Yeah, this doesn’t make me want to watch TNA, either.
http://www.f4wonline.com/content/view/11119/
Obviously this is a very desperate company, although if Bischoff is involved in the creative end of things and still has the desire to go to war with Vince, it could be interesting in a giant trainwreck sort of way. At least it’s SOMETHING relatively exciting to break up the giant vacuum of boredom and suck that has been the WWE’s last 10 years or so.
I anxiously await X Division champion Brutus Beefcake.
This is good news for the E. The last time Hogan joined their rival promotion, they stopped being so “family-friendly.”
Besides, he just wants his win back from Kurt Angle.
I think Bischoff could do a good job if given 100% control. I don’t know why, I guess I still believe in his philosophy of attacking the #1 promotion by doing things completely differently. This would require my number one wish, FIRE RUSSO!
TNA used to be completely different when they went a whole year with a more traditional booking style and they developed an awesome tag division and the X division was not just for spot fest monkeys. I tell you what, Bischoff would re-energize the X division, he’s always had a good affinity for cruiserweights.
Remember, Bischoff is like Diablo Cody.
Bischoff’s an ex-stripper?
Man, does TNA strike anyone as the place where old WWE stars go to die?
If Bish is in creative, I dunno. It may be alright. People always talk about how he brought WCW to the promise land. But they forget he’s the man who brought the company to it’s knees in the span of one year.
I’ll give them this, I will be watching Impact this Thursday souly because of this news.
I like Hogan as a wrestling personality and such, but like Scott said “Hogan’s catch phrase: Add $2 million to that number and make me champion again, and you’ve got a deal.”
- Caliber
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If they kept the Legend division for the older broken down guys like hogan, Flair, Stiener, Sting, and Foley; than it’d be a decent signing. At the moment the company looks like a joke after saying it was going to push youth. Hulk is not youth.
I love the already ‘burial’ of Hogan/TNA association. Frankly Scott’s narrow minded arrogant comments are getting tiresome in this case.
This isn’t WCW (though TNA may resemble it at times).. Remember Vinnie Roo (yes I know!) is booking and I believe TNA at this point aren’t silly enough to bury their new stars to cater for Hogan.
If booked CORRECTLY (I.E big program with AJ putting him over cleanly) plus the mainstream exposure it seems to be getting this is a big Coup by TNA.
Good luck to Dixie Carter and this is a big step forward in getting to WWE’s level even if it doesn’t work out.
If booked CORRECTLY (I.E big program with AJ putting him over cleanly) plus the mainstream exposure it seems to be getting this is a big Coup by TNA.
If you think Hulk Hogan is coming to TNA to put over AJ Styles, you’re nuts.
I’m certainly not ready to bury the Hogan/TNA association. Things in TNA right now are awful booking wise and have been for a long while, so any change is a positive one.
However, I agree with Tim that if you think Hogan is putting AJ over clean…well, those who don’t look to the past are doomed to repeat it.
This is just it… where is the awful booking (on the grand scheme of things) at the moment? TNA has become more watchable than WWE of late… AJ is the champion and the nx PPV wiill be headlined by the stars everyone wanted to be pushed in the first place. Angle is seemingly ready to help build new stars too and everyone seems to be serving some kind of purpose at present rather than floating around doing nothing.
Most people knock TNA either because it’s fun or because they have let them down in the past… but they’ve been on a roll and rather than knock em down why don’t you people just support them? I believe TNA could play a very important role in where the industry goes long-term especially with the constant WWE suckfest.
Where’s the awful booking? How about this: what exactly have Joe and Daniels done to merit title shots other than being guys who had a good match with AJ three years ago?
To add to StepGeo, Russo still has the same problem as he always has had with making heels and faces way to gray. Rhino has been a heel for a while and then he cuts a face promo on the last Impact. Matches continue to barely clip 2-3 minutes, still way too many gimmick matches. In other words, TNA usually burns through months worth of angles in a couple of weeks and that hasn’t changed. Has it gotten a bit better? I’m not ready to be sold because of one decent ppv and an ok Impact.
Hulk Hogan has lost a lot of his luster over the last few years and frankly is overexposed even by ‘D-List celebrity status’ standards, but he knows how to promote and he has the kind of connections that could help TNA rise to a certain level. Certainly not to WWE-level, but at least they’d have a higher profile than they do now.
But the prospect of the likes of Beefcake and the Nasties stinking up the ring with the Dudleyz and Nash? Scary.
Bischoff returning to wrestling can only mean one thing: he and Jason Hervey have run out of shows to sell to VH1. Unless of course this is all part of a new hyrbid show: Hogan Knows Scott Baio is 47 and Wrestling.
