By James Caldwell, Torch assistant editor

TNA issued an official press release today hyping Hulk Hogan and Ric Flair's first match against each other in "nearly a decade" next Monday when TNA Impact officially moves to a Monday night timeslot on Spike TV.

The press release notes Hogan will be teaming with "TNA Superstar" Abyss and Flair will be teaming with "his protege," TNA World Hvt. champion A.J. Styles.

TNA also drew attention to their first live Impact on Monday night, January 4 head-to-head with WWE Raw drawing 2.2 million viewers and setting a company record for TV viewership.

"The first-ever Monday live TNA Impact three-hour special broadcast ran on Spike TV head-to-head against WWE Raw on Monday, January 4, 2010, and drew a franchise-record 2.2 million viewers and set ratings records in every demographic. Two wrestling companies have not broadcast head-to-head weekly since the 'Monday Night Wars' in the late 1990s between WWE and WCW."

Caldwell's Analysis: TNA certainly hopes to get as much mainstream publicity as possible hyping Hogan vs. Flair back in the ring again. One thing that has bothered me with TNA's verbiage on the Monday Night Wars is saying there hasn't been a head-to-head battle since "the late 1990s." TNA has conveniently (and understandably) forgotten about 2000 and three months in 2001 when WWE Raw and WCW Nitro were still head-to-head prior to WCW going out of business.

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