Monday Night War has begun?

[TheViolentMessiah]

So Monday the 4th has happened, what are all your opinions?

Fire away.

[DavidB]

TNA did well to hold their own, although it was never in doubt that Hogan is the far bigger mainstream star than Bret ever was.

 

The important thing is the next show for TNA - will the audience stick around? Or was it a nostalgia trip for most etc?

 

Raw did a good job with Bret, and I was impressed at the build up. TNA was more about shock value, and that can't last forever. So while they did a good job, it's the long term booking with all the new stars and existing talent that will prove to be most important.

 

TNA have a good foundation, but it depends on how they build on it. WWE certainly aren't in any danger yet.

[Will Jones]

The tapings for next week's Impact give off an impression that "The Band Is Back Together". I really hope that this isn't going where I think it is...

 

The next few months in the WWE willbe interesting with the Bret Hart storyline. Hopefully he signs an extension.

 

As regards Hogan...the only thing that will let TNA down is if it goes back in time!!! Come on, The Nasty Boys? Sean Morley? Orlando Jordan? This is a Hulkamania Australia Tour reunion. Jeff Hardy is on a short term contract with any extension down to what happens at his drugs trial. He has now be endicted by a Grand Jury.

 

Ric Flair seems to be in a mentoring role for AJ Styles.

 

Let's see where this goes before Vince gets really worried. There are major changes coming up to ECW (soon to disappear and be a show for up and coming talent to get exposure) and Smackdwon (no rumours yet). The Draft is due in a few months, so post WrestleMania should be interesting.

 

As regards any Monday Night War....word is that Spike are happy to continue doing Monday Nights from time to time - possibly once a month to begin with - and then go every Monday if it does well. The only problem is financing the move. TNA does tapings every fortnight, and sometimes 3 weeks at a time depending on when the PPV is.

 

If this does anything at all, it will make Vince do more of what he is doing now. They need a new GM on Raw as the Guest Host thing is getting stale. Some of them are crap. And please, Vicky Guerrero is doing my nut in. There is something about her. As long as her appearances are minimal, I will be happy. With edge posibly pack pre-WrestleMania, they need to move Edge to Raw with Jericho and have them feud there.

 

With Smackdown possibly moving networks again, it may be a case of Smackdown being up and comers with a few experienced talent on there. No more two World Titles. There is so much that Vince can do to make his product better, but it is whether he has the nads to do it...

[MojoeDark]

I enjoyed both show. But TNA i felt i enjoyed more as i was a massive WCW fan.

[jakeblue]

Nicely done hogan you've started tna down the road you led wcw. Bischoff ripping up the shows running order, all hogans old pals appearing (the nastys, bubba love sponge), the nwo back together, sting in the rafters, gjving away the ppv main event just for ratings, its like wcw never died.

 

Throw in flair for no reason other than its flair (aj does not need to be anywhere near them) hardy cause wwe won't touch him at the moment, val venis, orlando jordan, starting the jarrett vs hogan feud. Add a terribly booked cage match and someone attacking tna originals (a seperate attacker to the one who's been jumping aj) and this show was everything I feared it would be.

 

Compared to bret face to face with shawn and tna couldn't have looked worse, if I was joe, aj and angle id be asking for my release sooner rather than later

 

*edited for spoiler*

Edited January 8, 2010 by DavidB

[Will Jones]

The Terrordome is badly designed. It is very dangerous, and Homicide's precarious position was quite worryign when I watched it the other night. When you watch it on Bravo tomorrow night you will see how bad that structure is.

 

I must admit that watching the second and third hours of Impact was like watching Nitro. The only high point was the absilutely corking match between AJ and Kurt. They will have to go some to match this at Genesis (this rematch from Impact has been announced on the TNA website).

 

The one good thing is that apparently the new faces of Hall, Waltmen, Morley and Jordan are on short term contracts. Jeff has yet to sign a contract, but is on a verbal deal. Flair is on a limited appearance contract that allegedly is guaranteed by Panda Energy who own TNA.

 

If these names give a short term buzz to launch TNA to Monday Nights, then great. If they become long term, then Vince will be buying TNA in a few years time as he did TNA.

 

I think TNA's move to challenge Vince head on could shock Vince into action. He appears to be moving forward with pushing new talent to main event status. This could well be a great year for grappling fans.

[jakeblue]

Seriously the tna show was bad. I admit that I'm a wwe fan but I like tna too, people have said that raw outside of bret was a standard show but for me tna was a standard tna show (good inring action with crap backstage nonsense) it was only different as it was filled with wcw rubbish.

 

Jarrett cut a promo and was then interrupted by hogan who made no sense with what he said to jeff. The stuff with foley was terrible, the lashley stuff made no sense, joe is going nowhere, all the originals were either nowhere to be seen or got about fuve seconds on screen after being laid out by a mystery attacker (nwo), and sting wandered around doing nowt.

 

I don't need and neither does tna any of the following -

 

Nash, hall and waltman, period

Jarrett vs hogan

The nastys vs team 3d

Pointless cameos from former wwe midcard talent

Another ex wwe champ in hardy taking a spot that should be filled by someone loyal to tna

Flair, in any capacity

Bischoff onscreen doing things like ripping up the format

 

Give it a couple of months and hogan will be main eventing ppvs, I'm just glad rvd and heyman weren't involved as I love those guys and would hate to see them involved with this mess.

 

Bischoff has a lot to offer offscreen if kept in check and things may get better but I'm not holding my breath.

 

Why buy genesis when they gave you the main event free

[Will Jones]

Reading an interview with Bret Hart, he claims that the exchanges between he and Shawn on Raw a few weeks back were unscripted, unrehearsed and genuinely from the heart. If you look at the footage you will see that both are uneasy until the hands make conact for the handshake. The hug at the end surprised Bret, but he watched the footage bak and thought Shaen teasing Sweet Chin Music was vintage Shawn.