Also, I heard a rumour that Hogan is gonna wind up jobbing to one of his son Nick’s friends. They’re going to emulate the Sandman-Lori Fuller thing, with Linda coming in and clawing Hulk’s eyes and all. Brooke will sing “Real American” and “Vodoo Child (Slight Return)” before the match, then she will get squashed by Awesome Kong.
Brooke will sing “Real American” and “Vodoo Child (Slight Return)” before the match, then she will get squashed by Awesome Kong.
And Mike Tenay will talk about “Voodoo Chili,” and then they’ll cut to him enjoying a big bowl of piping hot, meaty, delicious chili.
Hogan was on Larry King. Promoted his book and hist Australia tour with Flair. He didn’t mention TNA until the end when Larry King brought it up. yeah, this is quite a deal for TNA. Just like always, this deal is all about Hulk. Deal with the devil and get burned. I have a friend who talks to Ed Ferrera and Ed says that it’s all about the publicity and that Vince Russo and he signed off on it, despite past business differences. And it looks like Booker T and Nash are out the door. I guess you gotta replace broken down wrestlers with new broken down wrestlers.
Can you tell your friend to tell Ferrara to stop sucking?
LOL. Yeah he and I don’t see eye to eye on Russo and Ferrera. But he’s a good guy.
It’s pretty clear Hulk is just trying to promote his book here.. I don’t know why people are getting their panties in such a bunch. Plus, he already expressed interest in the company a while back when we thought he had signed.
Anyway, if they can simply build Hulk as the superhero he is, like WWF/WWE did, and stay away from all the Russo/WCW bullshit, they’ll be okay.
Personally, as someone who doesn’t know a goddam thing about TNA, I’d love to see another decent Hogan/Kurt Angle bout!!
Don’t you mean X-Division champ the Artist Formerly Known as the Booty Man?
The Larry King interview was 95% about the fallout of the last couple years of Hogan’s personal life, and of course his book.
Losing Booker T and Kevin Nash and gaining Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff is probably seen as a huge coup over at TNA.
When Hogan said TNA was “one big name away” from competing with TNA, it seemed obvious what big name that was in his eyes.
So long, AJ.
So do you think he was referring to himself as the “one big name” or someone else? If it’s someone else, then who?
Shane McMahon? Mr. T? Who knows?
I think he was holding a mirror when he was saying that.
Hogan? Bullshitting? Perish the thought.
(Although smart money is that it’s RVD, who’s a big name to… um, let me get back to you on that.)
I doubt this is going to make or break TNA. In reality it is going to probably give them a slight bump in the ratings for one or two shows and then they will settle back in to what they were pulling before the signing.
Yeah Hogan is a big name and will draw in some viewers to see what is up, but if Christian, Sting, Nash and Angle did not put TNA over the top then a 60 year old fading train wreck of a star who cannot work a full schedule is not going to put them over the top.
That said, I also don’t think TNA is going to have him come in an immediately go over Styles, Joe and every other homegrown talent on the show- Russo, for all his faults just would not do that and there is no way Hogan has that type of power anymore.
In the end, I doubt there is anyone left in the wrestling world (outside of maybe the Rock and a suddenly 100% Steve Austin) who is going to make a considerable impact in the ratings of any show.
TNA would be much better served to start tightening up the booking, picking a few newer (both in terms of age and tenure) talents to get completely behind and making them the focus of the show and starting to tape shows at some place that did not look like a basement would help. Basically stop acting like a bigger indy fed and start acting like they actually want to be a promotion.
I give TNA this: even now, Hogan is a guy that moves the needle. He doesn’t move it that much but it will get TNA some buzz and some new eyeballs…it’s important they do something good with this.
Although whatever they’ve offered Hogan, they should’ve offered to Goldberg.
This will create short-term buzz, but will quickly die, a la Hogan’s WWE run where they put the title on him for about a month in 2003.
All the signs point to this being the end of TNA – all the major players who killed WCW are under one roof again. No one has learned the lessons of the past, Hogan is 55 and will be exposed as being over the hill and unable to wrestle anymore mere seconds after he gets back in the ring, and this company doesn’t have the financial resources WCW did when it made millions from 1996-98. No one buys their PPVs, and the ratings on Spike are slowly eroding.
It’s total desperation on Hogan’s part — ex-wife is milking him for millions, daughter’s singing career is an epic fail, and son all but killed a guy and is costing him money in long-term care. Bischoff will make a power play for Russo’s job within weeks.
The only saving grace might be if Shane McMahon gets involved and does a major overhaul, and good luck with that with Hogan and Bischoff there.
TNA will be RIP by 2011.
Again, people have been predicting that every year since its inception. Truth is, they have very little overhead and are not even remotely losing money.
The 2002 (not 2003) Hogan run was significant because it was Hogan returning to the WWF. That actually meant something – this is Hogan wrestling in front of 700 people in Orlando. That means, well, nothing much more than that match he had with Big Show in Memphis a while back.
