“Each time history repeats itself, the price goes up.”
– Author Unknown
This is a very famous quote, despite lacking an author. It speaks about close to everything in history, from wars to entertainment to government. However, it doesn’t seem to really be talking about pro wrestling.
In pro wrestling, especially for the modern fan, nothing is more powerful than the Monday Night War. Back in the territory days, you could see most of your dream matches eventually. Once WWF started buying up territories and knocking them down and Jim Crockett Promotions responded by loading up on the talent in the south, it felt like a league of North American wrestling promotions were now laid to waste and it was an all-star competition now each and every week. The 1990s were like seeing Team Canada play Team USA every week instead of just in an Olympic tournament every four years.
The war ended in 2001 and having one winner ended up being the most disappointing thing to the sport. The WWE responded by trying to create their own civil war between Raw and Smackdown, but never truly embraced the idea (a topic for another time). The greatest attempt to revive World Championship Wrestling came from the Jarrett family, soon selling to Dixie Carter for TNA Wrestling. It’s weird to think that if you consider WCW to first exist in 1988, TNA only has one year to go to have survived as long as WCW. While having shown a gutsy effort at various points in their history, TNA Wrestling has been a distant number two in the competition for wrestling superiority. A lot of fans think to WWF, WCW and ECW as “The Big Three” and in different times over the last decade, there has been an attempt to consider WWE, TNA and ROH as the new “Big Three”. The problem of course is that the WWE is bigger than the WWF ever was, and TNA is nowhere near the size of what WCW once was.
It is this perception that has maybe unfairly caused TNA Wrestling a lot of negative hype. Mainly that for a lot of fans, when they see Kurt Angle and Sting and Hulk Hogan, they imagine TNA on the same level as the WWE. While TNA does have a great market share on television in Britain compared to the WWE (due to cable availability) and TNA might technically be owned by a company richer than the WWE, the money and resources in TNA pale in comparison to the WWE. TNA rarely runs shows that can fill a minor league hockey arena, let alone the major league arenas WWE can run on a weekly basis (or at least attempt to better). A great show for TNA is when 10,000 fans show up. For the WWE, they can get that any day of the week. Despite Eric Bischoff and Hulk Hogan assuming they could go one on one in a Monday Night War with Raw again back in 2010, it was clear to anyone else that just because you have names, doesn’t mean you have resources. Every attempt by TNA to go “head to head” with the WWE was by no means a war. It was a skirmish, and usually an embarrassing one that put proud wrestlers in difficult places. History attempted to repeat itself, but the price was minimal.
The truth was that TNA Wrestling really should have never been trying to compete with Raw or Smackdown, but with their tertiary brand. ECW on SyFy aired to similar ratings of TNA Impact. At one point it was considered an embarrassment to the WWE that TNA Impact’s Knockouts division was outscoring any segment on WWE’s ECW by a fair margin. It never really made sense to why TNA didn’t take the offensive and go head to head instead with the weakest link in the WWE’s armour. Maybe TNA was always too proud. Fact is, while ECW was sometimes the best WWE program due to handling their time better and having more exciting characters, it couldn’t compare to the likes of TNA’s roster.
With a major talent exodus in TNA and a loss of direction, TNA seems to swimming aimlessly in the waters in 2014. TNA fans are hopeful the company finds its footing again, and while late in the game, it’s still nice to see names like Samoa Joe and Bobby Roode finally on the top and not overshadowed by an old, worn down huckster. Some might point to MVP as just being another WWE recycle, but MVP has been out of the WWE for a very long time and despite his success coming from the WWE, his appearances on TNA Impact have been a real refresher. But the real change comes from the WWE finally putting time and effort into a tertiary brand, this time in NXT.
NXT made their “worldwide debut” with NXT ArRival on February 27 for the WWE Network and it was a fantastic show. When your opener gets over 20 minutes, it’s clear this is a different flavour of the WWE. All three titles were defended with a new NXT Champion crowned in Adrian Neville. Neville, Bo Dallas, Sami Zayn and Paige all showed a fire and unique flavour missing in both the WWE and TNA today. Based in Florida, NXT felt far more like competition to TNA than it did just a simple development territory getting TV time. This wasn’t the Ohio Valley Wrestling of old. The youth and energy of the NXT locker room might not have the name recognition of some of TNA’s talents, but it certainly showed that WWE was more than willing to showcase their future on a Thursday night. That’s right, Thursday. The second hour of NXT ArRival went head to head against TNA Impact Wrestling.
When you see the giant X on the NXT Championship, it’s hard not to think of the X Division, and with a guy like Adrian Neville holding it, one might wonder if this is all intentional. Neville is a former indy talent who draws a lot of comparison to AJ Styles, who is no longer in TNA. He can also draw comparisons to current X Champion Austin Aries, who a few years back couldn’t even get on WWE Tough Enough. Paige and Emma had one of the best women’s matches in recent memory, rare for the WWE. It isn’t rare for TNA however, who has put Gail Kim on the backburner when at one point she was showcasing herself as one of the best wrestlers in the business. If someone asked you if you watched the company in Florida with an X on their belt, high flyers, young talents, indy darlings and great women’s wrestling, at one point that was TNA. WWE is now making you think of that as NXT.
With millions ready to put money down on the WWE Network, it’s no question they’ll be looking to tune into NXT. And with NXT running one hour directly against TNA Impact, we might be looking at a Thursday Night War. For once, the quote I mentioned at the start is true. Unlike other attempts to repeat history, in this one, the price does go up. If NXT can cut significantly into the ratings of TNA Impact (there was a 0.01 drop this week, just a blip), we may see more and more cuts to budget, and less value to TNA as a whole. There is no fair fight between the WWE and TNA but in perception, NXT is a valid fight against TNA. Especially for US viewership. WWE doesn’t have to sign away TNA’s best talent like Bobby Roode or Austin Aries. They can now just put up their prospects at the same time as TNA and watch the cuts continue. History is repeating, and when the price used to be WCW? It could now be TNA.
Thank you for reading. Please take a moment to follow me on Twitter – @AaronWrotkowski. Support LWOS by following us on Twitter – @LastWordOnSport – and “liking” our Facebook page.
Interested in writing for LWOS? We are looking for enthusiastic, talented writers to join our Wrestling writing team. Visit our “Write for Us” page for very easy details in how you can get started today!
