Monday night wrestling war is on
By Mike Mooneyham
Sunday, March 7, 2010
Will it be the beginning of a new and exciting Monday Night War, or will it be the beginning of the end for TNA?
Most experts are predicting that it will be something in between those two extremes.
One thing’s for certain. It will be good for wrestling and for wrestling fans.
TNA’s longtime goal of going head to head with the big kid on the block comes to fruition Monday night when Impact begins in its new time slot on Spike TV. Its opponent, Monday Right Raw, is one of the most popular shows on cable television and is consistently among the top five in the weekly cable TV ratings.
Hulk Hogan, the architect of the bold plan to take the fight to Monday night, remains optimistic that TNA can provide a legitimate challenge to Vince McMahon’s juggernaut. He calls TNA “the little engine that could.”
“It’s TNA and Hulk Hogan against WWE,” says Hogan.
The Hulkster will have plenty of help on the first show, including 16-time world champ Ric Flair, who will square off with Hogan in a tag-team match that should see most of the in-ring work done by respective partners A.J. Styles and Abyss.
TNA, which has become one of Spike’s top-rated programs, scored its biggest rating in the company’s history when it drew a 1.5 for a three-hour trial run against Raw on Jan. 4. Subsequent Thursday night shows have hovered in the 1.1 to 1.2 range, not bad by Spike TV standards, and a slight improvement over the pre-Hogan TNA era.
TNA, however, is expecting higher numbers when it steps into its new time slot on Monday night. While expectations are high, insiders are privately saying that Spike and TNA will be happy with anything approaching a 1.5.
Raw, meanwhile, has been averaging in the mid- to upper-3’s as its heads into the final weeks leading to Wrestlemania.
TNA’s current format is far from a revolutionary style that might impact ratings in such a way as pose a legitimate threat to WWE. Despite the major investments in Hogan and Flair, the company is playing it close to the vest, hoping to build its younger talent off rubs from longtime proven commodities.
It’s a safe approach, but it’s not something that is expected to propel the company into the middle of a serious Monday night ratings battle anytime soon. It’s only the starting gate, and TNA officials know there’s a long way to go.
Still, says Hogan, the silence from the WWE camp doesn’t mean that Vince McMahon and company aren’t looking over their shoulders.
“Even though they say they’re not worried about us and all of that, Vince is coming out from behind the desk to wrestle John Cena, their main star,” Hogan said Thursday on the Don Imus show.
Hogan, who underwent three back surgeries last year, told Neil Cavuto of Fox Business last week that returning to wrestling at his age was something he felt he just had to do.
“I love the business, it’s in my blood, plus I wanted to go back to work and I had to go back to work. I needed to,” Hogan said about returning to the wrestling business at age 56.
But he also recently admitted to a St. Louis news blog that his ability to work inside a ring was limited at best.
“I really shouldn’t be wrestling anymore,” said Hogan, citing his four matches with Flair on an Australian tour last November.
“The first day I ran into Ric with a shoulder tackle and knocked him down. He popped up and came right back at me. I didn’t have my footing right. I was turned in when he hit me, and my right hip popped out of its socket. The pain shot like a piece of electricity to my head and right behind my ear. I felt like my head exploded. I fell and dumbed it up against the rope until I could pop my hip back in. That was my first day back.”
Hogan said he considered Flair to be the greatest wrestler in the history of the business.
“He’s the greatest wrestler ever,” said Hogan. “He’s better than Lou Thesz, Gorgeous George, you name it.”
-- Hogan may have let the cat out of the bag when he hinted that former WWE and ECW star Rob Van Dam might be the next big surprise TNA unveils.
Hogan pointed at himself with his thumbs, which is RVD’s trademark gesture, during a radio interview last week in New York City.
Spike TV followed up with a note on its Twitter page noting that Hogan confirmed that RVD “has signed with TNA Wrestling.” TNA officials reportedly were none too happy that the news leaked out.
-- TNA president Dixie Carter announced last week that Sting has renewed his contract with TNA and will be on the show Monday night.
-- A medical examiner’s report last week revealed that the cause of death for Eddie “Umaga” Fatu, who died on Dec. 4, was from a heart attack caused by mixing three drugs.
The official cause of death was “acute toxicity” due to combined effects of Hydrocodone (Vicodin), Carisoprodol (somas) and Diazepam (Valium). All three are commonly used drugs by a number of pro wrestlers.
Fatu, who suffered a series of heart attacks, was 36.
He had been released by WWE several months earlier after failing a drug test and refusing to enter a rehab program. He died shortly after returning from the Australian tour headlined by Hogan and Flair.
-- Longtime pro wrestling star Angelo Poffo, the father of “Macho Man” Randy Savage (Randy Poffo) and “Leaping” Lanny Poffo, died in his sleep Thursday at his home in Sarasota, Fla., at the age of 84.
Poffo was known for many things during his wrestling career, but one of his most noted accomplishments occurred before he ever stepped into a ring. While serving in the U.S. Navy in 1945, he set a world’s record for sit-ups, completing 6,033 in four hours and 10 minutes. He had planned to stop at 6,000, but as a devout Roman Catholic who felt grateful he hadn’t died during the marathon, “I did an extra 33, one for each year of the Lord’s life.” In recent years, the mark has been bettered, but not by anyone using the old-fashioned, elbows-to-knee, locked-hands style, according to the wrestler.
The Illinois native broke into the business in 1949 and held a number of titles during his 35-year ring career. He was a major star in the ‘50s when he held the U.S. heavyweight title in Chicago and later in Cincinnati and Detroit.
