CALDWELL'S TAKE CALDWELL: TNA Impact gone from Mondays - what went wrong, why the move to Mondays made things worse
May 4, 2010 - 11:43:05 AM
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By James Caldwell, Torch assistant editor
Less than two months into their run on Monday nights, TNA is moving back to Thursday nights. It's another change in a long line of TV changes since March 8. TNA will need time to rebuild on Thursdays after putting their audience through the wringer trying to follow the product the last two months.
The story on TNA's move to Monday nights is that the company simply wasn't ready. A company that prided itself on baby steps tried to stand up and run, but forgot to walk first.
The product was a complete mess before March 8 with no clear direction from the new Hogan & Bischoff regime. Hulk Hogan & Co. then gave their best sales pitch to Spike TV that the best way to fix sagging ratings on Thursday nights was to...move the show to Mondays up against WWE Raw.
Impact never climbed above a 1.0 rating on Monday nights despite giving away Hulk Hogan and Ric Flair's TNA in-ring debuts (including Flair's first domestic TV match since WrestleMania 24), a PPV main event of RVD vs. Jeff Hardy, and a dream match of RVD vs. A.J. Styles with a major TNA Title switch.
Instead of helping solve TNA's issues with the product, the move to Mondays only highlighted and exacerbated the lack of clear focus and direction. Which wrestler - not non-wrestler - was TNA trying to build the promotion around? Who's the "John Cena" of TNA?
The results are in that Abyss is nowhere near being TNA's "John Cena" despite TNA's best efforts with the angle surrounding Hulk Hogan's Hall of Fame ring. TNA even fed Ric Flair to Abyss, but TNA's fanbase rejected the character as a central figure, as evidenced by him finishing near the bottom of the Championship Ranking vote next to Jeff Jarrett.
Going forward to Thursday nights, TNA doesn't appear to be ready to address glaring weaknesses with the product. TNA apparently believes what they're doing with total non-stop brawls, filler title matches, unexplainable and convoluted turns, and Hulk Hogan as the central figure of the show is a formula for success.
Although TNA "gave away a PPV" on April 19, they showed signs of snapping out of their bad habits on the previous live episode of Impact. This was followed by the return of bad habits on April 26, then a messy show last night.
The final segment with Hulk Hogan and Sting was the perfect way to sum up the Monday night experience. Star power from the 1990s. Convoluted storylines. Audience unsure what to make of it. No one cares at the end of the day.
If the product holds to form when TNA moves to Thursday nights next week, they'll have a long, hard climb back to the 1.2s and 1.3s Impact was doing at the beginning of 2010. After all, just look at the following timeline of TNA's quick-fixes on Monday nights trying to find and keep their audience over the past two months.
March 8 - TNA goes live on Monday nights.
March 11 - TNA and Spike keep replay on Thursday nights.
March 15 - Impact bombs. TNA chalks it up to Steve Austin on Raw.
WM26 Season - TNA and Spike drop Impact replay.
March 29 - Impact bombs. TNA chalks it up to Shawn Michaels on Raw.
April 5 - TNA and Spike wise up and move Impact to 8:00 p.m. EST to have an hour lead-in on Raw.
April 12 - TNA launches "Reaction" before Impact with two days of hype, starting on a Saturday.
April 15 - TNA brings back a Thursday replay.
April 19 - TNA gives way RVD-Hardy and RVD-Styles for the TNA Title one night after PPV.
April 26 - Impact bombs. TNA chalks it up to the WWE Draft.
May 3 - TNA and Spike TV pull the plug on the Monday night experiment. Impact back to Thursdays.
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