Exposing The Myth: TNA Was A WWE Rival

5. The Big Push

TNA Hulk Hogan Impact Monday Night Raw WWE
TNA

When looking at the key point in time when TNA went all-out to try and match WWE, it's impossible not to hone in on the period of late 2009 through until the middle of 2010.

It was in October '09 that TNA President Dixie Carter aimed for the moon by signing Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff in the hope of increasing the status of TNA. These acquisitions not only brought star power and served as quite the attention-grabber in a more mainstream sense, but Hogan and Bischoff were also to help on the creative side of things in addition to being on-air talent.

With other big-name stars like Rob Van Dam, a returning Jeff Hardy, and a totally-not-really-retired Ric Flair also added to the TNA ranks, the hope of Dixie was that she'd finally assembled a dream team capable of giving a WWE a run for its money.

By 'run for its money', that meant that the call was made for TNA to move its Impact! programming to a Monday night in order to go head-to-head with Raw and attempt to create a new Monday Night Wars scenario.

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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.