If WWE Were Being Honest About ALL IN

Analysing the near-future of WWE as an economic machine rather than a creative one is the only way to assess if actions outside it's near-impenetrable bubble even have an impact.

TNA's limp attempt at a revived 'Monday Night Wars' in 2010 was as dated as the product they delivered. Night One on January 4th was a headf*ck of comebacks, surprises and swerve turns, but performed admirably against old guard WWE bringing back Bret Hart back in front of a live audience for the first time in 13 years. It was an embarrassing slaughter from that point onwards though, with Raw rarely needing to excel in order to crush Impact on a weekly basis until they tottled back to their old Thursday slot in May. It tried - but failed - to retrieve the relatively stable number of viewers they'd garnered unchallenged for years.

It failed for a multitude of reasons, but a key error TNA made was in assuming the wrestling audience still wanted much of what they'd lost when WCW went out of business in 2001. There was a mournful emotion around the Atlanta outfit's demise, but even some of its most ardent supporters were quietly relieved to not have to donate their Mondays to the chronically awful Nitro.

The January 4th 2010 edition of Impact was in actuality the closest the industry came to an ECW reunion show for World Championship Wrestling. It was not the first strike back at an empire, or an attempt to stake a new claim in professional wrestling's future. On that very same night though, one man across the Pacific Ocean eating his own humbling loss was unaware of his own major role in transforming perceptions about the very artform itself.

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