What an incredible week it has been in wrestling—with TNA Impact going up against WWE Raw on Monday night (January 4, 2010)—the online wrestling community has been on a high. In a twist of faith, the WWE Divas (Brie Bella vs. Maryse) were up against the TNA Knockouts (Sarita & Taylor vs. Kong & Hamada) at the same time. So who won the battle? It seems the Divas and Knockouts have been thrown into the analysis of what we should take away from Monday night’s wrestling war.
Firstly, various headlines have noted that the Knockouts Tag Title match, which pitted Sarita & Taylor against Kong & Hamada lost numerous viewers. Many negatives have been conjured up on what this means for the knockouts division; however, to add any negative connotation to this is beyond ridiculous. The Knockouts Tag Title match came after Hulk Hogan’s debut (the most-watched 15 minutes in TNA history), a drop was predictable from a mile away. The very premise of impact’s live 3-hour show, was the debut of Hulk, in which TNA shoved down out throats. Another segment would not have feared any better. It seems that TNA was banking on the consistent high ratings of the knockouts to cushion the drop. With Bret Hart guest hosting Raw, it isn’t hard to see many casual fans switching from TNA.
To put things in perceptive, it certainly wasn’t the lowest rated segment of the night, and not to mention, the other Knockouts match of the night (ODB vs. Tara) drew very high (which was unopposed by the WWE), as with The Beautiful People segments. At the end of the day, Impact drew its largest audience ever, which is a good sign for the company. This is great for us all, because competition makes better products. While TNA—naturally did not beat the WWE’s viewership—it broke it’s own record. Impact should no doubt move to Monday nights.
As for Brie Bella vs. Maryse getting a higher viewership than Sarita & Taylor vs. Kong & Hamada—hello? No TNA segment beat the WWE. It will be some time before TNA can rival the WWE’s viewership. Quality on the other hand, there was a clear winner. Sarita & Taylor vs. Kong & Hamada gave us women’s wrestling, while Brie Bella vs. Maryse gave us garbage. Kong and Hamada walked away the new TNA Knockouts tag champions (an early match of the year candidate from the knockouts), while Maryse beat Brie Bella to advance in the tournament to crown a new WWE Divas Champion.
—On the January 7, 2010 episode of WWE Superstars, another first round match to crown a new WWE Divas champion took place. Gail Kim defeated Jillian, to advance to the second round of the tournament. This was a much better match than Brie Bella vs. Maryse. (Click Here For The Video) Would it be wishful thinking to hope Gail Kim would win this contest?
—In other news, TNA star Christopher Daniels revealed on his twitter page that TNA Knockout Traci Brooks and TNA star Suicide (Frankie Kazarian), were married on January 7. Here were his tweets…