Monday War Journal
The Katz Files
Monday (3/29) War Journal
The Kingfish Arnie Katz takes a hard look at the current state of the competition between WWE and TNA. The den of professional wrestling journalists lets it rip without fear or favor.
The Kingfish says: Looking for a segment-by-segment comparison? Check out HeadLocker’s “Monday Night War Analysis.” Jay does an outstanding job and our ringside philosopher is one of the most observant and knowledgeable columnists on the Internet.
Can Both Sides Lose a War?
The Second Monday Night Pro Wrestling War continues to sputter along uneventfully. It has lacked the fireworks that fans hoped the competition would inspire.
The product hasn’t benefited only a little. WWE has risen from the depths of its January-March dullness, but it still could sand a lot more improvement. The Hogan-Bischoff team has made some improvements, but they’re also brought in some questionable performers and set up a few rotten storylines.
The War That Never Was?
It’s probably wrong to call this “The Monday Night War.” WWE versus WCW was a war. This isn’t even David against Goliath. It’s more like the iceberg versus the Titanic.
WWE’s recent talent re-assignment beefed up RAW by transferring Edge, Jericho and Morrison to Monday. Other than that, the promotion hasn’t done much to react to TNA’s competitive challenge.
That’s probably because, apart from a lot of on-air gassing by Hogan, TNA hasn’t yet offered much of a challenge. Moving iMPACT to Monday got WWE’s attention, but the TNA show hasn’t attracted much of an audience. Even throwing out the abysmal 0.5 rating that iMPACT drew on 4/26, the program hasn’t generated a consistent upward trend. WWE will worry about TNA when Impact registers a 1.5 on Monday and a TNA pay per view breaks 50,000 subscribers.
The Talent War
TNA has bolstered its roster with the addition of Rob Van Dam and Jeff Hardy and the regeneration of Jeff Jarrett, but it is wasting Styles and under-utilizing Kurt Angle. They got rid of the Nasty Boys and Sean Morley, but the Band lingers. They have lost , or are about to lose, several stars.
Whatever NXT does in the ratings – and they aren’t doing so badly – it may pay huge dividends for WWE. It doesn’t matter who “wins” the eight-man competition, only how many of the eight become viable WWE performers. If five guys stick and two of them grow into main event status, WWE will consider NXT a bonanza. And it sure looks like they will get that many. NXT could well be the mechanism that helps WWE development talent make the enormous leap to pro wrestling’s major league.
TNA’s Sole Competitive Advantage/B>
TNA’s programming is PG-14, while WWE has cut back to PG. iMPACT now features matches that couldn’t be staged on RAW without exceeding its PG designation.
So far, TNA has been clumsy and overly literal when it comes to exploiting its slightly greater on-air freedom. It is running one or two bloody matches a week, something WWE can’t match. If and when TNA ever starts building toward such a match, going for quality instead of quantity, fans will notice the difference. Overdoing the blood just undercuts its impact on viewers.
It’s admittedly a narrow line, but TNA might want to consider doing a little more with sex. The WWE Divas are, on average, better looking than the Knockouts, but many of TNA’s women are very sexy and appealing, too.
The Rivalry Continues
The end is not yet in sight, though MPACT must show Spike that it’s taking hold on Monday or the network will apply pressure on TNA to switch the program back to its old Thursday time slot. It’s hard to know how TNA would react to such a crushing setback or if the promotion could spin it well enough to keep its core fan base.
The showdown should be especially interesting. RAW is coming off three hours of mind-numbing boredom known as the annual Draft Lottery. That episode averaged 3.1 and WWE will be trying hard to get the rating back to 3.5 or so.
Meanwhile, iMPACT must show it can bounce back from the 0.5 or the Monday Night competition will be done. It’s live, which gives Hogan and Bischoff the best chance to implement some ratings-boosting changes.
I’ll be back on Wednesday with another installment of the Internet’s fastest-rising pro wrestling column. I hope you’ll join me then and, please, bring your friends.
– Arnie Katz
Executive Editor
Crossfire4@cox.net
(5/3/10)
