During an appearance on the finale of The Ultimate Fighter, Hulk Hogan announced he will make his TNA TV debut on a special Impact that will air on Monday, January 4th 2010. This will be the first ever Impact to air on a Monday night and will run for three hours, starting at 8:00PM, so the first hour will not face competition from WWE. Hogan was joined by TNA president Dixie Carter and Eric Bischoff.

In the interview with UFC’s Joe Rogan, which can be seen here, Hogan said that TNA was “going to battle with the WWE” and TNA itself isn’t shy about referencing the Monday Night Wars between WWE and WCW on their website. Now we just have to wait and see how will WWE load Raw on January 4th to fight TNA.

As for predictions, my memory is not perfect, but I seem to remember that WWE had to preempt Raw to Thursday once last year and it cut that night’s Impact rating by 50%. Somehow, I doubt that even Hogan would be able to change the picture dramatically. I think that the first hour of Impact may get a decent 1.1-1.3 rating, but they would be lucky to pass 0.5 for the two head-to-head hours.