TNA Moving Impact To Mondays Permanently On March 8, WWE Raw Recap, & More - February 15, 2010

Welcome to the “return of the Monday Night Wars begins on March 8” edition of The Wrestling List.

A couple of big news items this week. Let’s start with TNA who made their big announcement today. TNA is moving Impact to Monday nights permanently beginning on March 8. They will air head to head against Raw from 8-10pm. The plan is for Impact to be live on one Monday and then the next week will be taped. They will basically do the old Raw format from the late 90’s. Live Impact on Monday and then tape Impact the next night to air the following Monday. Dixie Carter and Hulk Hogan were on hand at the press conference taking questions from the press. There wasn’t really anything news making out of it outside of the initial announcement. This is obviously huge news and the news that we’ve been waiting for. If January 4 was any indication, this is going to make things very exciting. That date with Raw and Impact going head to head was the most exciting night of wrestling in a very long time. How will the ratings go? Well, it obviously depends on what each company is doing. WWE is in WrestleMania build and will be in it full force by March 8. The last few shows of Raw have been stronger so they are gaining momentum. Impact has slid a bit ratings wise in the last few weeks. They did a 1.4 recently but have slid back down to a 1.1 last week. Being on Mondays will be exciting. The live/taped format worked for Raw back in the late 90’s despite spoilers getting out. What it all comes down to is interest in the product. The real winners in this? It isn’t either company persay but it is us, the fans. This will make each compete and make stronger shows. TNA is going to be ready to roll. It’s just a matter of whether WWE sees them as competition or not.

WWE announced their fourth quarter numbers last week. The changes in PPV’s with gimmicks added did raise the buys but the big news was how far down that Survivor Series dropped. The Cell PPV did 283,000 buys compared to last year’s No Mercy which did 261,000 buys. Bragging Rights had 181,000 buys which is up from last year’s Cyber Sunday which had 153,000 buys. Survivor Series was way down doing only 235,000 buys compared to last year’s 319,000 buys. The TLC PPV did 228,000 buys which was up from Armageddon last year which did 193,000 buys. The overall numbers from WWE looked pretty solid for the quarter. Live event revenue was up as was venue merchandise revenue. Home video was down some as was WWEShop revenue.

Vince McMahon did announce during the conference call that Survivor Series would be no more. Vince was quoted as saying this about Survivor Series: "We think that Survivor Series is obsolete, as far as that title is concerned. It was something that worked many, many years ago, in terms of a creative standpoint, various teams competing. That really is not advantageous as the consumer now looks as what actually they are buying. And it's such a broad ... Survivor Series yes, many years ago, was one of the original four pay-per-views, but it's outlasted its usage and it is one of the things in terms of rebranding, this year and going forward, that will be rebranded. No longer will we have that title, Survivor Series.". This is a major bummer to me. The event started right around when I started watching wrestling. This is kind of odd to me when they keep making PPV events built around gimmicks but yet they are doing away with this one. How about making Survivor Series what it had been? Elimination matches. Yes, we get some but the event hasn’t focused on it in a while. I just can’t stand the thought of Survivor Series going away. It’s tradition.

The TNA Against All Odds PPV was last night from Orlando, FL. Here are the results of it. The show opened with the 8 Card Stud Tournament. Dinero defeated Desmond Wolfe after hitting his finisher. Matt Morgan defeated Hernandez. The finish had Morgan stopping the ref’s count on the outside saying that he didn’t want to win that way. Morgan held the rope open for Hernandez to get back in the ring. Morgan then sent Hernandez into the post and pinned with a handful of tights. After the match, Morgan raised Hernandez’ arm but Hernandez shoved him away unhappy with how Morgan won the match. Next Mr. Anderson defeated Kurt Angle after Angle ran into the corner missing the turnbuckle pad. Anderson (I almost typed Kennedy – LOL) then hit the mic check for the pin. Next was the Abyss vs. Foley match which was no DQ. Abyss didn’t want to use the weapons in the match but Foley egged him on to do it. The finish had Abyss pinning Foley after hitting the black hole slam into the tacks. So, there is your first round of the tournament. Next, The Nasty Boys defeated Team 3D. The finish had Jimmy Hart getting involved and helping The Nasty Boys. Hart handed a helmet to Knobs who nailed Brother Ray with it. Sags then pinned him. In the second round of the tournament, Dinero defeated Matt Morgan by pinfall. Anderson then defeated Abyss. Anderson messed with Abyss’s mask which left him unable to see. Abyss mistakenly grabbed the ref but then Anderson hit Abyss with a low shot. Anderson hit the mic check for the win. Next was the TNA championship match with AJ Styles taking on Samoa Joe. Throughout the night, Flair was furious over the announcement of Bischoff being a special referee. Hogan also told Bischoff that he was to call things right down the middle and that he wasn’t putting up with anything else. Bischoff looked annoyed when told that making it seem like his plan was ruined. AJ did a very Flair like entrance including the robe. The finish had Flair getting involved grabbing AJ’s leg preventing the muscle buster. Bischoff went to the floor and nailed Flair. Joe was upset over having no one to make a count for him and yelled at Bischoff. AJ nailed a kick to Joe followed by the Styles Clash. Bischoff then reluctantly made the three count since he had no choice. The tournament final closed the show with Anderson taking on Dinero. Pope wins the match and the tournament. He is the number one contender for the TNA title.

