TNA announced today that it is moving its Impact Wrestling flagship TV show to Wednesday nights on Spike TV effective next week.
“Moving Impact Wrestling to Wednesday nights gives existing fans and new viewers an opportunity to enjoy both wrestling and live sports even more throughout the week,” said TNA President Dixie Carter in a statement on the announcement.
The news means TNA won’t have to compete with football packages from the NFL and ESPN’s college-football Thursday nights. WWE is also rumored to be considering moving its Smackdown show to Thursdays from Fridays.
The announcement didn’t include any word on the status of TNA’s talks with Spike TV with regard to the possible renewal of their TV contract, which is scheduled to expire at the end of September.
Which makes it hard to figure out if this is good news or bad news. At first glance, it’s more likely bad news, with Spike looking to test out other programming in Impact Wrestling’s 9-11p Eastern time slot.
It’s also hard to imagine Impact Wrestling doing well in the new Wednesday time slot on basically no notice, after a long run on Thursday nights. One can imagine Spike using lower ratings on Wednesdays as a justification for not renewing with TNA, in the event there is any possibility that there is a future between the two.
– Column by Chris Graham
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