TNA Impact!'s move to Monday nights

in direct competition with World Wrestling Entertainment's (WWE) flagship program Monday Night Raw.

The move was spurred by the signing of Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff, two central figures of the original Monday Night War.

On October 27, 2009, Hulk Hogan announced that he and Eric Bischoff had signed with Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) in a press conference held at The Theater at Madison Square Garden.

TNA President Dixie Carter stated "Our goal is to become the world's biggest professional wrestling company.

Hulk defines professional wrestling and we look forward to partnering with him in a variety of ways as we continue to grow TNA globally.

"[11] During an appearance on Spike's presentation of The Ultimate Fighter: Heavyweights Finale on December 5, Hogan announced that Impact!, which normally aired on Thursdays, would go head to head with World Wrestling Entertainment's (WWE) Raw on Monday January 4 in a three-hour live broadcast on Spike.

[12] Hogan was a top talent in World Championship Wrestling (WCW), which Bischoff was an executive of, when the company debuted a program in 1995, Nitro, to compete with Raw in a ratings battle called the Monday Night War.

to beat Raw in the ratings, it would be considered a success if they managed to at least maintain their usual Thursday night Impact!

[16] By signing with TNA, Bischoff and Hogan were paired with writer Vince Russo, whom they had conflicted with in WCW and had not worked with since they departed the company after Bash at the Beach 2000.

featured the returns of Scott Hall, Sean Waltman, Sting, Jeff Jarrett, Jeff Hardy, and the debuts of Ric Flair, Sean Morley, The Nasty Boys, Orlando Jordan and Bubba the Love Sponge in addition to Hogan and Bischoff.

[18] On Raw, Bret Hart confronted Vince McMahon and Shawn Michaels for the first time in thirteen years.

Eric Bischoff was once again competing on the opposite side of Vince McMahon's WWE and in an interview with Bubba the Love Sponge, he said that he believed "history is repeating itself".

[22] This new "war" began in much the same way as the original did; with TNA relying on established wrestlers, including former WWE talent, and with the company being led by Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff.

The replay ratings of most of Monday night episodes were sufficient for survival but showed that the average audience is some two million viewers that prefer to watch on Thursdays.

[10][29] In a press release, Spike TV's Senior Vice President of Sports and Specials, Brian J. Diamond, said: "The fans have spoken and with their input we have determined the best time slot to maximize the TNA audience is on Thursday nights where we are confident it will be among the most-watched shows with young men".

In the same announcement, TNA president Dixie Carter was quoted as saying, "Our fans made it clear that they preferred the Thursday night time period.

[32] At the end of 2010, the "New Monday Night Wars" received the annual WrestleCrap Gooker Award, which honors the worst events in wrestling.

Reynolds and Bryan Alvarez's The Death of WCW, the authors compared the move to the original Monday Night War.

Comicbook.com wrote that TNA's move to Monday night's "[serves] as somewhat of a cautionary tale to any companies bold enough to try and take on Vince McMahon.

"[38] AEW executive Nick Jackson of The Young Bucks said that TNA failed to be different from WWE, telling Bleacher Report that: "You can't try to be them.