Posted By James Walsh on 07/09/26


Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff Did Not Kill TNA

In very late 2009, it was announced that Hulk Hogan had signed with WCW and that Eric Bischoff was coming in with him. The January 5th, 2010 episode of TNA Impact, the first appearance of Hulk Hogan, drew the highest rating in company history which still stands today. Oh, and it happened on a Monday night against WWE RAW. So, noodle that one for a while.

Sadly, the beginning might have been the peak for the Hogan and Bischoff era. I say that as a stanched supporter of the move. More on that in a moment. But, lets talk about why Hogna and Bischoff were brought in.

We wear our rose colored glasses like chickens about to be beheaded when we talk about the glory days of TNA. We romanticize the idea that AJ Styles, Samoa Joe, and Kurt Angle were tearing it up on every show and that nothing they were doing was stale, boring, or had run its course. In reality, it had.

After TNA got prime time on Spoke TV in 2007, the shows quickly became crazy. You could watch an hour or two hour broadcast and see 75 angles and none of them would stick in your memory banks. It is a little like this article. There seemed to be so much that they wanted to say and not enough space to say it. So, it all sort of ran together.

Come 2009, everything had cooled off. The Main Event Mafia was old and played out if it made much sense to begin with. The big dollar players that were in that stable had all played out and meant less than ever before including Sting, Scott Steiner, and Kurt Angle. It was still a solid show. But, buy rates and ratings had come well and truly down to earth and there was no real big plan on the horizon.

The Hogan/Bischoff infusion was the big plan. And, it worked. At least, initially. Hogan came in with a good attitude and was working with some of the younger guys on promos and angles such as Jay Lethal and Abyss. In the ring, he made clear he didn't intend on wrestling full time but did wrestle on the March 8th, 2010 episode of Impact in a tag match with Abyss against AJ Styles and Ric Flair. I realize AJ Styles was a fan of the stupid shaped ring. But, I'd be hard pressed to believe he would not admit to you that being in the ring with Hogan and Flair didn't teach him a thing or two on his road to becoming the WWE Hall of Famer he is today. In spite of his own opinons, he'd have to admit it.

Here were the negatives about Hogan and Bischoff coming in.

Hulk Hogan teased wrestling a lot and rarely did. At some point, if you are the guy going to the bar and buying the girl drinks on the promise that you might get to take her home and she never leaves with you, you simply have to stop going to that bar or stop buying her drinks. Are you getting what I mean? Hulk teased wrestling so often throughout his run and we really only got two or three matches out of him and even that is including a fairly recently released TNA match from London that didn't air - The logistics as to why they'd have Hogan wrestle and not air it on TV remain to be explained to me. Hogan versus Bully Ray, however, would have drawn money. Yet, never happened.

Another flaw was the guys Hogan and Bischoff brought in. The Nasty Boys, Jimmy Hart, and Val Venis were strange fits for TNA which had skewed more towards the high flying wrestling styles. Val Venis could have worked if he was more motivated but just didn't seem to be bringing his best. That being said, Mr. Anderson and Rob Van Dam both came in as part of the Hogan and Bischoff era and both found career rebirth in TNA. At least, for a little while. But, the Nasty Boys stood out as a bad fit and while Brutus Beefcake was brought backstage, he never, as far as I recall, was used on TNA TV. As much as I love the guy, I'd imagine the TNA audience would have farted at that as they did at the Nasty Boys.

The good of the Hogan and Bischoff era can be summed up in one simple hand - The dead man's hand. Aces and Eights was the coolest angle in TNA history and having that faction go up against Sting, Hogan, and the TNA faithful provided some of the best TV TNA ever put out. And, dare I remind folks, highest rated? In a recent interview with Mike Knox, a member of Aces and Eights, he said it was probably the best programming he was ever involved in during his 25 year wrestling career. And, he was right.

Why did it fail? Well, the money ran thin.

I'll remind people that while Hogan and Bischoff both left towards the end of 2013, so did AJ Styles and any other talent that was getting paid a pretty penny? Sting stuck around a little while longer before the abortion that was his WWE run proving that Triple H is an egomanic and not the sage people hoped against hope he would one day become. Why did they leave? Dixie was out of money. In fact, I don't think it is a massive leap to imply that Dixie Carter's table angle with Bully Ray was the last meaningful angle that TNA did while being taken seriously.