By James Caldwell, Torch assistant editor

Based on our Monday Night Wars-themed polls on Monday, Torch readers are voting TNA Impact as the show they sided with during Monday's head-to-head battle between WWE Raw and TNA Impact. However, Torch readers were enamored with Bret Hart's return on WWE TV. (VOTE RIGHT NOW IN OUR POLLS!)

Prior to the battle beginning, a strong percentage, but not a clear majority of Torch readers (37 percent), said they were anticipating flipping back and forth between shows. After the shows aired, only 16 percent of Torch readers said they flipped back and forth. In our poll evaluating the battle, Torch readers said they mainly stuck with Impact (23 percent).

POLL: What is your gameplan for watching Raw and/or Impact tonight?

Prior to the start of Impact and Raw, 37 percent of Torch readers who voted said they would be flipping back and forth between Raw and Impact. The rest of the votes were completely split.

-- 18 percent (second place) said Watching Impact and DVR'ing Raw, 17 percent said Watching Raw and DVR'ing Impact, 15 percent said only Raw, and 13 percent said only Impact.

Coming into the battle, Torch readers were taking a middle ground of seeing what would catch their eye and not having a set gameplan on switching exactly at 9:00 EST to Raw. The key was whether TNA would do enough in the first hour to hook viewers for the rest of Impact even with Bret Hart expected to come out at the beginning of WWE Raw.

POLL: What did you do tonight? Watch Raw? Watch Impact? Flip Channels?

After Raw and Impact aired, we asked Torch readers to evaluate how they handled the options. Again, there was a very wide range of answers, but the winning poll choice as of the timing of this writing is 23 percent for "Almost all Impact, but a little Raw." By contrary, 14 percent of Torch readers voted the opposite of "Almost all Raw, but a little Impact."

The poll result shows TNA did enough in the first hour to hook viewers for the final two hours despite WWE delivering Bret Hart confrontations with Shawn Michaels and Vince McMahon on the show. WWE simply didn't have the "meat" throughout the show to win over viewers with TNA having the one-hour lead-in.

-- 16 percent (second place) said they watched the shows just about even, 14 percent said most Raw and a little Impact, 13 percent said only Raw, and 12 percent said only Impact.

POLL: If you saw the first hour of Impact, grade it

After the first hour of Impact aired, we asked Torch readers to evaluate the lead-in hour. A letter-grade of an "A" was the leading vote-getter with 29 percent of Torch readers approving of the first hour.

-- 24 percent (second place) gave the first hour a "B" grade, 18 percent with a "C" grade, 16 percent with an "F" grade, and 14 percent with a "D" grade.

The results show one out of every four Torch reader who watched the first hour was more than satisfied with the first hour and probably stuck around for the remainder of the show. This is also reflected in the fact that 23 percent of Torch readers said they mainly watched Impact and caught a little bit of Raw.

POLL: If you saw the opening segment of Raw with Bret Hart, grade it

Concerning WWE Raw, Torch readers were overwhelmingly supportive of the opening segment with Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels having a mid-ring confrontation and appearing in the same televised space for the first time in 12 years.

The leading vote-getter in our "letter grade evaluation" was an "A" grade with 62 percent of votes. Second place was a "B" grade with 19 percent. The sum of "C," "D," and "F" level grades was only 20 percent.

Torch readers were certainly in favor of Bret Hart's appearance on the show based on the letter grades, as well as the early voting for MVP of Raw.

POLL: Who was the MVP of the 1/4 Raw?

Bret Hart is the run-away vote-recipient for MVP of Raw, as Torch readers have voted him the MVP of the show with 78 percent of the vote. That's easily the highest-percentage of votes received since we began tracking the weekly Raw MVP polling.

-- Shawn Michaels (second place) has 6 percent, Vince McMahon has 4 percent, and Chris Jericho and Maryse have 3 percent as of right now.

Considering the overwhelming popularity of Bret Hart among Torch readers, it's interesting to see that TNA was still the favorite choice for Monday night programming. It truly shows TNA and WWE provided plenty of strong choices for TV wrestling on Monday night. And that's what the Monday Night Wars should be all about.

POLL: Who was the MVP of the 1/4 Impact?

The TNA Impact MVP voting is closer, which is typical of your average TNA Impact when there are so many stars, segments, and storylines that it often comes down to a popularity contest. However, A.J. Styles is the clear favorite.

Styles currently has 44 percent of the vote, which is surprising considering how much effort TNA put into hyping the big names and stars appearing on the show.

Even more surprising considering who TNA Impact was hyped around, Eric Bischoff has received more MVP votes than Hulk Hogan as of this writing.

-- Styles is leading with 44 percent, then Bischoff with 14 percent, Hulk Hogan with 13 percent, Jeff Hardy with 10 percent, and Kurt Angle with 7 percent.

[Torch photos credit Wade Keller (c) PWTorch.com]

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