Should Hogan Have Come to TNA Earlier Than 2009?

[wrestlingfanusa]

Ok so this is more of a question that it is a idea but here it goes. My question is should hogan have come to tna earlier than 2009? Because he doesnt have much of a legacy in tna. Now im talking if he wouldve come to tna around 06 or 07. By 07 i mean early 07, but the point of the thread is should he have come to tna at that time when he could still move around better than he can now and be able to put on somewat of a match and possibly do a leg drop. See if he had come there then he couldve challenged or won title giving it some prestige or had a few feuds and putting over guys like samoa joe and aj styles. But should he have come there at that time bc we all know wat happened he went through his divorce and his son went to prison. So wat wouldve happened if he had joined tna at that time. I mean it would give tna alot of coverage but not in a good way. How would tna have handled these situations and would hogan still be there after all that mess. So the point is would it be worth it to have a few good matches out of him and possibly a few feuds for all that he went through during that time or would it be too much for the company? Also mite all oof that bad press be the end of tna bc his association with them? Just wondering bout this bc hogan could have probably had a few good matches if he came there a little earlier. Wat does everyone think?

 

[I_Like_All_Wrestling]

No it wouldn't matter. He couldn't move then either. His health and movements are really less of an issue though. "Hulk Hogan" is a spectacle. His reality show, his legal troubles, and as mentioned, his health have tainted what most people think of Hulk Hogan. He can't be Hulk Hogan in TNA. Not not, not in 2006. To be The Immortal Hulk Hogan, he needs magic tricks. He needs curtains and mirrors. He needs a spectacle to hide his shortcomings and build on his legacy. WWE can do that and can offer that. TNA cannot.

He worked in WCW because he came in at a time when he was still huge and stayed there when wrestling went through the biggest boom in history. TNA just cannot showcase him in the way he needs to be in order to be larger than life.

 

[wrestlingfanusa]

Well still he had his hulkamania tour i forgot wat year he did it. But he did wrestling alot on the tour i do believe. If he did it on the tour then couldnt he have done it in tna? Also i do think it mite have killed tna. I know that kinda sounds silly but if he was in charge and all that happened to him management would take a hit. Also i know he could move around a tad bit better in those years not much better but still. We couldve gotten a few ok matches outta him at least i hope. By matches i mean the big boot, leg drop, hulking up and all that stuff. Yea that crap at least he mite have been able to pull off a few leg drops. I thnk he couldve gone there in 2005 or whenever he had his match with shawn michaels.

 

[dansaun77]

Hulk Hogan should have stayed with WWE in 2006 after the Legend Killer feud with Orton and even put him over in a rematch. He could have had a final farewell retirement matct at Wrestlemania 23, 20 years after the famous match with Andre The Giant. He has absolutely no business being in the ring anymore and he is destroying his great legacy everytime he appears in TNA. He has brought nothing to the product and the politics he brings is hurting the product. Hulk Hogan should have ALWAYS been remembered as the greatest WWE superstar in the history of the business but now it appears very unlikely we would ever see him on a WWE tv program again and that is sad. He prettty much single handedly turned WWE from regional promotion to worldwide phenomenon and he should have some WWE legacy. Now it is as though he was never there. WWE always find a way to bring Austin back, 8 years on from wrestling his last match. But Hogan has had serious personal issue and been sued, divoreced, compensations to pay out of his fortune so I can understand him selling to the highest bidder for his services. At the end of the day, after wrestling even the greats have nothing to fall back on.

 

[wrestlingfanusa]

Also i think tna ratings didnt go up that much with hogan is bc we know he wasnt gonna wrestle. Also if he did he would suck pretty badly. But if we couldve gotten a performance like the match with orton he did that would been ok i think. Anyone think he wouldve given them bigger ratings boost if he couldve still gone in the ring a bit better? Also another reason tna needs to move out of impact zone they were chanting u still got it at hogan. I love hogan to death but he dont got it nomore lol.

