5 worst Eric Bischoff ideas

#1 Monday Night Impact

Tail between their legs back to Thursday night

This one was not just an Eric Bischoff idea, but a Hulk Hogan one as well.

After a three and four year absence from being active in the business on a regular basis, Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff returned to wrestling full-time in 2010 as they joined TNA Impact Wrestling. At the time, TNA was averaging just over a Million viewers per Impact episode and had a cult-like following, similar to that of NXT over the past few years. Most Impact shows and pay-per-views were also generally well-received by fans and critics at the time of Hogan and Bischoff' arrival.

According to TNA's head of creative at the time, Vince Russo, the decision to go head to head with WWE RAW mostly came from Bischoff, with Hogan's approval. TNA at the time actually had their most talented roster ever, and Hogan didn't have that much controversy under his belt at the time, so still had much fanfare. Unfortunately, I think Bischoff and Hogan believed in Hogan popularity and hype a little too much. I do think Bischoff and Hogan did a lot of things right, but going head to head with RAW was not one of them.

While the January 4, 2010 special featuring their debut against RAW did draw the best Impact rating ever, they were still unopposed by RAW, who essentially slaughtered them. Still, that March, Impact went head to head with RAW for what was supposed to be the beginning of a new Monday Night War. It lasted all of 7 weeks before they moved back to Thursday nights. Despite the roster and generally entertaining Impact episodes, fans just weren't interested.

I think if Bischoff decided to build up to moving to Monday nights after about a year, and took into account the fact that the TNA chequebook wasn't as big as the WCW chequebook, it could have worked out much better.