"The Monday Night Wars" - This term brings about memories of a great era in wrestling. It was the late 90's and WCW and WWE was in a deep ratings war in the world of Professional Wrestling. WCW dominated for 81 straight weeks. It was significant because it was the first time there was legitimate competition between two rival promotions, with the underdog making strides and taking the lead. It was a great period because both promotions were constantly trying to outdo each other and in the WWE's video, "The Monday Night Wars", it was thought of as a true war since folks in the WWE viewed it as WCW trying to take food out of their mouths. We all know how that went - ratings took a dive, WCW struggled with who was running the back office, and in 2001, was eventually bought out by the WWE. There was a lot of factors as to what brought the house down in WCW. It was either poor management, poor booking, greed, egos, and a multitude of other reasons. At any rate, we found that WCW ultimately ended up being an asylum run by the inmates, which lead to them being run into the ground.
It's now roughly 10 years later and we're seeing a revival of a new "war". This time it's in TNA, again lead by Eric Bischoff and Hulk Hogan, two of the most prominent figures during the original WCW/WWE war. This time around, however, the war seems more like a balloon fight than an all out war. This has been a fairly hot topic as of late due to the focus TNA is putting into it and WWE's questionable lack of acknowledgment of this competition.
Previously, TNA was shown on Thursday nights with no opposition (WWE has their "Superstars" show on Thursdays but a few hours earlier). Eric Bischoff and Hulk Hogan came in and was given quite a bit of creative control, which is basically unheard of. It can be attributed to McDonald's hiring a store manager for Bob's Hamburger joint and saying, "Listen, we need you to help us beat the competition. Tell us whatever you want. We'll follow whatever you want us to do." (By no means am I saying that Hulk and Eric are of the same caliber, but you catch my drift). In my opinion, it just seems that TNA's already off to a bad start because they already have the vibe of the old post-war, pre-WWE buyout WCW.
Let's take a look at what TNA has going for them: TNA's a bit more free with the liberties their athletes can take in the ring as opposed to WWE (WWE has cut down on the high risk maneuvers in order to ensure the safety of their performers). TNA has some great, great talent such as Kurt Angle, Mr. Kenne...er...Anderson, Frankie Kazarian, AJ Styles, Samoa Joe, Christopher Daniels, and as of recently, Jeff Hardy and RVD. With the unrestricted style of TNA, they have he opportunity to show what they're truly made of. If there's proof in the pudding, it's in TNA's X-Division, a division of seemingly death-defying innovative wrestlers. TNA also has rabid fans. If you're a TNA fan, it's more than likely that 80% of these same fans will snub anything the WWE will put out. Behind the scenes, they have a lighter schedule as opposed to the WWE, who's on the road 300 days out of the year.
As with all the good, comes the bad. Because of TNA's lighter schedule with good pay, TNA's been a hotbed for ex-WWE performers who were either let go or gave notice because they didn't want to handle the intense schedule anymore. This is not necessarily a good thing because with the influx of incoming talent, the original talent gets lost in the shuffle. One of the big things storyline-wise with Eric and Hulk coming in was that everyone gets a shot - it's just up to the person to bring themselves up to the top. However, on their Monday night debut, TNA decided to headline with AJ Styles (current TNA World Champ) and Ric Flair versus Hulk Hogan and Abyss. Lately, they've also featured storylines featuring old members of the NWO. So where are the X-Division stars? Again, lost in the shuffle. They also decided to replace their innovative 6-sided ring (which was actually borrowed from Mexico promotion AAA and not really a TNA original idea) with the standard 4-sided ring. TNA is trying to shock and awe us into watching their product, but in the end their product reeks of WCW.
Now let's go through WWE's good points: WWE's been known to play it safe by putting out a consistent product. You get a nice build up for debuts or major storylines, you get a focused WWE with Wrestlemania coming up, and you don't get any out of the ordinary shockers that don't make sense. As far as talent goes, not only do you have veterans such as Triple H, Undertaker, HBK, and Rey Mysterio, but you also have the "new" vets like Batista, John Cena, Randy Orton, and Shelton Benjamin. On top of that, the WWE likes to use their Legends correctly. They know that they have to prep the next generation, so they don't try and take the spotlight. You don't see the likes of Ted Dibiase, Ricky Steamboat, and Sgt Slaughter in the ring, unless it's a one time deal. With all of this talent, they also have their new NXT brand, which is a reality show-based breeding ground for rookies (if you haven't seen it yet, check it out on wwe.com) which has gotten a great outpouring of support for it's fresh idea.
As far as the WWE's weaknesses, one of the major things has got to be their celebrity host spots. Sometimes it makes sense, and the interaction works, but sometimes they have guys who come in and just don't know what's going on. At this point, the gimmick's run it's course and it's ready to move on along. They've also been known to "water down" wrestlers who have been known outside the WWE as awesome talent. They also have been known to put more energy into stronger storylines and less into others in order to create compelling TV. Behind the scenes, the WWE's travel schedule has been known to be a deal-breaker.
Ratings wise, Raw has averaged a rating between 3.4-4.0, while Impact averages around 1.0-1.3. In comparison, Impact's ratings were struggling against WWE's ECW (before they closed their doors), who also has the distinction of having one of the WWE's lowest ratings (along with Superstars).
In the end, are we looking at a new war? In my opinion, it won't be relevant until TNA gets into their "rhythm" and starts giving chances to the people who built TNA. They haven't done anything yet to make the WWE take notice and change their game plan. At this point, I'm more interested in WWE's mixture of talent new and old, their consistency in storyline development, and the overall production value. TNA has to take control of the reins a bit more before really pushing forward with their "war"(tongue in cheek intended).
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