Poffo also enjoyed success in tag-team circles, teaming up with Chris Markoff in Indianapolis during the mid-’60s as Bobby Heenan-managed Devil’s Duo, and in the early ‘70s with Ken Dillinger as The Graduates.
Poffo launched the IWA (International Wrestling Association) out of Lexington, Ky., in 1979, in opposition to the more established promotion run by Jerry Jarrett in Nashville. The result was a heated wrestling war between the two groups. Two of Poffo’s biggest stars were his sons, with Randy holding the promotion’s world title and Lanny his top rival, although the fact that they were real brothers was not revealed until late in their feud.
Poffo’s last official match was with Luis Martinez in 1991. He was inducted into the WCW Hall of Fame in 1995.
-- Pro wrestling great Rip Hawk (Harvey Evers) is recovering from a nasty spill he took inside his Hereford, Texas, home a couple weeks ago.
Rip reported from his hospital bed last week that he’s slowly on the mend after breaking three ribs and later fighting off pneumonia.
The 79-year-old Mid-Atlantic favorite is scheduled to be honored at next month’s 45th annual Cauliflower Alley Club reunion in Las Vegas.
-- Vince and Linda McMahon bought a $4.1 luxury tower at the 34-story Trump Parc in Stamford, Conn., last October, even though the longtime Greenwich residents have no intention of moving into the unit, according to Ed Patru, spokesman for the Republican Senate hopeful.
The penthouse duplex unit has 3,900 square feet of living space. Of the six penthouse units at the city’s high-profile luxury tower, only two have sold, with the McMahons purchasing the largest one. The McMahons have a longtime relationship with celebrity real estate mogul Donald Trump.
The McMahons own a total of seven properties: two Stamford condominiums; a house and condominium in Greenwich; a vacation home in Boca Raton, Fla.; a condominium in Las Vegas; and a property in Pennsylvania.
-- Awesome Kong, who recently filed a lawsuit against shock jock Bubba The Love Sponge, hinted last week of a possible release from TNA. Officials, however, have yet to confirm that her status with the company has changed.
Kong currently shares the TNA Knockouts title with Hamada.
She previously asked for her release in January following a backstage physical altercation with Bubba (Todd Clem).
-- Hard to believe, but Ricky Steamboat celebrated his 57th birthday last weekend. Seems like just yesterday he was making his Mid-Atlantic debut for Jim Crockett Promotions, and ready to launch what would become one of the classic series in pro wrestling with another young star named Ric Flair.
That was 1977, and the two went on to have pretty respectable careers.
WWE will be releasing a three-set Ricky Steamboat DVD on June 29.
-- Pete Rose, baseball’s all-time hits leader, will host the final Raw before Wrestlemania 26 on March 22 in San Jose, Calif.
Rose, who was banned from Major League Baseball for life for gambling, will be making his third appearance as host at Wrestlemania. He first served as guest ring announcer in 1998, and followed that up with appearances in 1999 and 2000.
Watch for the obligatory confrontation with arch-nemesis Kane.
-- Oklahoma City Thunder star Kevin Durant, the NBA’s second-leading scorer, said he was tempted to jump the guardrail during last Monday night’s Raw at the Ford Center in Oklahoma City.
“No lie, I was thinking about going onstage if The Undertaker came out,” Durant wrote on his Web page. “He showed up on the big screen, and you know when The Undertaker comes out everything goes black for a while.
“I was right by the ring so I was going to jump over the rail and jump in the ring, and by the time they put the lights on I was going to be up there right beside The Undertaker. I was just going to do it spur of the moment! I was going to have fun with it. But he didn’t come out, so it never happened.”
It might have been a battle of the giants and a very special Sports Center moment. Both stand 6-9.
-- TNA Knockout Traci Brooks (Tracy Brookshaw) has been released by the company.
Brooks, 34, had been with TNA since 2003 and recently married TNA wrestler Frankie Kazarian.
-- Sean Morley, the former Val Venis, has left TNA and is headed for Mexico to work for the CMLL promotion. “Yes folks, I am now through for now with TNA as I want to wrestle in Mexico,” Morley said on his Facebook page. “I was going to perform in both TNA and CMLL, but now with the switch to Mondays for TNA, and the fact that TNA had nothing solid yet, Mexico here I come.”
-- Former WWE announcer Kevin Kelly has been hired by Ring of Honor to be the company’s lead announcer for its pay-per-views.
The next ROH PPV will be The Big Bang on April 3 in Charlotte at the Grady Cole Center (formerly Park Center). It will air on HDNet.
New ROH world champ Tyler Black will defend against ex-champion Austin Aries and top contender Roderick Strong in a Triple Threat Match.
“There is incredible buzz for this event”, said ROH executive producer Jim Cornette. “Front-row tickets were gone within 15 minutes after they went on sale, and second row didn’t last the first day. Good seats are still available, but it’s best to hurry, because they are moving fast.”
Tickets for the event are on sale at www.ROHwrestling.com or by calling (215) 781-2500. General admission seats, $20 each or $10 for children 12 and under, will be available at the Grady Cole Center box office from 3-7 p.m. until bell time the day of the event.
Ring of Honor is seen nationally Mondays at 8 and 11 p.m. on Mark Cuban’s HDNet. It also will be available worldwide to anyone with Internet access via pay-per-view on www.GoFightLive.tv for $14.95.
-- WWE TV cameras return to the North Charleston Coliseum for the first time in more than two years with a Smackdown taping on May 4.
Tickets go on sale at 10 a.m. March 12.
Reach Mike Mooneyham at (843) 937-5517 or mooneyham@postandcourier.com.
http://www.postandcourier.com/
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