 

[wrestlingfanusa]

Dansaun77 i understand how u feel bout his retirement. But with everything that happened to hogan with him going through his divorce the crap with his kid and all that u and i both knew that he would return. He is on to something people have been touched by him more than any other wrestler. Hes inspired alot of people there alot of hogan fans out there that will always support him no matter wat. But i think hogan has always wanted to be the guy who put vince mcmahon outta business. I think by the time hogan dies he wants to add on to his legacy the guy who helped build the wwe and legitimize wrestlemania and the guy who put vince and his company out of business. I think he wants tna to beat wwe and i think if it were to he would take alot of the credit.

 

[GameOver]

Hulk Hogan should have stayed with WWE in 2006 after the Legend Killer feud with Orton and even put him over in a rematch. He could have had a final farewell retirement matct at Wrestlemania 23, 20 years after the famous match with Andre The Giant. He has absolutely no business being in the ring anymore and he is destroying his great legacy everytime he appears in TNA. He has brought nothing to the product and the politics he brings is hurting the product. Hulk Hogan should have ALWAYS been remembered as the greatest WWE superstar in the history of the business but now it appears very unlikely we would ever see him on a WWE tv program again and that is sad. He prettty much single handedly turned WWE from regional promotion to worldwide phenomenon and he should have some WWE legacy. Now it is as though he was never there. WWE always find a way to bring Austin back, 8 years on from wrestling his last match. But Hogan has had serious personal issue and been sued, divoreced, compensations to pay out of his fortune so I can understand him selling to the highest bidder for his services. At the end of the day, after wrestling even the greats have nothing to fall back on.

Should never have left lol but since they weren't gonna pay him main event money and have him in the main event every PPV he wasn't interested, and that's in his own words, he felt he was the only draw and noone else deserved to main event when he was around It's the reason he left both times he returned and has never returned

He was scheduled to debut in TNA in 2003 but didn't appear on the Bound For Glory and battle and win the NWA title from Jarrett but due to in his words "knee issues" they didn't have the match and soon after he returned to WWE b4 quiting that again a few yrs later over once again not being payed top guy money every match

Strangely enough to at the time WWE was being sued by Marvel for the use of the name Hulk so they kept using the Hollywood Hogan name alot longer
WTF just like WWF it took them 20yrs in that case to get a lawsuit together? lol and i thought WWE always said Hulkster and Hulk were trademarks of Marvel so they gave them there due rights, guess they weren't paying royalties and Hogan is?.

 

[lowandmighty]

Fuck no, he'd still be as crippled as he is now cause the damgage was already done. If anything he may have had a major accident in the ring and ended up in a wheelchair.

What he needs to do is get the fuck out of tna and wrestling all together and exercise in general altogether apart from taking a swim or a walk every now and again.
Him and everyone else in the world needs two whole years to recover from any type of major surgery such as a hip replacement or a back straightening operation or knee surgery especially for any kind of back surgery all of which he's had within the last two years (maybe not the knee). The big dope gets into the ring mere months after he has this stuff done while he knows he still feels pain. Thats just stupidity. If he gave himself the proper recovery time which is meant to be two years for those operations and then took six months to build his body back up once he's done the recovery time properly then he'd be able to do a leg drop again. Someone needs to make him realize that.

 

[kokoBawesome]

I don't remember a time where the guy really could move around that well. I'd love to pretend that in the NWO he was in top notch shape but I remember him wearing knee braces that matched his pants since atleast 1999. This isn't meant to be a rag on his style of wrestling but hes never been a fast paced technical wrestler anyway. I don't think coming any earlier would have help his cause as far as his health is concerned.

As a company TNA defiantly didn't need him any earlier. In the years before he showed up they were building their own stars and had the X division getting them lots of attention. It would be great to pretend he would have been willing to put over Samoa Joe or A.J. Styles, but they were amongst TNA's biggest stars without him. Its not like Hogan has a legacy for putting people over anyway (Kidman's feud was a clusterfuck).

Hogan is back wrestling for the same reason Flair is. Bankruptcy and Lawsuits. Its really sad but neither of them would be wrestling if they weren't broke. They might be around, but they wouldn't be in matches.

