than they're going to be able to. Right now, they're pulling worse attendance and ratings numbers than WCW did before they fizzled out, but they're getting less ticket income since I believe the tickets handed out at the Impact Zone are freebies ala WCW Saturday Night tapings in the 90s.

Are they planning on doing weekly Impacts at various locations, or is it going to be an Impact Zone thing week in week out? The latter's a recipe for disaster IMO. There's going to be too much going out and not enough coming in.

 

[Triple B]

We went to whatever PPV they had in "Toronto" (truth be told, it was in Oshawa which is WAY outside of Toronto's borders) and it was a GREAT show. They should have taken the chance to host a show closer to the heart of Toronto (Ricoh Coliseum would have been a great venue right in the downtown Toronto area).

Another problem is that they're WAY too much like WCW was with the hokey sirens, dry ice and floating cameras. I also loved watching Tenay and Home Shopping Guy read from their scripts while the cameras are BANG ON THEM.

They have the talent to make it big, but not the ideas. They don't know what to do with their storylines and they're clueless on pushes. MEM was a great idea, but they didn't know what to do with it. The nWo went along the same path. Great ideas, but no plans as to how it ends...let's just write as we go. Now their are simply too many chiefs in the tribe. Watch how many of their top guys get shut out and then how many want out.

 

[JohnnyDrama]

We went to whatever PPV they had in "Toronto" (truth be told, it was in Oshawa which is WAY outside of Toronto's borders) and it was a GREAT show. They should have taken the chance to host a show closer to the heart of Toronto (Ricoh Coliseum would have been a great venue right in the downtown Toronto area).

Another problem is that they're WAY too much like WCW was with the hokey sirens, dry ice and floating cameras. I also loved watching Tenay and Home Shopping Guy read from their scripts while the cameras are BANG ON THEM.

They have the talent to make it big, but not the ideas. They don't know what to do with their storylines and they're clueless on pushes. MEM was a great idea, but they didn't know what to do with it. The nWo went along the same path. Great ideas, but no plans as to how it ends...let's just write as we go. Now their are simply too many chiefs in the tribe. Watch how many of their top guys get shut out and then how many want out.

The problem with their booking is the same as it was with WCW in 99-01. No direction, pushing the wrong guys, pushing heels over faces 99% of the time, not pushing enough of the young guys.

The MEM could've been an excellent launching pad for younger guys but they went the WCW way with it and turned it into the faction warring with itself. Boring.

 

[gobluesgo]

I just checked out the TNA roster and it is pretty good. They have a good mix of young up and comers and vets. I hope that they showcase the great talent they have (AJ Styles,Samonia Joe, Abyss) but I do have a feeling that to get the fans to tune in they are going to push them to the side and rely on the likes of Hogan,Nash,Foley,Sting, and Angle(whoo is still great), steiner and lashley. Which is pretty much like watching the last year of NItro

 

[dev10323]

I will be there Monday night in Orlando for the live show.

 

[gobluesgo]

here are some highlights from a hogan interview
IGN.com recently interviewed Hulk Hogan, here are the highlights…

Will He Wrestle For TNA?: “Slim to none, man. I don’t have a deal to wrestle there. You can just think of it as if Dixie Carter had hired Vince McMahon to come in and breathe super energy and super life into the product. Think if Vince was actually hired, what would he do? And that’s the best way I can describe it. … I’m not planning on wrestling. I’m really not. But in this business, you know, Vince McMahon and I say that you can never say never.”

On What He Plans to Do: “I’m coming in and I’m going to take a look at everything from the ring to Vince Russo’s underwear. I’m going to turn this place upside down. I’m going to take guys like AJ Styles, who works his butt off, so that when AJ Styles goes through an airport a year from now I want people to snap their heads around like it’s Ric Flair or Hulk Hogan.”

On Bret Hart Returning To WWE: “I’m so happy to see Bret Hart come in to go against me because he hated the business. He was bitter. He hated Vince. And you’ve got to move on. Positively. I’m so happy to see Bret – and I’ve talked to some of Bret’s family members and he’s excited about coming. He’s excited about coming to RAW. I love Bret Hart to death. I’m excited for Bret to come back. And guess what? I already won again. Because Vince McMahon is now showing that he’s worried about Hulk Hogan going head to head.”