Tonight’s WWE Raw was a mixed bag. Actually, most of it was good. It was just the segment in the middle of the show that stopped a ton of the momentum of it. The big angle of the show was that Bret Hart arrived in the building ready to face off with Vince McMahon. Vince had no showed and Bret said that he would have been willing to meet up with him anywhere to settle the score. He talked of what had happened to him so far and how low Vince is in life. Bret said that he was hoping for that one last sweet victory to happen at WrestleMania for his career but saw that it wasn’t going to happen. So, Bret thanks the superstars, the fans, and everyone for their support in welcoming him back but says goodbye. Vince won’t take him on so there is nothing else for him. Bret walks out waving to the fans. Good stuff in the backstage area which I thought was interesting. They had faces and heels thanking Bret. I liked that detail of the backstage stuff. They had Kofi saying goodbye but also had Swagger and Alicia saying their goodbyes. Cena runs into Bret hoping to talk him out of leaving. They thank each other and Bret gets in the limo. As Cena walks away, we hear a crash. A blonde woman backed her car into the limo with Bret still getting into it. Basically, the story was that Bret’s leg was crushed. Cena and all the wrestlers and officials in the area run to Bret’s aid. Bret is worked on and pulled out on the other side. He is put in an ambulance and taken out of there. I thought the segment was really good and I’m sure it will be revealed that Vince was involved. Speaking of Cena, he waited on Batista who had said he was showing up on Raw. Batista ended up on the Titan Tron via satellite. Cena continued to call him out while Batista said that he was doing Cena a favor by not being there but said he would be pulling for him to win on Sunday. Batista said that he would be there at Raw next week to confront Cena. Cena took on Triple H in the main event. The finish was a DQ when Sheamus interfered with a boot to Triple H stopping the pedigree attempt. Cena got on offense for a few seconds but Sheamus laid him out with a boot as well. Sheamus laid out Triple H with a celtic cross. Earlier in the show, Sheamus took on Randy Orton. Dibiase and Rhodes arrived early on in the match. Orton had Sheamus on the floor. Dibiase went to hit Sheamus but the punch was countered. Cody then nailed Sheamus and the ref caught it calling for the DQ. Orton was immediately furious as Legacy tried to explain themselves. Orton nailed Cody with a RKO. Sheamus then returned and laid Dibiase out with a kick. However, Orton then hit a RKO on to Sheamus. Orton was really looking like a face in this whole match. His mannerisms were different and he was really fired up after hitting the RKO to Sheamus. Ted Dibiase faced Kofi Kingston later on and defeated him after hitting dream street. ShoMiz was defeated the team of Mark Henry and MVP when MVP countered Miz’s pin attempt into one of his own. MVP and Henry get a win on the tag team champions. The new Hall Of Fame inductee was not a surprise as it had already been announced in Japan. Antonio Inoki will be going into the Hall Of Fame. Great video piece on him. Still amazing that Inoki vs. Flair took place in front of 190,000 people. What was the bad segment? Ok, here we go. Jerry Springer was the guest host on Raw. The subject of the segment was “Superstars Intimate Relationships Revealed”. When this segment started, I thought this will either be funny or be a complete train wreck. See possibility number two. This was so bad. LOL. I need to keep myself alert to recap it so I’m going to make it fun for myself. I’m going to be making some random obscure wrestling references to get through this thing. They introduce Kelly Kelly who announces that she is pregnant. However, she is unsure of who the father is cause she’s had several relationships. Who is the baby’s daddy? It has to be Vince Russo. Now, you do remember that he was going to book himself as the father of Stacy Keibler’s baby back at the end of WCW? Well, that was better than his other idea which I’m not even going to go into. Enter Santino Marella. Come on, you knew that he had to be in this segment. He gives his plea on being the father. Kelly then says that she did sleep with him but that he fell asleep so she had someone else step in. Then, Michael Cole stands up and says that he thought they were going to keep this a secret. Lawler stands up too and takes claim on Kelly too. So, at this point I’m thinking, ok, so Kelly’s new character is that she has slept with the whole locker room??!! LOL. What in the world? The Bellas walk to the ring. I’m thinking, oh great, she slept with them too. This is so silly. LOL. No, they actually say that they saw another guy in the room. Well, this is after Nikki claims that Brie is a man. This gets them into a fight. Where is Joey Styles with his line when we need him? Chris Masters arrives. He does the dancing pecs gimmick to which Springer tells him that he needs a bra. I needed to be knocked out. Actually, this was so bad that it was funny. Eve then arrives upset that Masters was cheating on her. Masters said that Eve wasn’t good enough for him. Kelly and Eve end up in an argument. Eve then says that she has been cheating on him as well and out comes The Great Khali. All we needed was The Yeti at this point. Khali kisses Eve which I only recall cause I wrote it down in my notes. I don’t remember that happening at all. LOL!! Then, we get the results of the paternity test and it is revealed to be Hornswoggle’s kid. So, he runs out and he and Kelly hug. Springer then says that this is even too wacky for him and walks out. Lawler then says that they should let him in on the secret. They made it all up and fooled him. The relationship thing that it was about was about Springer’s and they bring out his lady. You just knew where this was going!! Enter Mae Young. She then starts kissing him. So, this was the bad of the show. It is segments like that that make me worry of Vince Russo sitting there and thinking, oh, I can top this one. LOL.

