Further to our discussion of money marks and whatnot, its ten years ago this week (Jan 4th 2010), that TNA moved Impact to Monday nights to go head to head with RAW. Hogan, Hardy, RVD, Flair, Bisch, Nasty Boys(?) plus, Joe, Styles, Angle etc...
WWE countered with Bret Hart's return to WWE for the first time since the Montreal Screw Job. WWE did 5.5 million (or so), TNA did about 2.5 million. Which, by the way is more than RAW gets most mondays now.
It didnt last long as TNA soon got their ass kicked and went back to Thursday nights.
This was a critical turning point for TNA as Dixie Carter had the option of Bischoff/Hogan or Paul Heyman. Bisch/Hogan wanted to feature more former WWE guys, go head to head on mondays, get rid of the six sided ring, get out of Orlando and go on the road etc. Heyman wanted to cut all the 40+ guys except for two, bring in Gabe (his protege who booked ROH for years and now books Evolve), sign Daniel Bryan etc. But Heyman wanted 10% of the company and creative control.
So is there a bigger money mark in history than Dixie? She even had a crew meeting where she dressed down the roster and said they need to stop publicly whining and show more support with her or else and actually aired the meeting on Impact. Yikes.