By PauseMenuNotWanted
In late 2009, it was announced in a press conference that the immortal Hulk Hogan will be coming to Total Nonstop Action Wrestling, along with Eric Bischoff. Many were excited over this and his debut would be on January 4, 2010, which would be a live Monday broadcast. Changes were made to the company afterwards, some good, some bad. Over six months have passed and many think that the Hogan and Bischoff regime has failed and that both should leave the company as they have not succeeded with TNA in the hopes that they would have high ratings and look as a "real" competitor to World Wrestling Entertainment. I'm going to discuss a few things regarding this regime, and why it hasn't worked properly.
Product Quality
Things changed massively at TNA Genesis 2010, which turned out to be horrible. This PPV was the first TNA show to feature the new Impact Zone, with a four-sided ring and a wheelchair ramp leading to the ring. The fans pissed on Hogan's changes, who said that the six sided ring could only get so far and called it a play pen. The crowd weren't happy with the PPV and were mostly negative, which resulted in the speech which the crowd were branded "cast members" who would cheer and boo properly and not do anything negative. Thanks a lot Hogan!
Soon after, because of a 1.5 rating on January 4th, TNA would move to Mondays to compete with the WWE, and what a big mistake that was. The Monday Night Massacre resulted in TNA's ratings dropping to very low numbers. They tried to start an hour behind WWE RAW at 8PM, however this failed to. After the very low rating of 0.5, TNA would retreat back to Thursdays. In order to bring back viewers, major changes were made to Impact. All matches would no longer be interrupted by commercial breaks, allowing viewers to watch the entire match, as well as emphasis on storylines and backstage segments which was first trialed in a show named TNA Reaction, which used Jason Hervey and a 7-D camera. After these changes, TNA managed to get back to on average, 1.0 ratings. Hogan promised high ratings at the start, around 2.0-3.0, and they are still at the same ratings they've had for years. So much for change.
Talent
Hogan and Bischoff always favour the big guys over the small guys. In his eyes, big guys involve ex-WWE talent and his friends Scott Hall, Sean Waltman, the Nasty Boys and Bubba the Love Sponge. Viewers cringed at the scenes of Val Venis winning over Daniels at TNA Genesis, the Nasty Boys being given another shot at TV programming and the reformation of “The Band”, which nobody wanted to see in this day and age.
Bubba the Love Sponge on TNA was a nightmare, being hated by everybody as well as making comments about Haiti, which resulted in him being attacked by Awesome Kong off-air, which later resulted in her departure. Soon, the crowd chanted "Fire Bubba" when he appeared and after a confrontation with Kong on a radio show, Bubba was fired, which was announced on the website. Releases never get announced, but due to the amount of shit Bubba caused, no wonder this one was posted. A great decision by Dixie Carter, which is surprisingly rare.
Although Hogan and Bischoff could be commended for bringing in Jeff Hardy (who has a trial for drug offenses which keeps on getting delayed), Mr Anderson and Rob Van Dam, they can be criticised for bringing in more rejects and has-beens too. They do not improve the product, only ruin it. Ric Flair is also in TNA. Although he occassionaly wrestles (which nobody wants to see in this day and age), he acts as a manager and actually promotes the product more than Hogan. Even to this day, TNA is trying their best to get former WWE talent that have been recently released or have expired contracts, although that has generally been hit and miss, especially that they were unable to acquire the services of Jim Ross, because Dixie Carter only offered him commentating duties rather than a higher-up position he wanted as well as having Vince Russo fired. Now they're going for Mickie James, which may be a possibility as well as a few others from WWE's releasefest with Shelton Benjamin, Gregory Helms, Jimmy Yang and a few others. TNA is supposed to be the alternative to WWE, yet wants to hire WWE talent as the focus of their shows.