 

[wrestlingfanusa]

All hogan wouldve needed to do is big boot leg drop u know the normal shiit routine he does lol.I think he mite have been able to do at least a few matches in tna. I think he has only done two so far in tna. The tag match where i dont know who he was teaming against but was against ric flair and the other one was against sting. Now i must say hogan didnt have the worst match with sting considering all of his operations. But if that been baack in late 2006 or early 2007 i think he couldve taken more bumps n moved around a litte better. But the point iis would it have been worth it to have him for the matches with all the bad press he got? Hogan did bring alot of people to tna like jeff hardy, rvd, ken anderson, and alot others.

 

[LSN80]

Ok so this is more of a question that it is a idea but here it goes. My question is should hogan have come to tna earlier than 2009? Because he doesnt have much of a legacy in tna.

Why does Hogan need a legacy in TNA, per se? He's already the biggest name in the history of professional wrestling, he brings a legacy with him wherever he goes. To be honest, him coming in two years earlier would have done what exactly?

Now im talking if he wouldve come to tna around 06 or 07. By 07 i mean early 07, but the point of the thread is should he have come to tna at that time when he could still move around better than he can now and be able to put on somewat of a match and possibly do a leg drop.

Honestly, no. It's not just the myriad of back surgeries that Hogan has had
that suddenly is costing him his mobility, Hogan has been close to immoble for a long time. There's not much difference between 2007 Hogan that wasn't wrestling to the 2009/10 Hogan that isn't believable as an in-ring performer. The draw, if it's still there with Hogan, is his legacy and name, not what he can do in the ring. Two years wouldn't have changed that.

See if he had come there then he couldve challenged or won title giving it some prestige or had a few feuds and putting over guys like samoa joe and aj styles.

And here is where things start to fall apart. Putting the title on Hogan? Why? Him stinking out main events against the likes of Joe and AJ Styles wouldn't have benefitted them in the slightest, it would have damaged their credibility. They're already proven commodities in terms of what they can do between the ropes.

Hogan, on the other hand, hasn't been a full-time wrestler in over 10 years, so why in the world would him holding the title or chasing it be anything but a negative for TNA? It's only because he's so iconic that the few times he's wrestled since coming to TNA hasn't hurt his legacy. But it certainly wouldn't have done much for the boys in the back if he were contending for, or worse yet, winning titles. It's one thing for an older Kurt Angle to come in and win titles, because he can still make people look good in the ring. Hogan would need others to make him look good, so in reality, him winning titles and being in main events would serve only to please an audience of one, which is himself.

But should he have come there at that time bc we all know wat happened he went through his divorce and his son went to prison.
So wat wouldve happened if he had joined tna at that time. I mean it would give tna alot of coverage but not in a good way. How would tna have handled these situations and would hogan still be there after all that mess.

When has a wrestler's personal life outside of the business generally affected the company they work for? There's a littany of performers who have had personal problems outside of the ring yet have continued to perform between the ropes, and unless personal problems have interfered with their ability to perform, then what's the big deal? This goes back to my point of what Hogan would have brought to the table. He wouldnt have benefitted TNA in terms of providing good match quality, so what good would bringing him in have done?

So the point is would it be worth it to have a few good matches out of him and possibly a few feuds for all that he went through during that time or would it be too much for the company? Also mite all oof that bad press be the end of tna bc his association with them? Just wondering bout this bc hogan could have probably had a few good matches if he came there a little earlier. Wat does everyone think?

Companies don't swink or swim on the basis of one or two performers, and they wouldn't have been hurt by Hogan's personal problems either. I just am wonmdering where you're getting the idea that 2007 Hogan could have put together these 5 star classics that would have made his opponents look like gold and would have elevated them. Hogan was still 54 in 2007, so it's not like we're talking about an in-his-prime type of guy. The presumption that he would have put on good matches is far-fetched, to say the least, and positioning him as you suggested would have hurt the company, but not for the reason you suggested. Forget his personal life, his ability to have a good match in main event slots would have been more detrimental to TNA then anything else.

