WWE Vs. TNA

In the mid nineties, an already popular pastime for fans of sports combined with running storylines, professional wrestling took a few quick steps forward and then took a giant leap, cannon balling right into the pool of mainstream television. The WWE (then under the WWF moniker), the leading name in the wrestling business, headed up by the relentlessly independent Vince McMahon, had the challenge of a lifetime in dealing with an annoyingly powerful competitor, Eric Bishoff, who headed up the rival organization, WCW (World Championship Wrestling). The two companies aired their respective show at overlapping and at times identical time slots. The key note shows for each company kicked off the week on Monday night. WCW touted Monday Nitro, while WWF stood behind the ever popular Monday Night RAW.

The competition between the two grew more and more intense, with WCW clearly dominating until several months into what would become known as WWF's "Attitude Era", when WWF took over the ratings battle and with a few slight exceptions, never looked back. With time, the competition weighed so favorably to McMahon's favor that the financial hardships and loss of direction of WCW caused the company to fold in the first half of 2001. In the years leading up to this, WCW hired Vince Russo and Ed Ferreira, two formidable writers who played a large part in writing the storylines that allowed the WWF to garner the ratings dominance that they did. And the ratings for WCW did improve, but they did not improve enough. The legendary Monday night wars were over, with the World Wrestling Federation as the clear winner. Vince McMahon purchased WCW, absorbing most wrestlers in the company and incorporated them into his company.

The possibilities of participants from rival promotions competing against each other had dreams of excited question marks dancing in the heads of wrestling fans everywhere. With time, the WWF converted to the WWE and in the opinion of a lot of fans the WWE became too complacent. With no true competition, many felt that Vince got settled into his ways, knowing that a sub par product will still be watched because it was really the only place a wrestling fan can get their fix. The ratings suffered, as did the fans who watched, eagerly awaiting something...anything...to spark the interest they were feeling slip away. Though the ratings declined however, the WWE remained a powerhouse among its peer programs on Monday nights.

In the meantime, down south, something was brewing. Jeff Jarrett, a wrestler who had been in numerous employs for both WWF and WCW, was working on developing a small promotion that came to be titled TNA (Total Nonstop Action). In order to make ends meet, TNA started as a promotion airing 2 hour blocks every Wednesday night on Pay per View. While TNA did employ wrestlers who were formerly working for the WWE, they also brought many fresh faces to the forefront. TNA wanted to differentiate itself from McMahon's weary giant by bringing more of a focus on the in ring competition while the WWE seemed to be focused a lot more on the storylines.

Over the years, this little promotion picked up steam. Vince Russo was brought on board, and as he did in WCW, he wrote himself into the storylines. Russo, being a very polarizing character drew ire for his outlandish writing and ideas that made some question if he was intending to write a wrestling show or an oversexed TV drama. Russo later found religion, and while he still applied his story telling talents to his profession, he seemed genuinely troubled by his former writing. Riding on the backing of great competition, TNA soon got a TV deal. For a while, they had the Wednesday night Pay per View events as well as the TV show IMPACT, which aired on FSN. Later TNA took the next big step in holding one major, three hour Pay per View every month, similar to WWE. Impact continued, later moving to Spike TV and expanding to a two hour broadcast on Thursday nights.

TNA president and main investor Dixie Carter wanted to take TNA to a new level. Her idea was to bring Hulk Hogan in to help lead the company forward as he helped do to WCW since the mid nineties. Armed with other legends such as Sting, Jeff Jarrett, Mick Foley and Kevin Nash, TNA also boasted a large roster of male and female wrestlers who were ready to take the company to the next level.

Entering 2010, Hulk Hogan and Eric Bishoff took over as on screen characters. Amazingly, considering the very tender history between those two and Vince Russo from the WCW days, Russo was kept as part of the writing staff to contribute his creative input. TNA kicked off the New Year by bringing Hogan and Bishoff in on a 3 hour Monday night special, purposely set to oppose and gauge fan reaction, as well as a ratings reaction when going head to head with the WWE. The ratings took a good sized jump, and more specials were talked about, however, Dixie and Hulk made the bold decision to not just jab and hop back from the WWE but to throw a figurative roundhouse punch at Vince's company, by announcing that starting on March 8^th of 2010, TNA IMPACT would take the 9-11 slot on Spike TV, and go head to head with the WWE.

In what is definitely a drastic and insanely brave (and possibly brilliant move), TNA's action was compared by many to a kid coming up to a big school yard bully and unleashing some crazy martial arts ninja skills on him. It is yet to be seen how well they will do, because despite in the disappointment of many in Vince's product in recent years, the WWE is by no means an underdog.

It looks like the once domineering concept of the "Monday Night Wars" is returning to the forefront. It will take a lot to push the ratings to as high as they used to be in the midst of the original Monday Night Wars, but a new era of the concept is manifesting. This can only mean good things....ironically, for both companies. TNA shows tons of guts by standing up to Vince's juggernaut, but no one would be shocked if TNA quickly gobbled up popularity and saw a rise in their ratings, while a fall in WWE's. It wouldn't really be fair to compare the two in the same way as WWF and WCW were, considering the availability of online viewing and DVR capabilities that did not exist during the original "Wars" era, but a rise by TNA will command respect, and demand that Vince's product attempt to be more appealing to the average wrestling fan. Therefore, to keep up with competition, WWE will have to step up their game significantly once again.

The Monday Night Wars are definitely back and we, the wrestling fan universe, will have to see who lands the first knock down blow. And if you are one that thinks that TNA is just too small to compete, they are being financially savvy and smartly bidding their time until the moment is theirs to cease. And don't think for a second the Eric Bishoff is not ready for round 2 with Vince. This can only mean good things for both companies, but way more importantly than that, the wrestling fans. We are bracing ourselves in hopes of an all out battle being waged again, on your friendly cable TV stations on Monday night. If you are a wrestling fan, or thinking about giving it a shot, March 8^th is the day to tune in and be witness to Monday Night Wars, Round 2!!