By James Caldwell, Torch assistant editor

The TV ratings for Monday night's WWE and TNA battle shows a smaller wrestling pie than on January 4 when the energy of the late 1990s was captured on a single night, but it was not a disaster for TNA.

I believe expectations were inflated after January 4. Before January 4, a safe bet was TNA drawing a 0.9 rating on a Monday night opposite Raw when a portion of TNA's Thursday night viewing audience would assuredly choose Raw over Impact; some viewers always watch Raw on Monday nights, then get their TNA fix on Thursday nights.

TNA then drawing a record rating on Jan. 4 inflated expectations for March 8. If TNA simply moved to Monday nights on March 8 without the test-run on Jan. 4, a 1.0 rating would be viewed as a success. However, dropping double-digit percentage points from Jan. 4 to Mar. 8 looks like a huge failure.

It's not. It's a setback, considering the major selling points of Hulk Hogan and Ric Flair back in the ring, the return of Jeff Hardy, the return of Sting, the debut of RVD, and all of the money spent on big names, but it's not a disaster.

We can easily accuse WWE and TNA of living in the past, as each show on Monday night was filled with the same stars from the 1990s, with TNA being much, much heavier in that department.

However, we live in a different era compared to the 1990s where DVRs and Internet accessibility to TV programming on YouTube have changed the game.

Yes, ratings are still a vital tool in evaluating the success or failure of a TV programming. However, it's not the only tool in the toolbox. We have to remember that DVR'ing plays a big role, so does watching a complete show available on YouTube or another method of consumption.

Removing the business side of trying to sell PPVs and tickets from this discussion, the biggest key for TNA's longevity is whether the TV partner is happy. Publicly, Spike TV is happy with the ratings. I'm sure they would have preferred a bigger audience than on January 4, but Spike was pleased and see it as "room to grow."

The name of the game is continuing to have a happy TV partner. A happy TV partner means staying on the air and having a promotional vehicle for the product. A not-happy TV partner means you're going out of business in a blazing fireball consuming careers in its path.

Of course, the over-riding concern is whether TNA blew everything they had on March 8 trying to re-create the excitement of January 4. Do they have the firepower and the "creative" to build a show that retains and eventually grows the audience? They have the stars, they have the names, and they have the faces, but I remain steadfast in my belief that the only thing holding them back is the creative.

The hot-shot booking of Weeks 1, 2, and 3 of RVD's return in exactly two minutes was the best example. I was even mildly fine with Sting beating down RVD, but once Hulk Hogan and Sting picked things up again and RVD became a background player "rolling to the outside never to be heard from again," as Lance Storm put it in a Fight Show radio interview yesterday, that's where the creative issues came into play.

I don't trust TNA's ability to let a story play out without trying to tell the audience the entire story in one week, as if the audience has ADD and their heads will explode if they have to wait for next week's developments.

We'll see how this plays out over time, though. Perhaps Eric Bischoff editing Vince Russo will work out as they continue to work together only three months into this TNA run. Sometimes, I feel like they're blindly walking through a pitch-black grand ballroom trying to find the lightswitch. Let's give them time to listen to the other voices in the ballroom trying to instruct them on where the lightswitch is.

TNA was the hotter show on Monday night, as Raw played it safe, built to a PPV that will gross more than $5.0 million on PPV and in ticket sales, utilized some mid-carders in the main event situation, and didn't try to react to Impact.

But, TNA has to prove it can consistently deliver week after week after week after week into the May and June months when there isn't huge hooplah over TNA trying to re-start the Wars. That will be the real test and that's when the evaluation process will really begin to take place.

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