September 21, 2005 Observer Newsletter: Spike & WWE counterprogram one another, TNA Unbreakable
The battle of 10/3 between Spike TV and the USA Network has heated up even more.
USA announced on 9/13 that it would now have more than four straight hours of WWE programming the first night. To make it clear that both USA and WWE do consider the UFC as competition, they have moved the start time of Raw to 7:55 p.m., getting a five minute jump on the UFC Unleashed show that will serve as a pre-game show to the two-hour live special that begins at 9 p.m. In addition, WWE will have a fourth hour, scheduled to start whenever the Raw/ They should have let me know the now then called “Raw Exposed: WWE’s 10 Greatest Moments.”
This show is being done to keep UFC and Spike from being the beneficiary of all the hotshot programming, as when Raw ended, Ultimate Fighter would begin, and the regular Raw viewers, particularly those between 18-34 (more than 70% of some good nights) have stayed tuned to see Ultimate Fighter. The idea is not to allow both Raw & the live UFC special to end simultaneously and feed Spike a good rating.
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Dave Meltzer is the founder and lead writer on the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, the weekly constant when it comes to news and reviews in pro wrestling and mixed martial arts for more than 40 years. Dave also co-hosts Wrestling Observer Radio with Bryan Alvarez and had had bylines for The National, Yahoo Sports, MMA Fighting and others.