And wasn’t that Memphis crowd bigger than anything TNA’s ever drawn? Does anyone seriously think that Hogan’s going to show up for a PPV that barely does 1,000 paid like TNA’s “Wrestlemania”, Bound for Glory, did?
I’ll be shocked if Hogan ever shows up in person on Impact. This is book hype, no more.
“TNA will be RIP by 2011.”
Unless you’ve actually had a glimpse at their financial statements, you can not make that statement. What do you know about their profit margin/loss??
Their profit / loss is irrelevant. It’s just like WCW (and WWE, although I think they could make a go of it with internet only) – if they lose their TV, they’re in deep trouble. So TNA’s profits and losses matter not one whit so much as what Spike thinks of them.
Since Spike is a pretty pathetic network outside of UFC, odds are good TNA has nothing to worry about as long as they stay around their bottom out level of 0.9 or so.
(this is where someone points out that TNA was at its peak when they didn’t even have TV and, well, I can’t argue with that.)
Yeah because UFC brings in gigantic ratings. We’re talking Chhers and Cosby here.
@dannytreo2876: Spike is a CABLE network, you moron. Slightly different standards, and TUF’s ratings this season are about as good as it gets outside of MNF (especially if you take into account that Spike, and its advertisers, really don’t care about attracting female viewers).
Spike’s average is in the 0.7 – 0.8 range, and that’s with TUF (and their never-ending screening of Star Wars on Saturday nights) dragging up the ratings.
How can the P&L be irrelevant. All business are conducted on a profit gained basis unless it is some kind of tax right off. The TV deal is part of the P&L, it is revenue. Of course losing the deal would highly impact (like that?) the business and probably make them fold as their P&L would go into the red without that revenue stream.
Hey StepGeo, you moron, how good are the ratings without the Kimbo stunt ratings?
Don’t pretend that garbage is the only thing keeping the network afloat.
‘How can the P&L be irrelevant. All business are conducted on a profit gained basis unless it is some kind of tax right off.’
You’re making the very, very questionable assumption that wrestling is like every other business. It’s not – if it was, WCW would have gone out of business in 1991, not 2001, when it became apparent that nothing short of a miracle could make the company profitable. TNA lost money for six straight years before turning things around only recently with the international television sales (and even that’s questionable since I doubt they’ll ever get a video game royalty again). Wrestling is, and always has been, about fleecing a money mark. TNA is lucky to have a very good one in Dixie carter.
And dannytreo2876 – take a look at the lead story for today. TNT is crowing about drawing 3.7 million for Celtics / Cavs on opening night. TUF, with no significant matchup, brought in 2.8 million for the “Rampage says Titties two hundred times” show. Spike is a network that, to the best of my knowledge, has never had a show finish in the top ten cable ratings other than something affiliated with UFC. The network wouldn’t die without UFC on – which I never suggested – but UFC does bring in very good cable ratings, with even the bad seasons of TUF being 50% higher than Spike’s usual .6-.7 prime time average. You may think it’s garbage, but Spike thinks it’s gold.
Anyone who thinks that Shane will be joining TNA is kidding themselves. You guys do realize that when he owned WCW that it was a work, right? There’s no way he’d get into the wrestling business anywhere but WWE.
Also, he still holds tons of WWE stock that he’d probably have to divest, which would hurt his chances of ever making a return to the company.
Basically, the only people who think Shane’s going there are ten-year-old Youtubers.
This will be worth it if only Hogan makes them get rid of that awful six-sided ring.
amen. something must be done about the Hexagon. They should go the other direction and have them fight in a triangle, or is that copyrighted like The Octagon? How about a twenty-sided die/ring? They could have a D&D themed ppv! A “Summon Orcs” match! “Elf on a Pole Match”!
Just have them fight on a line, that would be *innovative*. We all know Vinny Roo loves innovation.
HULK HOGAN vs. BLACK MACHISMO! Awesome Kong can be in the Elizabeth role.
this has all of a sudden made me think that the other big name is Savage. I can only hope…
just got an image of Hogan carrying a prone Kong to the back, weeping “Somebody help her… somebody help her please”
Lethal: “you had lust in your eyes for Awesome Kong, yeah yadid”
That Hogan is still in it for the bucks. That he must think the fans can yearn for something that can not cease to exist but not exist. Surely when the fans in TNA see Hogan “hulk up” their mind will morph unto that conquering Hogan of the golden years.
Surely Hogan knows that it is his physique that the fans sees—but his of some image in our minds before. How long can we make profit from our desired skill sets? Can we live with returning our consumers to images of a world that may have never existed?
I don’t mean to cause offense but your post reminds me of the way The Ultimate Warrior speaks.