Hogan on Dixie Carter: "The Destiny of the Company is in Her Hands"

[Papa Pillman]

Hulk Hogan recently did an interview with the UK Daily Star where he touched on a few interesting topics, but one stood out in particular...

Highlights of the interview can be found here:
http://www.dailystar.co.uk/inthering/view/297505/Hulk-Hogan-s-run/Hulk-Hogan-s-run

Amongst the excerpts is this observation from Hogan-

“It’s either hold ’em or fold ’em. You’re either in the wrestling business or not.

Is Dixie Carter really in the wrestling business, or this is just a hobby? You either make the move or you don’t.

You’re at that point now. It’s the same place we were with WCW – you either run with the big dogs or be a little dog and stay on the porch.

“The destiny of this company is in her hands. It can stay TNA, a powerful little company, or she can make the decision to move on to greatness.”

What is your feeling on the point Hogan is trying to make here?

Is he "calling out" Dixie? And if so what do you anticipate could come from this?

I really think Hogan's point here is financial. These quotes give me the impression that Hogan is attempting to coax Dixie into investing larger sums of money that may not yeild immediate return in the hopes that the money spent will eventually put TNA onto a playing field that could result in finally making it viable competition to the WWE, not just a company content with its comfortable second place standing in the American wrestling industry.

We know that TNA has always been run with a very strict bottom line. For example, in the past the desire not to overspend has drove TNA to stop doing Impact tapings on the road due to the high cost of operating a traveling production.

Is Hogan calling for TNA to eat any potential losses now for the sake of trying to grow? It seems that way.

Also with recent developments that include Impact's move to taking the show out of Orlando as well as re-signing its biggest draw in Jeff Hardy, it appears that maybe Dixie may be buying into what Hogan is selling.

Do you anticipate TNA increasing its spending in an attempt at rapid growth? If so, can it work? Obviously Dixie has large resources at her disposal if her parents make them available to her, but is it a smart move to throw money into a potential black hole? What can really be done?

It appears Hogan sees a way for TNA to put itself onto a much larger stage, but its easy to press when it's not your own money.

Can anyone see this leading to TNA repeating similar success to what Ted Turner had when he heavily invested in WCW? And along those lines could it also lead TNA to fail and suffer the same fate?

 

[ABMorales787]

Sounds to me like Hogan is saying she's making the right choices. Over the past few months we've seen TNA re-structure it's PPV's, expand and renew TV deals and finally, probably the boldest thing they've done yet, go from saying they wish to go on the road one week and then say "see ya Orlando" the next.

Sounds like praise for her, just like the rest of the interview where he claims today's batch of wrestlers are far better than those of his time due to a large percentage of them just relying on their size. This interview seems to have been spun out of context by quite a lot.

 

[George Steele's Barber]

Sounds like the words of a man who is passing the buck for not taking the company to the heights some expected from him three years ago. Or maybe he is trying to use the media to get more money out of Dixie's daddy for the company and himself. His words here though are meaningless. The aren't specific or measurable. They just seem to put all the pressure on Dixie's daddy to make the company a global juggernaut and put no pressure on himself and the rest of the talent. That TNA has a problem that can only be solved by throwing money at it. He should be a politician.

I'd like to compare old interviews from three years ago to this one.

 

[Jack-Hammer]

I'm pretty much with GSB on this.

It could be interpreted as merely Hogan sort of singing the praises for TNA. TNA is moving in a big direction here and it seems to be in the direction Hogan has wanted to go in for years.

It could also be interpreted as Hogan passing the buck. He's done that in several interviews he's given as to what the problems of TNA are, how to fix them and as explanation as to why TNA has failed to reach the Promised Land.

It could be sort of a call to arms to Bob Carter to inject even more capital into TNA as expenses are going to be on the rise with TNA taking the show on the road.

Also, it could simply be nothing more than Hogan flapping his gums. Hogan is truly shameless self-promoter who loves to talk big whenever he gives interviews. Hogan is his own biggest mark.

If the new direction for the company doesn't pan out, all in all, it's no skin off Hogan's nose. He'll no doubt find some way to pass the buck onto someone else. He's gotten in and made a lot of money in TNA, so it's easy for him to say that TNA needs to do this or that they have to do this when he's someone who doesn't have to bear the financial brunt of things. Sounds a lot like your typical internet armchair booker.

