The Hogan/Bischoff Team Joins TNA Wrestling (January 2010 – March 2010)
A few years after the sale of World Championship Wrestling (WCW), a start-up company named Total Nonstop Action (TNA) Wrestling was created in Nashville, Tennessee. TNA continued to grow until it eventually signed former WCW President Eric Bischoff and WWE Hall of Famer Hulk Hogan to exclusive contracts. These contracts allowed Bischoff and Hogan to resume their war against Vince McMahon and his Monday Night RAW.
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| January 4, 2010 | 1.45 (1.69 / 1.44 / 1.28) | 3.62 (3.51 / 3.73) |
| Show Notes: | The January 4th episode of TNA iMPACT! was a one-time experiment as TNA debuted Hulk Hogan, Ric Flair, Eric Bischoff, Jeff Hardy, Shannon Moore, Sean Morley, Orlando Jordan, and more in their attempt to compete directly with WWE’s flagship show, Monday Night RAW. The shows competed head-to-head from 9:00pm to 11:00pm EST. This show is NOT included in the averages below, though it IS included in the averages for the Monday Night War section subsequent to this section. | |
| January 14, 2010 | 1.26 ( / ) | 3.7 ( / ) |
| January 21, 2010 | 1.26 ( / ) | 3.55 ( / ) |
| January 28, 2010 | 1.38 (1.46 / 1.30) | 3.58 ( / ) |
| February 4, 2010 | 1.18 ( / ) | 3.63 ( / ) |
| February 11, 2010 | 1.19 ( / ) | 3.59 ( / ) |
| February 18, 2010 | 1.23 (1.24 / 1.21) | 3.4 ( / ) |
| February 25, 2010 | 1.14 (1.17 / 1.12) | 3.8 ( / ) |
| March 4, 2010 | 1.14 ( / ) | 3.7 ( / ) |
| Average Rating | 1.09 | 3.22 |
| The numbers above include the week-to-week ratings for each Monday’s episode of WWE’s RAW and each Thursday’s episode of TNA Wrestling’s iMPACT! These numbers do not tell much about the battle for viewership between RAW and iMPACT! during the beginning of the Hogan/Bischoff Team since the shows did not compete head-to-head during these weeks (save for January 4, 2010, which is not included in the above averages). | ||
The Monday Night Ratings War (March 2010 – May 2010)
Throughout the late 1990’s WCW and the then-World Wrestling Federation (WWF) waged what would come to be known as the Monday Night War. WCW showcased their professional wrestlers on Monday NITRO while WWF put their sports entertainment performers on Monday Night RAW. The war ended in 2001 with Vince McMahon’s WWF victorious in the head-to-head competition. Ultimately, the WWF purchased WCW which effectively created a monopoly in the North American professional wrestling business.
On Monday, January 4, 2010 for the first time ever, TNA presented its iMPACT! program on a Monday night. The results of this three hours extravaganza were sufficient enough for the officials at Spike TV to give TNA a two hour slot each Monday night starting on Monday, March 5, 2010. While Monday Night RAW is produced as a live show each week, iMPACT! ran live one week and was taped the next. Below are the ratings results from each Monday night where iMPACT! and Monday Night RAW competed head-to-head (the winner in the ratings is indicated in bold).
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| January 4, 2010 | 1.45 (1.69 / 1.44 / 1.28) | 3.62 (3.51 / 3.73) |
| Show Notes: | The January 4th episode of TNA iMPACT! was a one-time experiment as TNA debuted Hulk Hogan, Ric Flair, Eric Bischoff, Jeff Hardy, Shannon Moore, Sean Morley, Orlando Jordan, and more in their attempt to compete directly with WWE’s flagship show, Monday Night RAW. The shows competed head-to-head from 9:00pm to 11:00pm EST. | |
| March 8, 2010 | 0.99 (1.01 / 0.96) | 3.42 (3.26 / 3.56) |
| March 15, 2010 | 0.84 (0.80 / 0.88) | 3.71 (3.68 / 3.73) |
| March 22, 2010 | 0.86 (0.83 / 0.87) | 3.24 (2.97 / 3.51) |
| March 29, 2010 | 0.57 (0.53 / 0.60) | 3.66 (3.53 / 3.79) |
| April 5, 2010 | 0.87 (0.91 / 0.82) | 3.17 (3.33 / 3.00) |
| Show Notes: | The April 5th episode of TNA iMPACT! began at 8:00pm EST and thus only competed head-to-head against Monday Night RAW from 9:00pm to 10:00pm EST. The NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship between Duke and Butler started at 9:20pm this night, prompting TNA to change iMPACT!’s start time. | |
| Beginning with the April 12, 2010 episode of iMPACT!, the show’s start time was officially changed from 9:00pm to 8:00pm EST. Consequently, beginning on April 12, 2010, iMPACT! and Monday Night RAW will only compete head-to-head during the 9:00pm to 10:00pm EST hour. | ||
| April 12, 2010 | 0.78 (0.80 / 0.76) | 3.20 (3.00 / 3.40) |
| April 19, 2010 | 0.95 (1.00 / 0.90) | 3.05 (3.00 /3.10 ) |
| April 26, 2010 | 0.50 (0.50 / 0.50) | 3.07 (2.60 / 3.27 / 3.34) |
| May 3, 2010 | 0.78 (0.91 / 0.66) | 3.05 (2.90 / 3.20) |
| On May 3rd, TNA Wrestling announced that it was moving its flagship show, TNA iMPACT!, back to Thursday nights effective Thursday, May 13, 2010. In addition, it was announced that the start time for iMPACT! was moving back to 9:00pm EST. It is not expected that TNA will move iMPACT! back to Monday nights in the future. | ||
| Average Rating | 0.86 | 3.32 |
| The numbers above include the initial head-to-head competition from January 4, 2010. When excluding that show and looking at the 9-week “Monday Night War” between TNA iMPACT! and WWE RAW, WWE RAW averages a 3.29 rating while TNA iMPACT! averages a 0.79 rating. | ||
The Thursday Night Ratings War (May 2010 – Present)
Since we put so much work into creating this area of iwheadlines.com, we’ve decided to keep it up and running even after TNA decided to retrench back to Thursday nights. So, iwheadlines.com is proud to bring you a bit of a tongue-in-cheek version of the Thursday Night Ratings War between TNA iMPACT! and WWE Superstars. Why tongue-in-cheek? Well, for starters the two shows don’t compete in a head-to-head time slot as iMPACT! airs from 9:00pm EST until 11:00pm EST and Superstars airs from 8:00pm EST until 9:00pm EST. Also, Superstars generally brings in a significantly lower rating than iMPACT! so there really is no “war” to speak of (actually, this is somewhat reminiscent of the 2010 “Monday Night Ratings War” between WWE and TNA). Oh, and Superstars is a syndicated show that also has a replay while iMPACT! is a regularly scheduled show on a standard cable channel making it consistently more available in potential viewer homes.
