Exposing The Myth: TNA Was A WWE Rival

3. The Move Back To Thursdays

TNA Hulk Hogan Impact Monday Night Raw WWE
TNA.com

Despite certain TNA higher-ups playing up how a war was on the horizon and how TNA was going to become a true rival of WWE's, that move to Monday nights proved to be a mistake.

There were some decent numbers for certain segments or certain matches on Monday nights, but never anything close to matching the numbers that WWE was bringing in. As such, it came as no real surprise to see TNA move Impact! back to Thursdays barely two months after that initial call to switch the company's flagship to a Monday night.

Spike TV and TNA initially tried having TNA air an hour earlier than Raw, yet that didn't make all that much difference and so Impact! officially moved back to its Thursday slot on 13 May 2010. For the record, the final Monday night Impact! had a 0.8 rating and an average 1.15 million viewers in comparison to WWE's 3.05 rating and 4.15 million viewers.

You can see how TNA clearly wanted to imitate WCW's bold decision to run Nitro up against Raw back in 1996, but the big difference there was that WCW already had viewership numbers close to rivalling the programming of the then-WWF. For Impact!, the move to Mondays was done on the hope of improving ratings rather than because of ratings.

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.