 

[NotoriousMEAT]

Regardless of the meaning behind Hogan's words, you have to spend money to make money. And I think Dixie is clearly doing that by re-signing Jeff Hardy and taking IMPACT on the road. I have to believe the only reason Jeff would have ever considered going back to WWE was to make that one last big chunk of money before calling it a career. TNA would have had to pull out something mighty generous to get him to stay. Not saying they're paying WWE money, but probably more than they ever have before. IMPACT on the road is a never ending cost, but one I believe will help in the long run. Whether I like Dixie's place in TNA or not is irrelevant, because she has the money. Unless someone with the money of Panda Energy that loves and knows wrestling comes along and wants to buy it from them, Hogan should just shut up and be happy with what he's got. Because I'm willing to bet if you weigh what each has done.. Dixie has done WAY more for the TNA brand than Hogan has.

 

[GameOver]

One of few Hogan rants that is actually pretty close to spot on.
I don't consider the stars of TNA to be close to the level of the stars WCW had to work with when it got going with WCW Worldwide tho, they are different. But certainly there is many comparisons, but there is also comparisons with the way it's run and what killed WCW, same with how WWE is floundering relatively speaking.

The good points tho
IMO from watching TNA in UK, they have huge audiences (which from a viewer experience makes the shows alot better) and i know the few times they have come to Australia the attendances were similar to when WWE comes here so there's a hint. Get out of America work backwards, concentrate on the global market which will in turn get the American market to take interest.

Getting out of the Impact Zone should've happened along time ago and was the biggest killer from a viewer perspective, can look past the horrible acting and piss poor production/storylines over the years if the show looked "bigger" and the crowd was more vocal. They obviously were almost paying people who only want to st down for a bit and are instructed to follow flashing sings in response to what's going on. that's not an audience you want on TV unless it's a sitcom. and work on making the PPV's marketable. I don't know about the only 4 big PPV's a year tho and the rest as In Your House style all pre-taped i think thats pretty stupid, a big PPV every 2 months woulda been a better strategy. Face it, alot of the audience is made up of people with the attention span of a fish, waiting 3 months for a pay off is gonna be hard to handle and still wont guarentee anyone buys the PPV's.

I certainly hope it works out and Dixie and Co. don't mess this up this time.

WWE needs competition to get there heads out of there asses and finally we have someone else who's remotely close to pulling that off.

 

[akathelaw]

As long as Hogan and Bischoff are there, they are going to lobby and campaign for what they want TNA to be. Somewhere in this backstage struggle, Jeff Jarrett is still whispering into Dixie's ear. Hogan got the show's name changed. Hogan got the ring changed from hexagon to square. He got another Monday Night War, a "run" with his own stable in an "invasion" style angle, and a pass the torch program with Abyss that didn't work. He brought his daughter in as the GM of the Knockouts, then transitioned her into the "Snatch of the Moment" role. Now, he's gonna take the boys on the road. In my opinion, Bischoff and Hogan are going to ride that wallet dry, with vince coming over to pick up another vast wrestling library.

 

[Shadows Over Hell]

As long as Hogan and Bischoff are there, they are going to lobby and campaign for what they want TNA to be. Somewhere in this backstage struggle, Jeff Jarrett is still whispering into Dixie's ear. Hogan got the show's name changed. Hogan got the ring changed from hexagon to square. He got another Monday Night War, a "run" with his own stable in an "invasion" style angle, and a pass the torch program with Abyss that didn't work. He brought his daughter in as the GM of the Knockouts, then transitioned her into the "Snatch of the Moment" role. Now, he's gonna take the boys on the road. In my opinion, Bischoff and Hogan are going to ride that wallet dry, with vince coming over to pick up another vast wrestling library.

Well quiet amazing to hear such a praise for Hogan and Bischoff. To be honest you are quiet true. There were rumors about Bischoff wanting to start a new promotion with TNA wrestlers back in June 2011. But thats vague now. But I just dont find TNA to be quiet great as it used to be. It used to be cool, it used to be different. Since Hogan and Bischoff came; they made TNA more mainstreamed, but also made TNA loose its identity. Today plenty of IWC like the product, but I dont find it interesting enough. It is not very different from WWE, except the reality concept of TV.