Other notes from Raw. Well, at least we don’t have to worry about Raw getting bumped for the Dog Show like in year’s past. That goes all the way back to the Prime Time Wrestling days. Orton was definitely having a feel of working as a face. I can’t figure out WWE with how they book Dibiase. They’ll have him get destroyed one week and then give him a big win the next week. Sometimes, it happens on the same show. Wow, there is 20 championships between Triple H and John Cena? That was an impressive stat. I was wondering if we would get the Miz and Big Show theme songs combined like the JeriShow theme. The 15 year old girl that opened the show singing the national anthem did a great job. Great way to open up the President’s Day broadcast. Jewel and Ty Murray will be the guest hosts for next week’s Raw.

Tomorrow is the last episode for WWECW. WWE NXT premieres next week in the same time slot.

WWE put up a survey last week asking what fans would like to see for the future as far as gimmicks. Two things on it were the concepts of War Games and Battle Bowl. I did fill out the survey. I do like the idea of Battle Bowl but am not just crazy about it. It would be something unique but it was way overbooked toward the ending of it. War Games is what I pushed for in really wanting to see. I fully expect that WWE will do War Games in the future. It is a concept from WCW’s past that has been talked about for a while including JR pointing out on his blog one time that he’d like to see WWE bring in the concept. If done right, there is your key phrase. It could be very exciting.

The WWE Classics On Demand voting poll for events for March is between WrestleMania VII, XII, and 23. So, I thought I’d go over my thoughts on each event. Let’s start with WrestleMania VII. This is one of my favorite WrestleMania events but the only bummer for me was that it was held in such a small venue. That wasn’t the original plan of course but the LA Sports Arena ended up hosting the show. The show featured the main event of Sgt. Slaughter defending the WWF title against Hulk Hogan. The big American hero vs. the Iraqi sympathizer storyline. Other big matches and moments on the show included the career match between Ultimate Warrior and Randy Savage. One of the most annoying endings for me in my wrestling watching life. Five big elbows and Warrior kicks out. What lousy booking is that. LOL. This was also the big reunion moment of Savage and Elizabeth that all of us fans loved. The Hart Foundation defend the tag team titles against The Nasty Boys. Jake The Snake Roberts against Rick Martel in the blindfold match. I just really liked this show but really would have liked it to have been in a bigger venue. The reason that it was moved to the smaller venue depends on who you want to believe. WrestleMania XII. This is a two match show for me. Shawn Michaels vs. Bret Hart in the ironman match is obviously the big draw for this show. I still remember the moment of Shawn winning the title and how happy that I was for it. The boyhood dream comes true is the line that you’ll remember from the commentary that night. The other memorable moment from the show was the Hollywood Backlot Brawl with Roddy Piper and Goldust. WrestleMania 23. Fun show with WrestleMania returning to Detroit. Undertaker vs. Batista and then also Shawn vs. Cena were the main event title matches. We had the Donald Trump/Vince McMahon storyline going on. Fun show. My vote goes to WrestleMania VII though. Really enjoyed that show. All of them are entertaining shows though.

The new WWE John Morrison DVD will be released tomorrow in stores which includes a program and a ton of matches.

The Vince Russo book appears to be as blood pressure raising as I and many anticipated. Yeah, there is no way that I could read that book. I would have to be put on some blood pressure medication by the time I finished it. LOL.

Here is the lineup for this Sunday’s WWE Elimination Chamber PPV from St. Louis. The WWE championship is defended with Sheamus taking on John Cena, Randy Orton, Triple H, Ted Dibiase, and Kofi Kingston in one Chamber match. The World Heavyweight Championship is defended in the other Chamber match with Undertaker taking on John Morrison, CM Punk, Chris Jericho, Rey Mysterio, and R Truth. Intercontinental Champion Drew McIntyre defends against Kane. The finals of the Divas Championship tournament will take place with Maryse taking on Gail Kim. That is all that is announced for the show so far.

That is it for this week. Wishing all of you a great week!! Take care and God bless!!