Is Wrestling on its Way Back?

It’s been over 10 years since two wrestling companies aired television shows simultaneously on a Monday night, but tomorrow night at 8 p.m., Total Non-Stop Action Wrestling will take on the WWE and begin what might quite possibly be the beginning of another wrestling war.

As far as the populace of bored wrestling fans, who feel the “sport” has lost its luster over the past decade, as TNA has been building up to this moment and the WWE have stood on top of the industry mountain, are concerned, it’s about time.

TNA fired the first shot when they signed Terry Bollea, aka Hulk Hogan, to a contract on Oct. 27. It’s not known whether the 56-year-old will done the red and yellow tights once again, but at any rate, his arrival shows that TNA is serious about trying to compete with the WWE.

“I knew when I signed with TNA, that it would be important to make a statement with the first episode. Going head-to-head on January 4th, makes the statement loud and clear: Game on!” Hogan said on Spike TV on Dec. 27.

Over the past few years, TNA, a move reminiscent of what WCW did in the early ’90s, has scooped up several WWE stars, including the Dudley Boys, Kurt Angle, Booker T and Mick Foley, in an effort to gain fan support.

According to company president Dixie Carter however, adding someone the likes of Hogan can be the shot in the arm the company needs.

“TNA is kicking off 2010 in the biggest way possible with the biggest name in the history of our sport. Hulk Hogan is a pop culture icon, and his arrival will change not only TNA, but the entire professional wrestling landscape. We’re firing that first shot,” Carter said on the company’s official website.

With the battle lines drawn, the WWE isn’t laying back either, as wrestling legend Bret Hart is scheduled to appear on Raw, making it one of the most talked about Monday nights for that company in quite some time as well.

All in all, it looks as though tomorrow will be the biggest day in the industry in quite some time.

“The real winner though, will be the wrestling fans,” said Bischoff on his blog. “Based on the mind-numbingly stupid Raw I had the misfortune of dropping in on last week, perhaps the fact that TNA stepped up and is at least taking a swing at the bully was enough to make McMahon realize that he could not afford to take his audience for granted and continue to shove tripe down the throats of his Goliath “universe” while David was reaching for a stone.”

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About Patrick Hickey Jr. 13802 Articles
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports. Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders. His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023. Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief. Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale. Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.

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