 

[VinnieSunshine]

Short answer...no.

Hogan, yes has done SOME good for TNA...but he has been nothing more than a cancer. Pushing all the wrong guys, holding guys back...he has been nothing but bad for them.

 

[Zeven_Zion]

Short answer...no.

Hogan, yes has done SOME good for TNA...but he has been nothing more than a cancer. Pushing all the wrong guys, holding guys back...he has been nothing but bad for them.

Since when is Hogan booking TNA? Could you provide ANY sort of evidence that supports your bold claim? ANY evidence which shows that Hulk Hogan purposely held back talent and pushed others based on his own judgement?

If you can't, shut up. If you can - dish it out, ,bud.

 

[ahoyhoy]

Oh my god yes! To think he could have squashed AJs push and Joe's push and made Brian Knobbs have more of a presence in 00s wrestling! Hulkamania 4eva.

Hogan shouldn't be allowed near any wrestling promotion after his involvement in WCWs demise, whether in 2006 or 2011.

 

[VinnieSunshine]

Since when is Hogan booking TNA? Could you provide ANY sort of evidence that supports your bold claim? ANY evidence which shows that Hulk Hogan purposely held back talent and pushed others based on his own judgement?

If you can't, shut up. If you can - dish it out, ,bud.

First off chill out. Im not even going to go into it because you dont deserve it. I never once said Hogan books horribly. My only example is this...

Look at the last month in TNA with the world title? Look at what he said about Roode and what he did.

 

[Zeven_Zion]

First off chill out. Im not even going to go into it because you dont deserve it. I never once said Hogan books horribly. My only example is this...

Look at the last month in TNA with the world title? Look at what he said about Roode and what he did.

I don't "deserve" it? Isn't this just another way of saying "I don't know shit"?

And I know what he said. He said that Storm is marketable, it's not Roode's time, Hardy is the shit and AJ needs more work. By this he implied that Storm and Hardy will be Champions, Roode will not until he is ready and AJ will rot in the mid-card. And what do we get?

Storm wins the World Title. But then .. Robert Roode wins the world title from Storm. This is contrary to what Hogan said. Hogan said he's not ready. So if Hogan's wisdom has any impact on the booking decisions, it's safe to say that this impact ain't more impactful than a light fart on a wall because Roode is holding the strap right now.

Watch what happens in the Main Event scene this Thursday which goes even more against what Hogan said. Until then stop making feeble assumptions about things you have no clue of. Hogan is not booking, Bischoff is not booking, they're not in charge of pushing talent, they're not in charge of anything related to storylines, pushes and de-pushes. Do they have some say? Of course they do. Do they make the final call? Absolutely not. The evidence airs every Thursday.

 

[VinnieSunshine]

I don't "deserve" it? Isn't this just another way of saying "I don't know shit"?

Its people like you that are the reason I dont post on these boards anymore. These boards are for people to share their opinion. Its people like you that get off on trashing posters for having said opinion!

My opinion is that Hogan has and always will be a cancer to that company. He has done nothing but put himself back in the spotlight. The first chance he had at actually helping this company expand, he took some midget promotion and built a show around it...something that they could've used for talent that isn't being used regularly.

He trashes talent that have worked their tails off, pushes his friends in favor of MARKETABLE TALENT. He has been in the spotlight WAY longer than he needed to be, when other talent that could actually have been used should've been there. BFG was more about him and Sting than it was anyone else. That spot should've been used, if anything, for Sting to wrestle someone that would represent Hogan.

Hogan had his day, Its not my fault he screwed his life up so bad that he needs to stay in wrestling to keep his financials up. If anything he should've worked behind the scene and stayed off TV. He was on TV WAAAAAAAAAAY longer than he needed to be. When he came to TNA he made it all about himself. Immortal should've never been, OR let it go, but not as long as it did. It should've died long before it did.