 

He added tahat he had seen Shanw briefly in the cafeteriathat afternoon.

 

As regards Vince, everything was planned. Some latitude was given, and the kik in the groin was a istake as it was meant to be in his stomach. Bret added that he felt it was a bette angl for this mistake happening.

 

He commented that certain thing were agreed beforehand due to his stroke in 2002 and concussion issues.The original script was for a face slap, but this was vetoed by Vince due to the concussion problems.

 

Bret is due to return this Monday and be on Raw throughout February in the lead up to WrestleMania in March.

 

A Streetfight is possible, but expect it to be a total spotfest with allies from both sides coming in. I wuldn't be shocked if HBK landed the killer blow for Bret.

 

Bret is also open to a longer contract as he is now based in Calgary for 2 years as his girlfriend is there studying.

 

Things may well be looking up for the WWE product.

[jakeblue]

Having seen this weeks impact, any war there might have been is over if this is the best tna can offer.

 

Jeff Jarrett started tna and has for the past godknows how long been involved in angles where he was sticking up for the young talent whilst the older guys tried to hog the spotlight. Firstly against Foley, then against the mafia and then most recently he was bigging them up and talking about the future of the company last week.

 

Hogan interrupted him last week and tried to make out Jarrett was only in it for himself and Hogan came across as a bit of a heel. Then this week Jarrett barges into Hogans office and plays a heel saying he doesnt care about the young guys and it was all about him. Not only was the whole angle just a mistimed mess but crap booking like this is what killed wcw.

 

We also got Tomko revealing himself as AJs attacker. Styles then went to see Bischoff and asked for a match which Eric gave him as long as he put the title on the line for the second week running (again the same rubbish booking we got in wcw). This would have been ok but we were then treated to three pretaped backstage vignettes showing Tomko without the mask talking about his title shot. It made no sense to see him revealed in a pretaped segment when the announcers were pretending they didn't know he was the attacker, and he was pretaped talking about a match that was supposedly made during the broadcast, again just absolute nonsense.

 

Val Venis (sorry Sean Morely) is still involved in the adult entertainment industry apparently ffs and has a match at the ppv, what a complete waste of time.

 

The Nastys laid out Team 3d after apparently spending all week living in the dressing room. Oh and let's not forget 'the band' who have a match at the ppv and Nash has a tag title shot.......and Sting is back in the rafters.

 

It doesn't matter what rubbish WWE put out its always going to be better than this crap.

 

Were supposed to see a huge new former world champ on sundays ppv, the rumours are RVD I hope to god it isn't as I love that guy and hope he stays far far away from tna.......I also hope for the sake of the originals that its not Psycho Sid.

 

I read that Hogan claims his phone rang off the hook with wwe guys wanting to jump ship, this I doubt but frankly anyone who wants to work in the current tna gets everything they deserve.

 

Incidentally after Bischoff said Jarrett needed an attitude adjustment rumours sprang up saying that the big talent turning up at the ppv would be Cena. Now this will never ever happen but if it did I could officially turn off tna and happily watch raw knowing id never have to see his smug face again.

 

In closing the opening match between The Motorcity Machine Gunns and Generation Me was awesome and showed what's right about tna, just a shame about the rest of the show.

Edited January 16, 2010 by jakeblue

[Will Jones]

Ken Anderson aka Mr Kennedy is a lock for the new acquisition according to reports from the States. He performed well on teh Hulkamnia tour, and most of these guys are gettign gigs at TNA because of Hogan. Apparently, RVD is heading back to the WWE for the Rumble if all goes to plan.

 

The Guns vas The Young Bucks..oops, Generation Me, was a superb match. The Guns gave off the aura of a top tag team, but the offence from the Young Bucks was superb. Apart from the fans chanting The Young Bucks, even Taz asked "Who these young bucks were?" when refering to the "unknown" team of Generation Me.

 

Only watched the first hour of Impact so far, but I am hoping that the Tomko vs AJ angle is dead in the water after this week.

 

Also, please get rid of Sean Morely and The Nasty Boys.....go now..please.

Edited January 16, 2010 by Will Jones

[DavidB]

Can we please be wary about spoilers? I have to read this section to make sure everything is ok, and I don't really like reading too much stuff i.e. surprises that might turn up etc.

 

So from now on, can people put warnings or whatever? I'm sure others would appreciate it too. Thanks.

[Will Jones]

So, even though TNA have announced that they have signed a major talent who will appear this Sunday on the Genesis PPV, are you saying we cannot discuss possible identities? They haven't even hinted at who it might be...no subtle clues...many names are being thrown around on the internet, all of which do not have jobs at the moment...

 

If this is so, as in we can't even spitball rumours or potentials..does that go for every show discussed on this forum? As in where storylines could be going? WHo could possibly turn up in the next episode if the storyline goes one way or another?

 

In this case, Impact has aired and finished 40 minutes ago.

The way TNA is now, it could be anyone. No one expected Jeff Hardy to turn up last week on Impact.

 

Just need to know whether it is worth chatting about wrestling, or anything else?

 

I can understand if someone puts a spoiler up from Impact tapings post Genesis, or Smackdown tapings pre Friday screening...but stuff that has happened, and possible outcomes of what has happened...is that not allowed?

[Will Jones]

POTENTIAL SPOILER

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TNA President Dixie Carter and Hulk Hogan met with the Head of Spike TV where Dixie commented on Twitter that the meeting went great. This meeting was one of several to determine whether Impact would go Live on Monday Night every week. The next potential Live Impact on Monday Night is either March 1st or 8th.