Welcome To The iMPACT Zone

Monday nights will never be the same! Sure we have heard that before but it will sure be nice to see 2 competing rival and separate companies compete head to head in the world of Professional Wrestling. Total Nonstop Action (TNA) wrestling’s flagship series will air live every other week from Universal Studios in Orlando, Fl.

"TNA iMPACT!," Spike TV’s highly-rated two-hour weekly series, is moving from Thursday nights to Monday nights beginning Monday, March 8 (9:00-11:00pm), it was announced by TNA President Dixie Carter and legendary pop culture icon Hulk Hogan at a press conference. The TNA Brand has been around since 2002 when it was founded by Jeff Jarrett and Jerry Jarrett. TNA was established after the fall of WCW and the sale of the company from Ted Turner and his media companies to the WWE and Vince McMahon. It was a nice little alternative to WWE but had a low budget and not a huge following. As the company grew it soon has become the world’s fastest growing professional wrestling company, currently airing in over 120 countries worldwide.

The first ever Monday live "TNA iMPACT" ran as a three-hour special head-to-head against WWE RAW on Monday, January 4, 2010. It managed to draw a franchise-record 2.2 million viewers. Two wrestling companies have not broadcast head-to-head weekly since the "Monday Night Wars" in the late 1990’s between WWE and WCW. A lot of names you will recognise for either past work in the WWE and some older names that fans have seen back in the WCW days. For example,"The Icon" Sting has signed a new contract and will be involved in tonight’s broadcast. If that wasn’t enough to make not only the wrestling fan flip over at lest for a peak the main event is slated to feature Hulk Hogan’s return to the ring as he teams with Abyss to face TNA World Heavyweight Champion "The Phenomenal" AJ Styles and the legendary "Nature Boy" Ric Flair!

What TNA also has going for it is a solid group of youth sprinkled with some vets with name recognition to draw in the fans that may have been lost from the WCW days and also they have a Women’s Knockout division which are not only decent on the mic but for the most part can handle themselves decently in the ring.

This comes at a much needed time for the sports entertainment world. The flagship show for the WWE - RAW has become uninteresting of late using guest hosts that are on to pimp their upcoming projects and except for a very select few have been big flops that are uninspired and attempt to be funny but fall well short. There seems to be more crap and filler then actual matches and decent plot lines. Hopefully the WWE is using this time to set up some good storey lines as they may need it if the new Monday TNA Impact lives up to it’s name and actually makes an Impact. Cool Pyro and a nice set can only keep the viewer for so long.

It will be interesting to see how a head to head showdown will push both WWE and TNA Products and take it back to a time when it was so strong.

Layn’ The Smack Down

The WWE and the NBA’s Denver Nuggets have a bit of a problem. Both are slated to be in Denver next Monday. The Nuggets are to host the LA Lakers in the Conference finals while the WWE has booked the arena for their show Monday Night Raw. There does not seem to a clear direction on how this is going to end but you get the feeling that it should end with a steel cage match rather then any litigation or legal involvement.

Any PR for the WWE is good PR and this is all good for them. There have been many statements put forth by WWE Chairman Vince McMahon that have called out Stan Kroenke (owner of the Nuggets and the Pepsi Centre). The WWE who reserved the Pepsi Center on Aug. 15 and had already sold more than 10,000 tickets for its the Monday Night Raw event. It would appear that Yanni has more power then the WWE as the NHL bowed to him whereas the NBA has said that the playoff date is not movable and for the Nuggets to figure it out themselves, but basketball was going to be played in Denver that night.

So far McMahon has stated "Quite frankly, it's my view that Stan Kroenke should be arrested, should be arrested for impersonating a good businessman, because he's not a good businessman," McMahon said on ESPN. "A good businessman doesn't book a World Wrestling Federation live televised event on Monday night realizing that his team in all likelihood would not make the playoffs." and McMahon blamed Kroenke for not believing his team was good enough to still be playing in mid-May.

"The fans in Denver had a lot more faith in making the playoffs than the owner." Ironically it sounds just like an interview you would see on RAW.

Rest assured they will come to a resolution and the WWE will come out ahead in the public opinion poll and will no doubt be well compensated. Worse case scenario McMahon said he needs to fulfill his obligation to the USA network and put on a card...even if it means putting on a show in a parking lot. (And don’t think for a second that he would do it and it would probably be a success.

Here is a great Idea for a match - a Battle Royal between the Nuggets Cheerleaders and the WWE Divas....then everyone is a winner.