Exposing The Myth: TNA Was A WWE Rival

7. The First Step Towards Being A Major Player

TNA Hulk Hogan Impact Monday Night Raw WWE
ImpactWrestling.com

If TNA was ever to be a true rival to Vince McMahon's WWE, the Nashville promotion needed to find itself a weekly TV slot in place of merely operating under a weekly pay-per-view model.

That meant that it was a huge deal when 2004 saw TNA begin to air its Impact! show on Fox Sports Net each week. With that move, TNA decided to introduce a six-sided ring in order to stand out from the pack - even if the focus of the in-ring product was to showcase a more traditional, sports-like feel.

Unfortunately, that deal with Fox Sports wasn't renewed upon expiring in May 2005, yet that didn't stop TNA from branching out further later that year by serving up the company's first line of action figures. In the meantime, weekly programming aired online, while TNA had by this point moved to a standard monthly PPV.

By the end of 2005, TNA's Impact! show was once more available on a major platform - this time in the shape of Spike TV. And with this move came a new influx of familiar faces for TNA, with Team 3D debuting on the first Impact! on Spike, and then the next few months seeing the likes of Sting, Kurt Angle, Kevin Nash, Scott Steiner, Booker T, and Mick Foley join the fold.

Slowly but surely, TNA had positioned itself as having the potential to maybe, just maybe provide some form of genuine competition to WWE.

Senior Writer
Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main day job, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks/Saints, Jamie Hayter, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg. Where his beloved Wrexham AFC is concerned, Andrew is co-host of the Fearless in Devotion podcast, which won the Club Podcast of the Year gong at the 2024 FSA Awards.