Earlier this month, something happened in the world of professional wrestling that hasn't been seen in something like a decade: Two competing wrestling companies actually went head-to-head with their television programming on a Monday night.
For one night in January 2010, the "Monday Night Wars" of the 1990's were back. But wait — it gets even better. Between the two Monday night wrestling shows — WWE's Monday Night Raw and TNA's Impact — the names involved read like some kind of sports entertainment time warp.
TNA's three-hour extravaganza not only marked the return of Hulk Hogan, but also names like Ric Flair, Eric Bischoff, Kevin Nash, Scott Hall, Sean "X-Pac" Waltman, and the Nasty Boys.
Raw countered with the return of Bret "Hitman" Hart, who hasn't been seen in a WWE ring since Vince McMahon screwed him out of the world championship twelve years ago in a rare, real-life incident fans still refer to as the "Montreal Screwjob." It has long since gone on to become the stuff of legend among those who follow the soap opera for men that is pro wrestling. Most insiders also believe Hart's return will lead to a scripted final chapter to the "Montreal Screwjob" with McMahon which will play out at this year's Wrestlemania pay-per-view.
What makes all of this most interesting, however, is that if you blinked for a second — not to mention if you overlooked the fact that guys like Scott Hall look quite a bit worse for their wear these days — you'd almost swear it was the mid-nineties again.
For those unfamiliar, perhaps a brief history lesson is in order here.
During the '90's, pro-wrestling enjoyed a brief period of unprecedented mainstream success, driven mostly by the very heated and intense competition between the two primary national wrestling promotions.
Vince McMahon's World Wrestling Federation (now WWE) had been there before in the eighties with stars like Hulk Hogan and Randy "Macho Man" Savage. But when Hogan defected to Ted Turner's rival World Championship Wrestling (WCW) — lured away by a lighter schedule and a fatter paycheck — other WWF stars, including Savage, Rowdy Roddy Piper, Ultimate Warrior, Hall, Nash, and Waltman soon followed suit.
Even Bret Hart eventually wound up in WCW, which contributed in more ways than one to the skullduggery which took place at the "Montreal Screwjob." But that's another story...
Long story short, this led Eric Bischoff, who was then running WCW for Turner, to create Monday Nitro, which ran head to head on Monday nights with WWF's Raw, becoming the biggest pain in Vince McMahon's ass for most of the nineties. The Monday Night Wars were born.
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Article comments
1 - Jonathan Sullivan
WWE has botched the Bret Hart storyline to the point of where I don't even care about it anymore. TNA is still a mess of crazy booking and bringing in stars like The Nasty Boys and turning AJ into the new Nature Boy is not helping, but this past Thursday's show was actually pretty good compared to 2009 as a whole. Jury's out.
I was a diehard WCW fan from 1992 until the final Nitro in 2001 and it scares me how much TNA looks like it's going down the same road.
2 - Glen Boyd
I'm with you Jon. It doesn't surprise me that WWE is botching the can't miss Bret Hart storyline so far...they had a similarly can't miss WCW Invasion angle handed to them ten years ago and botched it on the very first night (I was there at the Tacoma Dome that night). Since then they've pretty ruined much ECW, after one initial great PPV (the first One Night Stand).
As for TNA...I think it could work if they did it right, but so far it's so convoluted I can't even figure out who is who and what is what in terms of storyline and characters. Hogan and Bischoff so far look like a business-as-usual, prop up our friends, give minor pushes to a select few others, and bury the rest regime, and Russo seems to be literally be flying by the seat of his pants in terms of booking and storylines.
I have hopes this can revive wrestling, but I can assure you I'm not holding my breath.
-Glen
3 - Will
How can something be botched after ONE week?
4 - Nick
"How can something be botched after ONE week?"
Good question,....easy answer:
Just watch TNA & WWE and you'll understand.
5 - Glen Boyd
I'm willing to give them both a chance. I'm just not very encouraged by what I've seen thus far.
This Monday's Raw show has Hart back, and hopefully will advance that storyline. As for TNA, I'd just like to see the Hogan and Bischoff characters better defined one way for the other. Hogan's dressed in NWO black and his entrance music is very NWO'ish and Bischoff is as smarmy as ever -- yet I still get this weird feeling they are supposed to be babyfaces, which to me makes no sense.
Hopefully the coming weeks will reveal a better laid out story. We'll see...
By the way, the Observer just linked this article. So if either Dave or Bryan are reading, thanx guys!
-Glen
6 - Glen Boyd
The "Orlando Screwjob" deal with Styles, Flair, and Hebner (!) was pretty hilarious though...at least in a stupid, this could only happen in wrestling sort of way anyway.
-Glen
7 - Nick
"By the way, the Observer just linked this article. So if either Dave or Bryan are reading, thanx guys!"
Yep, this is how I found this! :)
"Bur for the present, WCW appears to be back and its new name is TNA."
Yep, and as long as Russo has anything to do with the booking in any shape or form AND as long as Hogan & Eric have ANY say, it will never live up to its potential.
I don't mind them (Hogan & Eric) not being clear cut heels or faces (50-60 % of workers should be "'tweeners" anyways with the remaining roster split into true faces and heels...allows for more variety in the match ups and is not 'stuck in the past super hero vs super villian' booking,) but they CANNOT be on compleate opposite sides of the spectrumpromo wise when they are both on camera at the same time.
8 - Ewan
TNA seems to be testing the waters to see how fans react to Hogan/Eric and The Band first before also defining their heel/face status in a climax. This is fine with me since it builds suspense as to how everything will pan out with these legendary key players. They shouldn't spoil this like the chickenheaded WWE did with the wcw/ecw Invasion situation.
9 - judith hedger
Why is Kurt Angle and Mick Foley on T N A Wrestling last week?
10 - Glen Boyd
They've both been with TNA for awhile now Judith.
-Glen