The Impact of Raw
I just wanted to share some of my thoughts about the upcoming Raw/Impact head-to-head ratings battle on January 4, 2010. Even though I'm not famous, important, or even well-known, the fact is that I am still a professional wrestler, and people do ask my opinion on things sometimes. On this particular subject, I got a few people asking what I thought, and I haven't really said much, but then one person emailed me, and worded the question in an interesting way, so I felt the need to respond. The exact quote that I was asked is: “Being a WWE fan since you started watching wrestling, but being a close friend of one of the head writers of TNA, who do you think will win on Jan 4th?” Now please keep in mind, and I don't say this to sound egotistical or important, but after being in the wrestling business for 10 plus years now, I simply cannot answer any question as a fan. I always respond as an insider, because I'm an insider. So anyway...the meat of this article- (Please note, anything in ALL CAPS, is me yelling in anger)
I took about 7 nanoseconds to come up with my answer for this question (which should be obvious to every person who will be watching either show on Monday night). The FANS will win. Regardless if both shows are amazing, one show is amazing and one is awful, or if both shows are atrocious. The fans win. With competition, the business gets better. With a second show to watch on Monday night, fans can flip channels during commercials (of course, if either network is smart, they'll have commercials at the same time), and see what the other product is showing. That's a general opinion of course, to get into the real nitty gritty of what I think, keep reading and I'll go into specifics.
TNA – Ok, so far a lot on TNA has not made sense, which has discouraged a lot of fans from watching. I've said this before, on my Facebook and Twitter accounts and people constantly ask for examples of how some of TNA doesn't make sense. Well, here are a few examples (I forget actual dates):
About a month ago (Lashley/Steiner feud): Bobby and Kristal Lashley come to the ring, Bobby is carrying HIS OWN microphone. Bobby grabs the mic and says “Scott Steiner, I have nothing to say”. Ok, then WHY did you come to the ring? And, WHY did you come to the ring WITH your own microphone? Kristal takes the mic and says, first of all, that she is “never treated the way Scott Steiner has treated her, when she is at Bobby's MMA fights”. Ok, so right off the bat, an immediate shot at TNA, which basically points to their management, claiming that they allow her to be treated like this. Then she proceeds to say “I DO NOT WANT TO BE A PART OF THE SHOW”. Let me repeat that, because it really is THAT asinine. She proceeds to say “I DO NOT WANT TO BE A PART OF THE SHOW”. Keep in mind, the Lashley's came to the ring WITH THEIR OWN MICROPHONE. One says he has “nothing to say”, the other says she “does not want to be a part of the show”. Ok, so SIT THE FUCK DOWN, GET OUT OF THE RING, AND STOP COMING TO THE RING WITH BOBBY FOR EVERY MATCH HE HAS !!!!! This CLEARLY does not make sense. A fucking horrendous promo.
This past Thursday's New Year's Knockout Eve show. One of the chicks from the Knockout tag team champs randomly rips her shirt off during her match and exposes her bra for the whole crowd and TV audience to see. As always, ODB comes to the ring and during the match, repeatedly grabs her tits and her vag, for whatever reason. Then, the SAME ODB does a promo talking down to Victoria because “up there”, referring to WWE, the girls are eye candy and not real wrestlers. But in TNA, they don't do that, they wrestle. ONE CHICK JUST RIPPED HER TOP OFF, AND YOU **CONSTANTLY** BRING ATTENTION TO YOUR TITS AND PUSSY. THE BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE'S ENTRANCE IS ALL ABOUT EYE CANDY, THEY EVEN POINT TO THEIR ASS SO THE CAMERA CAN ZOOM IN ON IT. This promo made ZERO sense.
Didn't Nikki Roxx just do a recent promo saying she's been improving her skills in Mexico? So why then hasn't her skill improved? Why is she the same Nikki Roxx that was in TNA before? She's real good, I'm not saying she sucks at all, but they should be making her do more moves in the ring, different than anything she's ever done, especially lucha-type stuff, since after all, it's Mexico. It's not at all her fault, but it doesn't make sense.
The Angle/Wolfe cage match: If the guys can NOT use the cage during the first two falls, then WHY is the fucking cage there? It was stated that if either guy used the cage during the first two falls, they be disqualified. It was also stated that the first fall can be won by pinfall ONLY, and the second fall can be won by submission ONLY. Ok...so HOW THE FUCK will a guy get DQ'ed for using the cage if you can ONLY get beaten by pin/submission? THIS MAKES NO FUCKING SENSE.