For the results of the short-lived battle between TNA and WWE on Monday nights, please scroll up to the top of this page. Enjoy!
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| May 13, 2010 | 0.93 (0.90 / 0.96) | 0.61 |
| Show Notes: | The May 13th episode of TNA iMPACT! marked the show’s return to it’s 9:00pm EST to 11:00pm EST time slot. Also note that WWE Superstars airs from 8:00pm EST to 9:00pm EST, an hour earlier than TNA iMPACT!, and thus these ratings results do not represent a head-to-head competition. | |
| May 20, 2010 | 0.96 (0.90 / 1.01) | 0.77 |
| May 27, 2010 | 0.96 (0.91 / 1.01) | 0.65 |
| June 3, 2010 | 0.87 (0.87 / 0.88) | 0.76 |
| June 10, 2010 | 0.99 (0.98 / 1.00) | 0.84 |
| June 17, 2010 | 0.99 (0.95 / 1.03) | 0.35 |
| Show Notes: | The June 17th episode of TNA iMPACT! on Spike TV aired head-to-head against WWE Superstars on WGN America during the 9:00pm EST to 10:00pm EST hour. Thus, the ratings for the first hour of this episode of iMPACT! can be directly compared to this week’s episode of Superstars. | |
| June 24, 2010 | 0.99 (0.97 / 1.00) | 0.56 |
| July 1, 2010 | 0.99 (0.93 / 1.05) | 0.55 |
| July 8, 2010 | 1.15 (1.11 / 1.18) | 0.64 |
| July 15, 2010 | 1.09 (1.06 / 1.11) | 0.74 |
| July 22, 2010 | 1.06 (1.06 / 1.07) | 0.65 |
| July 29, 2010 | 1.22 (1.16 / 1.28) | 0.74 |
| August 5, 2010 | 1.21 (1.12 / 1.30) | 0.66 |
| August 12, 2010 | 1.15 (1.05 / 1.25) | 0.65 |
| Show Notes: | The August 12th episode of TNA iMPACT! was featured as “The Whole F’N Show” on Spike TV. This show featured the match card of the previously scheduled Hard Justice pay-per-view event which was bumped to accommodate HardCORE Justice. This show featured only wrestling with no backstage interviews. | |
| August 19, 2010 | 0.97 (0.91 / 1.03) | 0.63 |
| August 26, 2010 | 1.07 (1.03 / 1.11) | 0.59 |
| September 2, 2010 | 1.04 (1.02 / 1.05) | 0.52 |
| September 9, 2010 | n/a | 0.58 |
| Show Notes: | There was no episode of iMPACT! on September 9, 2010. Instead, TNA Wrestling had an online kickoff show for its annual Bound for Glory pay-per-view. | |
| September 16, 2010 | 1.12 (1.08 / 1.17) | 0.69 |
| September 23, 2010 | 1.01 (1.01 / 1.02) | 0.69 |
| September 30, 2010 | 1.20 (1.23 / 1.16) | 0.68 |
| October 7, 2010 | 1.33 (1.32 / 1.33) | 0.65 |
| Show Notes: | The October 7th episode of iMPACT! was billed as “Before the Glory” and aired live from the iMPACT! Zone in Orlando, Florida. This was the first live episode of iMPACT! since the show moved back to Thursday nights in May. | |
| October 14, 2010 | 1.41 (1.47 / 1.35) | 0.68 |
| October 21, 2010 | 1.16 (1.18 / 1.14) | 0.56 |
| October 28, 2010 | 1.13 (1.13 / 1.14) | 0.53 |
| November 4, 2010 | 1.15 (1.18 / 1.13) | 0.64 |
| November 11, 2010 | 1.16 (1.18 / 1.14) | 0.56 |
| November 18, 2010 | 1.07 (1.13 / 1.01) | 0.53 |
| November 25, 2010 | 0.85 (0.84 / 0.87) | 0.48 |
| December 2, 2010 | 1.01 (1.02 / 1.00) | 0.52 |
| December 9, 2010 | 1.09 (1.10 / 1.09) | 0.50 |
| December 16, 2010 | 1.12 (1.14 / 1.10) | 0.60 |
| December 23, 2010 | 1.07 (1.13 / 1.01) | 0.55 |
| December 30, 2010 | 1.09 (1.10 / 1.09) | 0.67 |
| Average Rating | 1.05 | 0.62 |
| Italicized = Projected Rating Bold = Ratings Winner for the Week | ||