This week is a big week in professional wrestling television landscape. A lot programs do some moving around to their new time slots. For fans of sports entertainment you basically can have five straight days of fresh content from a variety of organizations. There will not be any Monday Night Wars anytime soon but there maybe a little Wednesday night scuffle to look out for this year. So let’s take a look at who the players are and how the week will break down for them.
Monday and Tuesday
The more things change the more things tend to stay the same. The WWE still controls Monday with RAW. They have held down that day for the better part of almost 22 years and none of their current competitors seem to want that fight. The last one that tried to stand in the fire had Mr McMahon on the ropes but ultimately failed.
The big men on campus also have Tuesday night by default. The Main Event program does pretty decent for them on the WWE Network and is only a 1 hour investment in time. If any WWE program is vulnerable its Main Event but no one seems to see the 2nd day of TV week as nice spot.
Wednesday Night Fight
Impact Wrestling is sliding out of their Wednesday night slot this week but there will still be some in ring action on hump day. Lucha Underground is still holding their 8pm EST time on the El Rey Network. So far Lucha has put out a very good product with lots of action and with great production values. Now our friends have some company in their time slot. WWE is moving their NXT brand to Wednesdays. Now I am not calling it a war because it is far from that. There are a lot of fans who enjoy the style of both products.
The beauty of 2015 is that fans will be able to watch one and have immediate access to the other product. With each program only running 1 hour it’s not that big of a time investment to see both shows. One way we will be able to gauge who is watching what is through social media. It will be interesting who has the trending conversations amongst wrestling fans on Wednesday nights.
SmackDown Comes Home to Thursday
Smackdown is coming back to its original Thursday night home. The 2nd longest running wrestling program hits television’s stiffest competition night. Syfy must really be banking on wrestling fans to lift up their ratings on Thursday’s. Hopefully the show will rediscover some its past magic and the excellent wrestling program a lot of fans remember. This move was known for a while now and we at least know TNA took notice as that prompted their 1st move to Wednesday night. There is no football for a while so brand should have some time to work out any kinks. The WWE is still the big boy in the yard and should no problem owning the night again.
T.G.I. Impact
Impact Wrestling maybe the most bounced around show in all of wrestling. After realizing Thursday was going to belong to the WWE and seeing that Wednesday was getting crowded they found a home on Friday nights. Destination America appears to have shown they are serious about TNA right now and have been airing a lot of programming related to the brand. Their 1st show on the channel looked pretty good. TNA has a niche audience and will follow.
Written By
Keith B. Holt
Follow on Twitter @Kholtjr
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