There are tons of other examples, but 4, right off the top of my head, is enough for now. I'm not saying 100% of WWE's TV product makes perfect sense either, but it's usually not so blatantly obvious.
Tommy Dreamer goes on WWE.com on Tuesday Dec 22 and says that if he loses on ECW TV that night, he'll leave ECW. He loses. Ok, so he's gone right? No. Tommy Dreamer then goes on WWE.com on Tuesday Dec 29 and says that he will be at the Izod Center for the show, and he will work, but it will be his last night, that he's retiring. Ok, so Dreamer himself announced that this will be his last match. So why, on the actual ECW TV show, was it explained that if Dreamer lost, he'd leave ECW forever? We already KNOW it is his last match, he told us earlier in the day. Makes no sense..
Vince McMahon comes out on Raw on Monday December 28th and says he wants to address the rumors of “Bret Hart” being the guest host on January 4th's Raw. He says he and Bret Hart have a history, do not get along, etc etc. As he's about to announce Bret as Jan 4th's guest host, he suddenly cannot bring himself to even say Bret's name. HE ALREADY SAID “BRET HART” THREE FUCKING TIMES. He had NO problems saying the words “Bret Hart” 2 minutes ago, so why so suddenly did he have trouble? NO SENSE.
Enough of that, my thoughts about January 4th:
WWE will do anywhere from a 3.1 – 3.6 in the ratings.
TNA will do anywhere from a 0.7 – 1.2 in the ratings.
The last time TNA and WWE went head-to-head, it took place on TNA’s night, Thursday. Raw was pre-empted on Monday Feb 12, 2007 and moved to Thursday the 15th, where it did a 3.0, with Impact doing a 0.6, on its' own night. This time, January 4th, Impact is running on Raw's night, and I believe the slaughter will repeat. Here's why TNA will do a shit rating:
Nothing announced. Sure, fans know Hogan will be there. Fans know ODB will face Tara, and fans know Sarita/Taylor Wilde will face Kong/Hamada. And that is all that has been officially announced. TNA had their last chance this past Thursday during the go-home Knockouts Impact show to plug the shit out of January 4th, and they did that how? They didn't. They showed video clips we have ALREADY SEEN. The way to build anticipation for Monday is to show something NEW, that will make fans say “Hey, I wanna see that”. But like I said, they're showing the same clips of video they've been airing for weeks. So people are saying “Ok Hogan's already been over-exposed to the point that I no longer give a fuck”. Ken Anderson, Scott Hall, RVD, Ric Flair, Sting, Sean Waltman... have ALL been rumored to be appearing on the show. Guess how many of them were officially confirmed. ZERO. Sure, wrestling fans love surprises, BUT..surprises do zero for the ratings. If you don't know that a Ric Flair is going to be on the show, you're not gonna watch to see him, because again, you don't know about it. A show in which they are putting up the dukes and going head-to-head with the biggest company in the business right now, and they're going to keep plans a SECRET?? Plans that will undoubtedly HELP them to win the ratings? What the fuck...
Thursday January 7th: TNA Impact is on every Thursday. So this coming week it's on January 4th, AND January 7th. Here's the problem, Jan 7th is a REPLAY of Jan 4th. WHAT?! Yes, that's correct, Jan 7th is a reply of Jan 4th. So that means ANYONE interested in watching Impact can simply watch Raw on Monday, and then watch Impact on Thursday, in its' regular time slot, as they do every week. I actually think Impact will beat ITSELF in the ratings. Yea, I bet Thursday will beat Monday. God this is a HORRIBLE idea. ANY momentum TNA picks up at all will be DESTROYED without a NEW live show on Thursday Jan 7th. But they're not doing that. They're giving fans a chance to watch Raw on Monday night, and Impact on Thursday night, just like every other week of the calendar.
I really want TNA to succeed, I really do. I have friends who work there, I'm a close friend of one of their writers, and the competition will force WWE to stay on their toes and quality wrestling programming will be produced and aired weekly. But I can say with total confidence, that will not begin this Monday.
I'm also a bit surprised at how anti-WWE Eric Bischoff is nowadays. He was intent on putting them out of business during the Monday Night Wars, never had a bad word to say when he was desperate for work and needed to work for WWE, now he's with TNA and talks nothing but shit about WWE. See, there's a guy who cannot be trusted, who seems to turn his back when things aren't in his favor. I understand business is business, but give credit where it's due. If WWE wasn't destroying TNA on a weekly basis when TNA is going unopposed on TV, there'd be NO reason to run a show on a Monday night to begin with.
