Impact Wrestling (Championship), the Return to Monday Night, Live

The time to launch a major new storyline is when the company makes its next big move in production. From the title you can gather that the big move in this thread would be a return to Monday night, live (every week), and more often on the road.

Impact Wrestling is leaving Thursday night and will begin airing at 7PM Eastern/6PM Central on Monday nights (and there will be no replays cannibalizing the audience on Thursday night). The advertisement of live television in addition to existing and newly signed stars will supply the crowds. It's been shown that advertising a road show as a television taping can turn out 5,000 fans; and the addition of the word "LIVE" will only increase the size of the audiences.


The big angle for the maiden episode would be the debut of Goldberg.

The Goldberg title reign would last for many months. The guy he doesn't wrestle in the first year and the guy that is set up to end the streak would be Gunner.


Production changes: The ring would be expanded a few feet; a fourth rope would be added; full length pads would be used in the corners (and the pads would feature sponsor logos); the entrance screen and ramp would be removed; the wrestlers would enter at ground level through a hall as in pro boxing and MMA; the walls and floors of the entrance hall would be covered in LED screens creating a hall of light; MMA gloves would be enforced; mouth pieces would be enforced; refs would be strong and attentive; refs would wear surgical gloves during matches; women refs would be used in all women’s matches; Eric Bischoff would replace Tenay and a third chair would be added for Hemme; a new weight division would be introduced for wrestlers over 265lb; the TNA name would be replaced by Impact Wrestling Championship permitting fans and journalists to talk about the product with a three letter name; and new belts would be created featuring the new logo.


Titles:
The cruiserweight division would be folded into the heavyweight division and the X-belt unified with the heavyweight title.

The heavyweight championship would transition to Bill Goldberg who would carry it most of the year.

The super heavyweight belt would be awarded to The Samoan Submission Machine in a match against Bully Ray in the main event of the second Monday night show. During the year; the giant Zuluzinho would be signed and ultimately become the number one contender, while Joe drops the belt to Morgan. Morgan loses the belt in his first defense against Zinho, who is not knocked off of his feet for a year before he drops the belt via submission.

To Be Continued

Intriguing to see where you take this, because if I remember TNA were actually on Monday Nights in March 2010 but never flourished on the night. Hope you cook up something fresh for Impact Wrestling on Monday Nights.

Originally Posted by MainEventMoney

Going live, taking the show on the road, signing Goldberg, and starting the show two hours before Raw will be plenty to make this move a success.

The Thursday night timeslot isn't getting them anywhere-- they could pull the same ratings airing at 9PM Central on a Saturday night.

I disagree, while going live means there are less spoiler alerts, it also means (in a realistic point of view) edits and such can't be made. Raw has way higher production values and experience to be able to go the live show way and even they aren't brash enough to go with two/three/four live shows. Furthermore, Goldberg is completely untalented, he might work for a short while but his hype would eventually die off, the IWC itself would most likely criticize them further for bringing in another past-his-prime talent. He will draw huge early on but it will die down and he really won't be able to compete with the talent already there. Finally, two hours before Raw doesn't help. That's about 7 o clock right? That's not prime time so viewers are down, 9PM on thursday's isn't as glamorous as monday's but more people are off work than at 7, allowing for more viewers. Putting it earlier simply means you reduce viewers by increasing the number of people working during that time. Hell, might even lower fans in-attendance. This is even more severe when you consider their viewer base is largely adults, if it was a Family-Friendly show like Raw, then it wouldn't be bad and might actually help because you have more teenagers watching. This is aimed a bit more at 18+ meaning these guys are working, hell might even have night classes etc. Overall, good luck but I just wanted to give my two cents on why I feel that's a bad business move. This doesn't have any impact in the show itself of course.

The Monday ratings were down because they went back and forth between live and taped; they cannibalized their audience with replays on Thursday, and they just weren't ready for the move. I believe they are ready now to go live on Monday and being able to film in arenas is a big part of being ready. The internet can hate Goldberg but the man puts butts in seats and that is the insurance the company requires to broadcast on the road every week.

Thursday has become too competitive, and moving to Monday; whether starting at 7PM Eastern or 8PM Eastern, will be the best thing for expanding the audience. More people aren't watching Impact Wrestling on Thursdays because it's the night to go to the bar if you're college aged than because they are at work.

So....is this an actual BTB project or just more of your TNA fantasies? Outside of the lack of logistics in making an early slot Monday show work, why do you want Hemme as a commentator when she's clearly only good for staring at?

Originally Posted by Fuji Vice

So....is this an actual BTB project or just more of your TNA fantasies? Outside of the lack of logistics in making an early slot Monday show work, why do you want Hemme as a commentator when she's clearly only good for staring at?

The most important issue in story telling is the long term story-- and I've given quite cleanly the narrative of who the company is about as well as the narrative of the company for an entire year in one post already. This isn't a plot for the sake of a plot that I think is awesome-- it's about the time to launch the next chapter in the company. An awesome story isn't enough to expand the audience; you have to put some investment down and further evolve the product. I'm still going to address the full story for this suppositional maiden broadcast, but it's more important to lay down where everything is going before you kick off from the docks.

On Hemme: I would like to try out a female commentator just to have a female voice and face at the table; and she is getting good on the mic-- it's a promotion.

Fair enough then, I'm sold, and I'll be watching this closely. Here's wishing you all the best in running it.