In the last month the TNA title has changed hands more times than a hooker changes partners in a ********! Whose fault is that!? Dont make the excuse like Bischoff and say "its the element of surprise" cause Im getting sick of hearing that from BOTH companies. Also, I dont want to hear "it got people talking about them" because it was all NEGATIVE!!!

So there you have it, thats MY OPINION! Now get off your high horse you pompus douche!

 

[BigDaddyKewl]

I think it could have made for some interesting television. He could of had match with Jarrett at Slammeversary. The Sting and Hogan feud could of came sooner. He would of been a good fit in the Main Event Mafia storyline. I don't think it would of been anything ground breaking in terms of rating and exposure.

 

[ABMorales787]

No. 2007-2008 had Samoa Joe verbally throw TNA's dirty laundry on the ring and burn a man who's best friend had influence. Funny enough, those two men were Hulks friends. Up until maybe late 2008 was still transitioning from being one big indy fed to a small major one as major names began to become mainstays in the promotion and by 2009, it's younger stars were on top. I say Hogan's timing was perfect. Though the execution had it's flaws at first. Had he come earlier, it would've been like Ric Flair going to ROH. The company would be too small for enough people to realize Hulk is there.

 

[Mustang Sally]

As far as I can see, the only reason he came to TNA was because he needed money. Before 2009, he didn't have the huge cash drains of a divorce settlement or his son's car accident to worry about. If not for those things, he would probably have been happy to keep showing us his "wonderful" home life on that stupid reality show.

Instead, he needed cash, and how is Hulk Hogan going to generate major bucks outside of pro wrestling? In view of his financial needs, he might have regretted burning his bridges with WWE, so there was only one place left for him to go.

Using that Bollea chutzpah, he convinced the Dixie-crats (or they convinced themselves) that adding him as an on-air personality......and giving him input on the creative side.....would boost TNA to the stratosphere as a wrestling company. He even seems to have convinced them they would overtake the giant in the industry.

You can blame Hogan or blame TNA; it's the same result. But I doubt he had any intention of joining TNA before 2009; he simply didn't need the money yet.

 

[Viggo]

Mustang Sally is right. TNA tried to compete with Raw live on Monday's shortly after Hogan joined the company in '09. We all know how that went. TNA has moved backward since he's been there. Even if Hogan had come to TNA before his home/legal problems, it wouldn't have been any different. I've said this before... Hulk Hogan only cares about Hulk Hogan. If he had come to TNA before 2009, the company would probably be even worse off than it already is. He should have retired after his Wrestlemania match with The Rock and kept a respectable legacy. All in all though, it was TNA who hired him, so the blame should rest there.

 

[harrythem]

Hogan should've joined TNA after he filmed the angle where Jarrett smashed the guitar over his head in New Japan back in 04 or 05 (I forget which right now).

He was still (fairly) mobile (by Hogan standards at least) and could've actually worked a match where someone beating him (Samoa Joe as an example) could've benefited from the victory, rather than being the....thing he is there now.

Hogan in TNA during that time could've really shaken up things a helluva lot more then he did in 09!

 

[Dagger Dias]

So you're basically saying Hogan should have come a couple of years earlier so that he could have had a few matches? Try more like a decade ago. Hogan has not been able to work a good match for quite a while. Plus, I think it was better that he came when he did because had he come earlier then it would have gotten the federation bad publicity to be associated with him during his divorce was going on or when his son got in deep trouble. In the end it doesn't really matter though since not much has changed in terms of ratings or PPV buy rates after he got there so whether he came in 2007, 2008, or 2009 wouldn't have changed anything from the looks of it.

 

[harrythem]

I mean if he'd come in when he was originally in talks with TNA to come in he could at least walk without looking like a cripple (he could even do the leg drop back then). Being Hogan I could easily see him leaving a year or so later then TNA wouldn't have to deal with the extra bad stuff that's happened in his life since then.

Plus, to me at least, TNA was a much better showcase for it's wrestlers then (in the matches/never ending promo ratio) and, having Hogan's name bringing attention to the one thing that TNA was miles ahead of WWE at the time, could only have been a plus.