I'm not sure there's really anything else to say about January 4th. I, for one, will watch the first hour of Impact, followed by the 2 hours of Raw. It's quite obvious Impact will do well from 8-9, but the 2nd two hours will probably be crushed. Let's just hope for two good shows, and hopefully this will be the beginning of the next “up cycle” in wrestling.
Please leave any comments on this page by clicking below.
I took about 7 nanoseconds to come up with my answer for this question (which should be obvious to every person who will be watching either show on Monday night). The FANS will win. Regardless if both shows are amazing, one show is amazing and one is awful, or if both shows are atrocious. The fans win. With competition, the business gets better. With a second show to watch on Monday night, fans can flip channels during commercials (of course, if either network is smart, they'll have commercials at the same time), and see what the other product is showing. That's a general opinion of course, to get into the real nitty gritty of what I think, keep reading and I'll go into specifics.
TNA – Ok, so far a lot on TNA has not made sense, which has discouraged a lot of fans from watching. I've said this before, on my Facebook and Twitter accounts and people constantly ask for examples of how some of TNA doesn't make sense. Well, here are a few examples (I forget actual dates):
About a month ago (Lashley/Steiner feud): Bobby and Kristal Lashley come to the ring, Bobby is carrying HIS OWN microphone. Bobby grabs the mic and says “Scott Steiner, I have nothing to say”. Ok, then WHY did you come to the ring? And, WHY did you come to the ring WITH your own microphone? Kristal takes the mic and says, first of all, that she is “never treated the way Scott Steiner has treated her, when she is at Bobby's MMA fights”. Ok, so right off the bat, an immediate shot at TNA, which basically points to their management, claiming that they allow her to be treated like this. Then she proceeds to say “I DO NOT WANT TO BE A PART OF THE SHOW”. Let me repeat that, because it really is THAT asinine. She proceeds to say “I DO NOT WANT TO BE A PART OF THE SHOW”. Keep in mind, the Lashley's came to the ring WITH THEIR OWN MICROPHONE. One says he has “nothing to say”, the other says she “does not want to be a part of the show”. Ok, so SIT THE FUCK DOWN, GET OUT OF THE RING, AND STOP COMING TO THE RING WITH BOBBY FOR EVERY MATCH HE HAS !!!!! This CLEARLY does not make sense. A fucking horrendous promo.
This past Thursday's New Year's Knockout Eve show. One of the chicks from the Knockout tag team champs randomly rips her shirt off during her match and exposes her bra for the whole crowd and TV audience to see. As always, ODB comes to the ring and during the match, repeatedly grabs her tits and her vag, for whatever reason. Then, the SAME ODB does a promo talking down to Victoria because “up there”, referring to WWE, the girls are eye candy and not real wrestlers. But in TNA, they don't do that, they wrestle. ONE CHICK JUST RIPPED HER TOP OFF, AND YOU **CONSTANTLY** BRING ATTENTION TO YOUR TITS AND PUSSY. THE BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE'S ENTRANCE IS ALL ABOUT EYE CANDY, THEY EVEN POINT TO THEIR ASS SO THE CAMERA CAN ZOOM IN ON IT. This promo made ZERO sense.
Didn't Nikki Roxx just do a recent promo saying she's been improving her skills in Mexico? So why then hasn't her skill improved? Why is she the same Nikki Roxx that was in TNA before? She's real good, I'm not saying she sucks at all, but they should be making her do more moves in the ring, different than anything she's ever done, especially lucha-type stuff, since after all, it's Mexico. It's not at all her fault, but it doesn't make sense.
The Angle/Wolfe cage match: If the guys can NOT use the cage during the first two falls, then WHY is the fucking cage there? It was stated that if either guy used the cage during the first two falls, they be disqualified. It was also stated that the first fall can be won by pinfall ONLY, and the second fall can be won by submission ONLY. Ok...so HOW THE FUCK will a guy get DQ'ed for using the cage if you can ONLY get beaten by pin/submission? THIS MAKES NO FUCKING SENSE.
There are tons of other examples, but 4, right off the top of my head, is enough for now. I'm not saying 100% of WWE's TV product makes perfect sense either, but it's usually not so blatantly obvious.
