TNHogan: Change That Did Not Work, and a War That TNA Lost Misreably

Hulk Hogan : “If we're (TNA ) going to war, we are going to win that. To me it's not a competition any more; this company has a better product. This company has better talent. This company produces the matches and everything that I've seen here in being around for almost a couple of months now, this company is better at everything they do.

"We're just going to show we're the better company with the better product. We're not going to repeat history; we're going to make history.”

So said Hogan, as he and TNA President Dixie Carter announced TNA Impact ’s move to Monday nights to compete with WWE ’s Monday Night Raw .

Just two months later, Impact has been booted back to its original Thursday timeslot, after an ill fated run that has seen the show produce some of its worst TV ratings in years.

Who is to Blame?

Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff . The duo were given a free reign in TNA, and proceeded to sign a collection of WWE discards and WCW has beens. The likes of Sean Morely, the Nasty Boys , Scott Hall, and so on either weren’t relevant enough to attract attention of the audience, or they weren’t in any shape to be in a wrestling ring.

Storylines also took a turn for the worse, as Hogan pushed Abyss to the very top of TNA with an angle based around the Monster gaining powers from Hogan’s WWE Hall of Fame ring. Meanwhile, Kevin Nash made his 278th heel turn for the nWo (the Band in TNA).

Matches on Impact became progressively shorter, despite an amazing main event match between Kurt Angle and AJ Styles on Hogan and Bischoff’s first night in TNA. Five minute matches became commonplace and this was more evident than ever on the final Monday Night Impact when Desmond Wolfe was defeated by Rob Van Dam in a World Title match, in three minutes and 30 seconds .

Where does TNA go from here?

Back to Thursdays, and it is now time to recapture the audience they once had. TNA’s highest numbers on Thursdays ranged around 1.2. That will have to be their target, as the move to Monday not only divided audiences, but confused them, as TNA worked in one timeslot, then an earlier one, without a replay at first, before the replay was added later.

Moving on...

TNA: Please make your voice heard! (Not that we care)

“Vote Now: Who Deserves A Shot At The TNA World Heavyweight Title?” is the message on TNA’s website. The first week of the voting system was a slap in the face of any TNA fan who visits their website though, as vote winner Desmond Wolfe was beaten by Rob Van Dam in a contest that might have made Goldberg matches seem long.

Wolfe is leading once again this week, and seems well on his way to winning (at the time of writing, Wolfe has 51 percent of the vote). What are the odds of Hulk Hogan actually listening to the fans, brother?

Finally...

The New York Times has written an article about WWE’s Guest Hosting gig. Triple H talked about the changes to the WWE product, presumably referencing the move to PG .

“Gone, in recent years, is the blood—real or otherwise—that was a staple of many matches, as are vulgar gestures to the crowd by performers past like Stone Cold Steve Austin.

'I’ve got young kids, said Triple H, whose real name is Paul Levesque and who is married to Mr. McMahon’s daughter, Stephanie, executive vice president for creative development for WWE. 'Years ago, we were what we were, and I certainly wouldn’t want to have my young kids watch that product.

'We’ve evolved,' he added.”

Exactly. Which is why nowadays, you only get Cheech and Chong making the occasional marijuana joke on Raw.

Now that is a product I want my kids to watch.

Thanks for reading!