Comparing WCW To TNA: “Brother, that’s the brilliant question. And you know what – and I don’t mean this in tongue in cheek way – but it’s like deja vu. When I walked in to WCW they were producing wrestling on a little teeny sound stage at Disney, okay? I’m walking into TNA and their producing wrestling in a little teeny sound stage at Universal. When I walked in to WCW, the WWF was the monster. They were the monopoly. I’m walking into TNA and the WWE is the monster. The monopoly. There were no choices back when I did WCW. The fans didn’t have a choice. It’s the same way now. It’s almost like history is repeating itself and giving me another chance to do this and show the wrestling world what wrestling should be like. Not to make wrestling like it used to be, but to show that John Cena shouldn’t be the only guy with life and character. Thinking more about it – it’s exactly the same, man. It’s scary. It’s happening all over again. The only difference now I guess is that when I left before and went to WCW the fans were mad at me. “Oh, how could you leave the WWF?” The fans were kind of pissed at me. This time the vibe is that the fans are with me. They’re for me and they want to see this happen. They know that competition is good and that the best time in wrestling was the Monday Night Wars back in the day.”

 

[Triple B]

...and now there's a rumour out that Randy Savage will be coming in WITH "The Hitman" on Monday Night. I'd love to see that, but a big part of me doubts it will happen.

 

[RGM81]

That'd be interesting if they were to bring Macho back - when you consider that they've pretty much ignored him and written him out of the WWF/E history since his departure, that'd be a pretty big fence to mend.

 

[gobluesgo]

That'd be interesting if they were to bring Macho back - when you consider that they've pretty much ignored him and written him out of the WWF/E history since his departure, that'd be a pretty big fence to mend.

I agree Macho Man is black listed in the WWE, I can not see him there. the rumors are going through the roof. In TNA I have heard that HAll, X pac and RVD are all on the show. Also worth noting is that Jeff Hardy will be back satge at the TNA show Monday to visit friends. I can only guess they will be wispering sweet nothings in his ear, also they can offer him what the WWE can not a lot of money and an EASY schedual.

 

[JohnnyDrama]

...and now there's a rumour out that Randy Savage will be coming in WITH "The Hitman" on Monday Night. I'd love to see that, but a big part of me doubts it will happen.

I'll believe that when me **** turns purple and smells like rainbow sherbert.


As far as WHY Savage has been blacklisted, I'm really curious. I've heard that he said something about Stephanie on his way out of WWF and given his insanity, I'd believe anything he may or may not have done.

 

[chadsexington]

As far as WHY Savage has been blacklisted, I'm really curious. I've heard that he said something about Stephanie on his way out of WWF and given his insanity, I'd believe anything he may or may not have done.

Hmm...you know Ryan, I thought we'd discussed this in a thread, but I can't find it now.

The Stephanie thing is untrue...various wrestling urban legends mention everything from a few words ranging to some form of consensual sex. Given that I'm pretty positive Stephanie was under the age of consent by the time Savage left and the fact the rumor is this public, he would've been arrested by now, so no.

From what I know, it was professional differences. Savage verbally committed to re-signing to Vince, and then appeared on Nitro the night he was supposed to be on RAW/his contract ran out, leading them to cover up by sticking Jim Ross up into the broadcast booth last minute, or something like that. He didn't return calls, wouldn't return messages and so on, so Vince has since severed all business ties to him.

The animosity still exists as recently as last year with his own DVD not including him, and his exclusion from Legends of Wrestlemania, though he was a part of the original roster.

 

[Triple B]

At the end of the day, money is money and Vince McMahon seems to like money. IF Savage made a comeback, it would be a nail in the coffin to TNA's hopes of competing and Savage (even though he looks like Santa Claus now) would make the WWE a TON of money.

Again, it's simply a rumour and not one I really believe, but you have to admit, it would make for great TV if the Macho Man came in with Bret.