Tommy Dreamer goes on WWE.com on Tuesday Dec 22 and says that if he loses on ECW TV that night, he'll leave ECW. He loses. Ok, so he's gone right? No. Tommy Dreamer then goes on WWE.com on Tuesday Dec 29 and says that he will be at the Izod Center for the show, and he will work, but it will be his last night, that he's retiring. Ok, so Dreamer himself announced that this will be his last match. So why, on the actual ECW TV show, was it explained that if Dreamer lost, he'd leave ECW forever? We already KNOW it is his last match, he told us earlier in the day. Makes no sense..
Vince McMahon comes out on Raw on Monday December 28th and says he wants to address the rumors of “Bret Hart” being the guest host on January 4th's Raw. He says he and Bret Hart have a history, do not get along, etc etc. As he's about to announce Bret as Jan 4th's guest host, he suddenly cannot bring himself to even say Bret's name. HE ALREADY SAID “BRET HART” THREE FUCKING TIMES. He had NO problems saying the words “Bret Hart” 2 minutes ago, so why so suddenly did he have trouble? NO SENSE.
Enough of that, my thoughts about January 4th:
WWE will do anywhere from a 3.1 – 3.6 in the ratings.
TNA will do anywhere from a 0.7 – 1.2 in the ratings.
The last time TNA and WWE went head-to-head, it took place on TNA’s night, Thursday. Raw was pre-empted on Monday Feb 12, 2007 and moved to Thursday the 15th, where it did a 3.0, with Impact doing a 0.6, on its' own night. This time, January 4th, Impact is running on Raw's night, and I believe the slaughter will repeat. Here's why TNA will do a shit rating:
Nothing announced. Sure, fans know Hogan will be there. Fans know ODB will face Tara, and fans know Sarita/Taylor Wilde will face Kong/Hamada. And that is all that has been officially announced. TNA had their last chance this past Thursday during the go-home Knockouts Impact show to plug the shit out of January 4th, and they did that how? They didn't. They showed video clips we have ALREADY SEEN. The way to build anticipation for Monday is to show something NEW, that will make fans say “Hey, I wanna see that”. But like I said, they're showing the same clips of video they've been airing for weeks. So people are saying “Ok Hogan's already been over-exposed to the point that I no longer give a fuck”. Ken Anderson, Scott Hall, RVD, Ric Flair, Sting, Sean Waltman... have ALL been rumored to be appearing on the show. Guess how many of them were officially confirmed. ZERO. Sure, wrestling fans love surprises, BUT..surprises do zero for the ratings. If you don't know that a Ric Flair is going to be on the show, you're not gonna watch to see him, because again, you don't know about it. A show in which they are putting up the dukes and going head-to-head with the biggest company in the business right now, and they're going to keep plans a SECRET?? Plans that will undoubtedly HELP them to win the ratings? What the fuck...
Thursday January 7th: TNA Impact is on every Thursday. So this coming week it's on January 4th, AND January 7th. Here's the problem, Jan 7th is a REPLAY of Jan 4th. WHAT?! Yes, that's correct, Jan 7th is a reply of Jan 4th. So that means ANYONE interested in watching Impact can simply watch Raw on Monday, and then watch Impact on Thursday, in its' regular time slot, as they do every week. I actually think Impact will beat ITSELF in the ratings. Yea, I bet Thursday will beat Monday. God this is a HORRIBLE idea. ANY momentum TNA picks up at all will be DESTROYED without a NEW live show on Thursday Jan 7th. But they're not doing that. They're giving fans a chance to watch Raw on Monday night, and Impact on Thursday night, just like every other week of the calendar.
I really want TNA to succeed, I really do. I have friends who work there, I'm a close friend of one of their writers, and the competition will force WWE to stay on their toes and quality wrestling programming will be produced and aired weekly. But I can say with total confidence, that will not begin this Monday.
I'm also a bit surprised at how anti-WWE Eric Bischoff is nowadays. He was intent on putting them out of business during the Monday Night Wars, never had a bad word to say when he was desperate for work and needed to work for WWE, now he's with TNA and talks nothing but shit about WWE. See, there's a guy who cannot be trusted, who seems to turn his back when things aren't in his favor. I understand business is business, but give credit where it's due. If WWE wasn't destroying TNA on a weekly basis when TNA is going unopposed on TV, there'd be NO reason to run a show on a Monday night to begin with.
I'm not sure there's really anything else to say about January 4th. I, for one, will watch the first hour of Impact, followed by the 2 hours of Raw. It's quite obvious Impact will do well from 8-9, but the 2nd two hours will probably be crushed. Let's just hope for two good shows, and hopefully this will be the beginning of the next “up cycle” in wrestling.
Please leave any comments on this page by clicking below.