Storylines
TNA has faced a lot of awful storylines since the Hogan and Bischoff Regime, all penned down by TNA Creative which has during this regime featured the likes of Vince Russo, Ed Ferrara (fired due to budget cuts), Matt Conway and approval by Eric Bischoff and Hulk Hogan. First of all is the highly controversal Hall of Fame Ring storyline, which involved Hulk Hogan giving Abyss his HoF ring. Abyss would become powerful due to all the Hulkamaniacs and would end up slamming people through wrestling rings. Really? Fucking hell. Ric Flair also did some ring business himself, losing his ring and Hogan would give it to Jay Lethal, who started doing impersonations of the Nature Boy himself. Thankfully that ring got given back and now, Abyss is reverting back to his normal self, under the control that "They" are coming. He would shove the ring down Hogan's throat and beat up meat using his new girl Janice, a plank of wood with nails all around it.
Other shit storylines have been the Lockbox fiasco, where one box had the TNA Knockouts' Championship, one box had a spider, one box had something that I can't remember and another was one where the holder had to strip in the ring. Also of note, Orlando Jordan's gay persona where he would be hoisted down to the ring and squirt "white stuff" over him. The current main storylines which involve Abyss warning of "they" and the ECW invasion who were invited by Dixie Carter. What?!
Publicity
Hogan in TNA seemed to make wonders for certain parts of the company, particularly House Shows, which were potentially facing the axe due to a decline in attendance rates, although the rates gradually increased. However, it's worth noting the following, house shows are produced differently than the TV programming. Jeff Jarrett and Jeremy Borash produce the house shows. However, there is a lack of effort of promoting TNA Impact. TNA should have promoted the show more than they have been, to increase viewership. Mike Tenay telling people to text their friends to watch Spike isn't exactly going to do anything now, is it? TNA suffer poor takeup with viewerships, regardless if it's Impact or PPVs. Hulk Hogan was brought in for publicity, something which he actually hasn't done much. He doesn't go to TV or radio shows promoting TNA, in fact he would rather go to a session in Canada with a few old wrestlers talking about WWE stars rather than taking an hour to go down to Orlando. Really shows how much he promotes TNA. Zero.
Pay Per Views
TNA's PPVs have been "Abyssmal" from day one. The majority of them have been piss poor. One PPV had "Abyss created a giant hole!", the rest were equally horrible. A huge issue is the Impact Zone, where the majority of TNA's PPVs are unfortunately taking place this year, with only two (Lockdown and Bound for Glory) taking place outside Universal Studios, Orlando. TNA Victory Road, which featured different rope colours when the other PPVs still used red ropes, featured a stale crowd at the later parts of the PPV. Nobody really cared any more. And yet, more PPVs are taking place in shitty Orlando with a bunch of tourists, regulars, The Crucial Crew and VIP package fans. The next PPV is Hardcore Justice, which will mostly feature ex-ECW talent. While I would like a fun crowd that ECW would have, you won't hear rowdy chants, you'll hear nothing because the crowd don't exactly care. Maybe it'll be different considering the nature of this PPV, but I doubt it. TNA PPVs mostly look like 3 hour Impacts and buy rates are very low. There's a rumour that TNA will be cutting down on PPVs next year, which I hope will be happening.
Review
It's obvious that Hulk Hogan and Eric Bishchoff have failed with their regime at TNA. The IWC want them gone as they have become a "cancer" to TNA. Dixie Carter now has her eyes on Paul Heyman, and talks are still ongoing as Heyman would like a Dana White-style job with bringing in his own people to manage the company as well as revamping the roster and company as a whole. Dixie doesn't want Paul E to have as much power though. If Heyman does get in, I'd like to see him publically firing Hogan and Bischoff at Bound for Glory, as their contracts expire in October. They haven't done a lot of good for the company and they need to bail out and create some sort of celebrity midget wrestling show which would also flop. Regardless, TNA need to bring in other people to improve the product and attract those fans who are tired of WWE and want to see an alternative. TNA currently doesn't do much as an alternative after the changes Hogan made. They have a long way to go but it is possible, but not under Hogan or Eric.
