Back in the mid-1980s, in the early days of cable television, WWE (then WWF) had a program on the USA Network called Tuesday Night Titans, or TNT.
Hosted by Vince McMahon, who most fans at that point only knew as the play-by-play voice of the company, TNT was a kayfabe talk show patterned after series like The Tonight Show. Vince, along with his sidekick Lord Alfred Hayes, would advance angles by interviewing the participants.
If it sounds a little like WWE Network’s Talking Smack, that’s because it pretty much was the Talking Smack of its day. TNT was a little more buttoned-up than what Renee Young and Daniel Bryan do after SmackDown and 205 Live each Tuesday night, but in terms of giving the company and its performers a different forum from which to do their thing, you can draw a line between the two shows in the WWE history books.
So it’s not terribly surprising to learn a TNT revival would be Young’s dream project, as she told Brian Fritz and Michael Wiseman of Between the Ropes in the above interview:
So the next thing that I really want to do, I guess I can just talk about it, I don't know if it's even going to happen, but I really want to bring back Tuesday Night Titans. That's really what I've kinda got my heart set on. Yeah, I just think doing something like that... my strength is as a TV host and it's like even getting behind the booth, I did kind of dip my toes in that a little bit and it wasn't totally for me but I feel like really being able to have a cool corner marked off on the Network and being able to have something like that, that's the thing I want to do. I think it would be cool. I just think that's the next step for me, is to have a show like that. That's all I ever wanted to do as soon as I got into being a host is to have a show in that kind of style. Hopefully I can make it happen.
Many have remarked that Young is the best interviewer to work for WWE since Gene Okerlund (who took over the TNT hosting gig from McMahon toward the end of its two year run), and any project which allows her to flex those muscles is welcome on my screen. A more traditional late night talk show type format would not only let the Total Divas star to get more in-depth with guests, both for ‘reality’ era purposes and to advance in-ring stories, but possibly also return to some of the situational comedy stuff she was great at on the old JBL & Cole Renee Young Show from YouTube.
I don’t know about you, but I’ve talked myself into being so excited for this, I’m gonna be bummed if it doesn’t happen. Make it so, WWE.
Who wants to start the hashtag?