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Sunday, November 25, 2012

Sunday Night is the Best Night for Wrestling

When WWE broke new ground by debuting, "WWE RAW" in 1993 on a Monday night and delivered great ratings to USA Network that year (its best being 3.4), Monday night quickly became established in the minds of pro-wrestling fans as, "Wrestling Night". WCW followed suit in 1995 with, "WCW Monday Nitro" when Eric Bischoff (as Executive Vice President) suggested to Ted Turner that WCW needed a prime time show in order to be competitive with Vince McMahon and WWE. In 2010, TNA did the same when they temporarily moved, "IMPACT WRESTLING" from its regular Thursday night slot to Monday night. As Hulk Hogan explained regarding TNA's move, "From a wrestler's point of view, if you want to prove you are the best and you want to get in the fight, you have to let the fans make the choice and put out the best product you possibly can. I want to go head-to-head with the competition."

Even though going head-to-head is definitely the most effective way to gain fans from the competition, sometimes an attack from the side can be just as effective as an attack head on. Other than for PPV events, Sunday nights are devoid of wrestling. In fact, other than Tuesday nights, Sunday is the only night that doesn't feature wrestling programming. However, Sunday night is a great opportunity for the pro-wrestling industry. Most people are at home, watching television as they mentally prepare for their work week to start, while many students are watching television as they rush through homework that they procrastinated on all weekend.

A Sunday night, prime time slot would be beneficial to a promotion new to the TV landscape and looking to make waves, and it would be profitable for TNA as they continue to strive to make gains against WWE. Also, it would be advantageous to both WWE and TNA in the PPV department. In the past, WWE and WCW had Sunday evening shows ("Sunday Night Heat" and "Main Event", respectively) that would be used as live pre-shows, airing right before a PPV. It would help promote the PPV, encouraging a fan who didn't plan on ordering it to do otherwise.

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