Hulk Hogan On AJ Styles

Love him or hate him, Hulk Hogan knows what it takes to make it in the sports entertainment business. He may blow smoke up his own ass at times or think too highly of himself, but at the end of the day, without him, McMahon, and hell, I'm going to throw in Piper, wrestling just might not exist as it does right now.

There is a very good reason people watched Impact on the 4th and that Hogan got close to 3 million viewers watching him instead of watching Bret Hart. It's because wrestling fans around the world grew up with him and have had him as their idol in some point and time. He didn't stay at the top of the business for as long as he did without knowing a thing or two about the business.

In a recent interview with Matt Fowler of IGN.com, Hogan had these things to say about the current TNA World Champion:

Making AJ Styles a mainstream name: "You can go out there and have 5-star matches all day long. And I love A.J. Styles to death, don't get me wrong. But Arn Anderson, Tully Blanchard, Jack Briscoe, Harley Race, A.J. Styles all gave 5-star matches and now (holds hand up to head) this is the water level now. When the water level rises and TNA is the number one sports entertainment company in the world, if you keep having those 5-star matches like that and you don't do the cross-over media and we don't have (Jay) Leno or Regis (Philbin) calling A.J. Styles instead of me then people that are having those crazy, unbelievable off-the-chart matches are going to be mid-card at best."

Meetings w/ AJ Styles: "I had a couple long talks with him and he's got it, bro. He really does. That whole A.J. Styles character – if you just have to put bit of an edge on it and ramp it up. I want everyone to know who he is and not just 75 percent of the people or maybe half of the people. Those matches have a great place, but those matches - those 5-star matches combined with breathing life into the characters will just be the icing on the cake. But you have to have that."

You can't help but agree with him. I know there have been quite a few people out there that have written about this, but this makes the difference between a guy like John Cena and a guy like AJ Styles. Cena isn't the most gifted of wrestler, but he has his character down to a T. He knows what he has to do to perform in front of crowds and isn't afraid of what they think. This man walked into the home of ECW and was booed out of the building going against RVD. But did that scare him? Did it throw him off his game? He put on a pretty decent match with RVD and sold the beating down perfectly.

Not only that, but WWE knows how to market him. You can piss on his wrestling skills all you want, but you have to respect John Cena, the man, for all his hard work outside the ring. He has done more Make a Wish visits than ANY sports star. ANY. That speaks a lot of volume. For a man as busy as Cena to take time out and take a day to spend it with some child in need is incredible. All the charity work and things the man does outside the ring makes him a very like able and marketable man.

AJ Styles, though, all he has claim to fame is being on Made. While that is honorable, come on, who still watches MTV? With their fake reality shows and fake dating shows, it's hard to take anything MTV does seriously. For all we know, the person that AJ Styles helped was apart of some storyline for TNA and the person might be debuting soon (yes, I know unlikely, but we all have to remember who was running the show at the time...Vince Russo.)

Hogan hits a very big hammer on a tiny nail. The five star matches. There are probably quite a few five star matches on the independent scene. However, how many people actually watch those matches? A few hundred thousand if you are HIGHLY likely. And how many people were in that arena at the time? A few hundred, MAYBE a thousand if you paper it rightly. When that is all said and done, how many people actually know the guys that wrestled in that match? More people probably know little Horny and Santino more than those guys.

This is where Hogan NEEDS to step in and do something about. WWE is a VERY smart company. They know how to pimp out their wrestlers. Late nigh talk shows, cooking shows, game shows, award shows, movies, music, the list is never ending. And it isn't just the big name guys going on these shows either. Divas, comedy acts, mid carders, just about everyone gets pimped out to promote the WWE.

What about TNA? You had Traci in playboy, but the rumor is that they kicked Traci from being in the magazine to the online edition because TNA wasn't promoting the magazine. For TNA's big Monday show, they should have had more than just Hulk Hogan on talk shows, or at the very least, had someone like AJ Styles or even a name like Kurt Angle go on the show with Hogan. There just isn't any cross promotion with TNA and none of the guys are getting over with the broader audience. While the style of wrestling has changed (fans want high action and fast paced instead of technical wrestling), the people haven't. Kids still are looking for an idol, guys want to cheer for people they wish they were, and women want to look at guys they wish they were with. It's like the perfect science.

This is where Hogan needs to step in. He needs to pimp out the guys of TNA. TV shows, interviews, commericals, etc etc etc. Just not stuff just for Spike TV, but hit the average American. If Hogan wants to make good on his promise, this is how he needs to do it. Because he is right. No matter how many "five star matches" a guy like AJ Styles has, without any character and any publicity outside the wrestling world, no one is going to care for him. And people like Santino will be more recognized than a guy as skilled as AJ Styles.