Revisiting TNA’s Hogan Signing
So I figured that since it’s the start of a new week, I would go back and review the biggest news from the previous week since it’s still going crazy all over the net. Everyone is still in an uproar about TNA signing the legendary, Hulk Hogan. I’ll be the 1st to admit, I was a Hulkamaniac myself, and I have the pictures to prove it. I was really shocked, excited, speechless, insert any adjective you can find in a thesaurus for surprised! As I have time to soak things in, let the all the information come out, and let people react to things, it gives me time formulate my own feelings on the matter.
If you got to read my first posting, my one worry was the fact that it was Hogan AND Eric Bischoff coming to TNA together, both for different purposes, and them being reunited with Kevin Nash essentially replicating all the ingredients for the bomb that destroyed WCW from the inside. My hope is that these three men could possibly learn from their past mistakes because as we all know, those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it. There are some articles floating around that say that Hogan is already claiming that “he’s the boss,” but I really would hope that isn’t the case. If it’s true, that’s not a great sign for the future. He like anyone can don a BIG ego, and if it gets that way with TNA, their days are numbered for sure.
TNA President, Dixie Carter, is NOT a wrestling mind, AT ALL! She essentially signs the checks, is there for moral support, and puts in her two cents whenever it’s needed. More importantly, she isn’t directly part of the creative process with TNA. She has made comments before about pushing the younger talent in TNA, and because of those statements, the signing of Hogan baffles me. YES, Hogan is the biggest name in the history of the business. YES, Hogan has drawn millions of fans to purchase tickets, merchandise, and PPVs. However, this is NOT the 1980s or the early 1990s! It’s almost 2010, and honestly, I don’t know how many kids under the age of 15 would really be able to appreciate the history of Hulk Hogan. Some kids who are fans of wrestling right now have never known or were too young at the time to remember that Rey Mysterio has wrestled without a mask before (lost it in a match in 1999), so I don’t know if they’d even know the name, Hulk Hogan, let alone his legacy in the business. The real test will be to see the television ratings on a weekly basis. For the episode of Impact this past Thursday, TNA scored a 1.3 cable rating. In previous weeks, they’ve been at around a 1 rating, so the tiny bit of the Hogan press conference brought out some fans. They were also going against the World Series and opening night of the NBA season, so their number might’ve actually been higher had those not been occurring. My thought process is to wait and see how TNA does when Hogan is actually in the house for an Impact taping or a PPV to really gauge if this is a success or not. If all of a sudden the Impact Zone is packed wall to wall with fans, if tickets and merch sales go through the roof, and if the rating starts to steadily increase towards and into the 2 range, then you can start to classify the signing as a possible success.
I want to touch more on Eric Bischoff. This man is brilliant! He was the one who essentially took WCW from being a company that was bleeding money to making money hand over fist! He’s very forward thinking, and I believe that he could do some good for TNA. As of right now, it’s been reported that he’s NOT on the creative team. His company, Bischoff Hervey Entertainment Television, is trying to help TNA with extra television opportunities. Now, I’m not exactly positive on the specifics of TNA’s new contract with Spike TV, but I’ve gotten the impression that if Spike doesn’t pick up a TNA show idea, that Bischoff will come in and try to shop it around to other networks. Now that could be a wonderful thing for TNA. In TNA’s infancy, they used to do weekly PPVs. Those could be considered a small success, and from it they gained their first TV deal with Fox Sports Network, which was a total flop. Once they got their deal with Spike is when I personally stood up and took notice because they were on at a decent time slot, and best of all, it was something DIFFERENT. If Bischoff could come in, in conjunction with Hogan, and the product is drawing ratings, he could possibly get new programming for TNA on Spike TV or elsewhere. It could showcase more TNA talent on a regular basis, and bring in more revenue for the company from ticket sales and ppv buys, from new merchandise sales, and most importantly advertisement! If you have a product on television that gets nearly 5 million viewers every week (like current Monday Night RAW ratings), you’re more likely to get bigger name advertisers on board over a show that draws 1.5 million viewers (like current TNA Impact ratings). So if Hogan, the creative team, and the wrestlers do their part, Bischoff could possibly do wonderful things for the future of TNA in the TV and advertising realm.
Another concern that peaks my interest at this time is talent. If Hogan is a part of creative on a regular basis, will the young guys get opportunities for advancement or will guys like Kevin Nash and Scott Steiner get all the chances? Or more so, will Hogan bring in his “washed up buddies” like Brutus Beefcake, The Nasty Boys, or someone else from the past that hasn’t wrestled on TV since WCW to take some young guy’s spot? Hopefully, history doesn’t repeat itself and the only people who get ahead are those who are willing to kiss Hogan’s ass! My hope is that the current talent makes it known that TNA is THEIR wrestling organization. Guys like AJ Styles, Samoa Joe, and Christopher Daniels have been the “forefathers” of this young company, and should NOT allow the older egos to hijack programming to promote their own agendas. They need to continue to bust their asses to keep the fans happy, but in the process TRY to learn from their elders so long as the elders are willing to teach with an open mind to the new generation of wrestling product. Wrestling has evolved, and frankly Hogan was never really on the cutting edge when it came to maneuvers in the ring… Hell, his move set hasn’t changed from the 1980s! Punch. Chop. Body slam. Get beat down, then “Hulk” up. Big boot. Finish off with a leg drop for the 1-2-3. I really think that Hogan could learn a lot about the new generation of the business from TNA, almost as much as they could learn the art of entertainment from him!
If there’s one thing I’ve learned in life, there are NO sure fire successes in this world. People are fickle and something you think might be a big hit could be a total bust! The key is to work hard, persevere, and IF things start going south, cut your losses and move on to another way of doing things. Hogan coming to TNA is NOT an instant method for success, but having that extra weapon in your arsenal couldn’t hurt you in the short term. A few months from now, TNA needs to take a step back and evaluate their situation again. If Hogan has helped in the ratings, in drawing big names to contracts, in workplace morale, and in the TNA finances, it may be worth it to continue the experiment. The biggest one being workplace morale! If that one is gone and the guys in the locker room don’t want to be there or work with Hogan or whoever he has brought in to the company, TNA would be better off letting him go and starting from square one. That was the first visible sign of the demise of WCW, and as a fan of TNA wrestling, I would hate to see that happen to them too. So in the words of The Hulkster himself, I’m going to be “saying my prayers” hoping that things work out for TNA in the long run, with or without Hogan.