TNA Impact!'s move to Monday nights

In March 2010, professional wrestling promotion Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) moved their weekly television program, Impact!, from airing on Thursdays to airing Monday nights. In doing so, TNA placed Impact! in direct competition with World Wrestling Entertainment's (WWE) flagship program Monday Night Raw. It drew comparisons to the Monday Night War, in which defunct wrestling promotion World Championship Wrestling (WCW) program Nitro went head-to-head with Raw in a battle for higher Nielsen ratings each week from 1995 to 2001; this led Impact!s move to sometimes be called "The New Monday Night Wars'". The move was spurred by the signing of Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff, two central figures of the original Monday Night War. Unlike WCW, TNA never gained traction against WWE, despite initially setting record high ratings for Impact!. Impact! returned to its Thursday night timeslot after declining ratings in May, less than two months after the move.

Background and first Monday Impact!

On October 27, 2009, Hulk Hogan announced that he and Eric Bischoff had signed with Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) in a press conference held at The Theater at Madison Square Garden. TNA President Dixie Carter stated "Our goal is to become the world's biggest professional wrestling company. Hulk defines professional wrestling and we look forward to partnering with him in a variety of ways as we continue to grow TNA globally."[1]

During an appearance on Spike's presentation of The Ultimate Fighter: Heavyweights Finale on December 5, Hogan announced that Impact!, which normally aired on Thursdays, would go head to head with World Wrestling Entertainment's (WWE) Raw on Monday January 4 in a three-hour live broadcast on Spike.[2] Hogan was a top talent in World Championship Wrestling (WCW), which Bischoff was an executive of, when WCW debuted a program in 1995, Nitro, to compete with Raw in a ratings battle called the Monday Night War.[3]

Move to Mondays

On March 8, 2010, Impact! moved to Monday nights at 9 pm EST to compete head-to-head with Raw. Eric Bischoff was once again competing on the opposite side of Vince McMahon's WWE and in an interview with Bubba the Love Sponge, he said that he believed "history is repeating itself". This new "war" began in much the same way as the original did; with TNA relying on established wrestlers, including former WWE talent, and with TNA being led by Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff. WWE spokesman Robert Zimmerman responded to TNA's move by saying "We're not too concerned. We're in good shape."[13] Bischoff and Russo each stated that TNA were not focused on beating WWE in the ratings straight away, but rather gaining a significant share of their audience and growing TNA's own audience.[14]

On the March 8, 2010, Raw beat Impact! with a 3.4 rating which equated to approximately 5.1 million viewers, while Impact! did a 0.98 with 1.4 million viewers; the replay of the show on Thursdays did 1.0, getting TNA a combined audience of 2.7 million viewers.[15] The following week, the March 15 episode of Impact! scored its lowest rating since November 2006 with a .84 rating.[16][17]

Return to Thursdays

Impact! moved back to Thursday nights starting with the May 13 show. On the final battle between Raw and Impact!, Raw drew a 3.05 and Impact! drew a 0.8 rating gaining a 37.5% in total viewers. The replay ratings of most of Monday night episodes were sufficient for survival but showed that the average audience is some two million viewers that prefer to watch on Thursdays.[28][29]

In a press release, Spike's Senior Vice President of Sports and Specials, Brian J. Diamond, said: "The fans have spoken and with their input we have determined the best time slot to maximize the TNA audience is on Thursday nights where we are confident it will be among the most-watched shows with young men". In the same announcement, TNA president Dixie Carter was quoted as saying, "Our fans made it clear that they preferred the Thursday night time period. By moving to Thursdays, this is a win/win opportunity for both TNA and the fans. We are looking forward to delivering what the fans are asking for."[29]

Reception and legacy

Vice described the move as one of many gambles TNA has taken during their history, but wrote that it "turned out disastrously."[30] Impact! ratings dropped 7% from 2009's 1.14 average, finishing 2010 at 1.06. WrestleView ascribed the drop to the "disastrous decision" to run opposite Raw.[31] Although the move failed to boost ratings for TNA, James Caldwell of Pro Wrestling Torch attributed a 6% drop in Raw ratings (from 3.69 to 3.47) to competition from Impact!.[32] At the end of 2010, the "New Monday Night Wars" received the annual WrestleCrap Gooker Award, which honors the worst events in wrestling.[33]

By July 2011, nearly all of the new talents brought in for Impact!'s initial Monday launch had left TNA, with the exceptions of Ric Flair (who left the following year) and Jeff Hardy (who left in 2017).[34]

Further reading