The Wrestling Wars Rise Again
In June 1994, Hulk Hogan did the unthinkable and did something no one ever thought he’d ever do. He signed with Ted Turners WCW and changed the wrestling world as we know it. Up until that point WCW was never really on the same level as the WWE. Don’t take that statement the wrong way because WCW had some great stars like Sting, Vader, and whole bunch of other guys. In 1993 the WWE started it’s weekly show Monday Night Raw and it was pretty much unopposed except for Monday Night Football. That all changed in August of 1995 when WCW aired Monday Nitro at the Mall of America. The shock value that WCW was trying to create started that night when Lex Luger appeared on Nitro just one day after being on WWE’s Summerslam. People went nuts and focused their attention on this company who was pulling out all the stops.
The wrestling world changed even more at Bash of the Beach 1996 when Hulk Hogan joined up with Scott Hall and Kevin Nash to form the n.W.o. In my opinion this is when the Monday Night Wars really began. WCW dominated the ratings for nearly 2 years and came close to putting WWE out of business but then WWE through the gloves off and started the attitude era. Stone Cold, the Rock, DX and Mankind along with others were doing crazy stuff on TV that you’d never thought would be done in professional wrestling. In my humble opinion 2000 was the turning point in the Monday Night Wars. By this time WWE had Kurt Angle, and Chris Jericho but they signed Chris Benoit, Eddie Guerrero, Dean Malenko, and Perry Saturn. They were the ones going out putting all the good matches on and now the WCW didn’t have that. WWE was pushing new stars and WCW wasn’t.
A lot of things led up to WCW closing down and a week before Wrestlemania 17 Vince McMahon bought the rights to WCW and ended the Monday Night Wars. I can tell you without any doubt in my mind that 2001 was really the last great year in professional wrestling. For 8 years no one has been considered competition, no one has come close to being what the WWE is and always has been. Then the unthinkable happened again and shook the wrestling world again.
On October 27, 2009 Hulk Hogan signed with TNA wrestling, company that’s been an existence for almost seven years. TNA has made some major moves by getting Kurt Angle, Team 3D, Bobby Lashley, and Mick Foley. They also had Christian for awhile as well as Booker T. TNA is doing the thing that WWE use to do but doesn’t really do anymore and that’s push new stars. They have guys like AJ Styles, Samoa Joe, Matt Morgan, Desmond Wolfe, and others. TNA has a great mix of veterans and young talent that will take wrestling to another level again. WWE has gotten away with being boring, predictable and stale for eight long years and now maybe we will the unpredictable TV we once saw from them.
The one thing people really need to understand is that WWE is at the highest level that it will ever be at. I honestly don’t think they can do anything new or get any higher. TNA has a lot of room to get better, and go to higher places. Now by having Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff they can go to higher place hopefully and make a good run. The one thing I fear though is if they have the same mind set they did in WCW. They were out to put Vince and WWE out of business and they can’t go about it that way. They have to focus on TNA, and how to make TNA better. If that happens they will be around for a very long time. I am not sure if there will be a Monday Night War, a Friday Night War or whatever day of the week wrestling airs but TNA is going to be competition for the WWE. WWE is going to have to start listening to their fans or many of them will switch to TNA. Don’t forget Hulkamania is still strong and all the Maniacs are going to tune in to see what he does.
WWE vs. TNA, I for one cannot wait to see some good wrestling, good TV, and some good competition once again. It’s been a long time coming and it will fun to watch. Wrestling fans should be very excited. My prediction is that 2010 is going to be the best year in wrestling since 2001. Stay tuned to see who comes, who goes and to see what is going to happen. In wrestling never say never and anything can happen. Stay tuned for more.
