The Biggest Botch in TNA History

[klunderbunker]

Was the press conference Hogan had to announce his signing with TNA. Why was that a mistake you ask? I’m going to tell you.

On October 28th of this year, Hulk Hogan signed with TNA. I don’t think anyone is going to deny that this move shook the wrestling world. It made TNA instantly mainstream as they had the biggest star of all time signed to them and the credibility came with him. However, they simply could not have handled this worse. Let’s look at why.

First of all, let’s go back to the summer of 1997 in the WWF. The Undertaker has retaken Paul Bearer as his manager, due to Bearer having a secret. As you may know, the secret turned out to be that Taker not only had a brother, but that brother was burned in a fire when Taker was a teenager. All we knew about this brother was that he was burned severely and that his name was Kane. For months, that’s all we knew. Bearer kept talking about Kane. We kept hearing about him but there was one key: we never saw him. No one knew what Kane looked like, how bad the burns were, or if he even existed at all as Taker had said there was no way he could have survived.

Now flash forward to October 5th and Bad Blood featuring the first ever Hell in a Cell match. Taker has Shawn Michaels defeated but as he goes for the tombstone, the lights go out and we hear an organ. An explosion hits, and there he is: the Big Red Machine, KANE. Not only is he real, not only is he alive, not only is he here, but DAMN he looks awesome. He’s 7ft tall, he’s covered in red and black, and he’s wearing a mask. In short, this guy looks awesome as hell.

Now pause for a minute and let’s flash back to summer of 1995. Jerry Lawler is feuding with Bret Hart and brings in his evil dentist, Dr. Isaac Yankem, DDS. He’s an evil dentist. Based on any wrestling knowledge you might have, you would know this would flop. Flash forward again to fall of 1996 and “Diesel” returns to the WWF. Shocking the same amount of people as in the Isaac debacle, no one buys it. Now, in today’s market, the news would be all over the place as to who Kane was. We would know it was just Glenn Jacobs in a new gimmick and the thing would bomb. However, no one knew who it was behind the mask. We had no clue it was a guy with two horrible gimmicks that had bombed before. We saw a 7ft monster that was the equal of the Undertaker. After 5 months of incredible buildup, they had their showdown at Mania and everything was fine.

Now you might be asking yourself, what in the world does this have to do with Hogan? What I’m getting at is this: by announcing that Hogan would be coming to TNA, TNA ruined what could have been the best moment they ever had. Flash back again to 1994 with me when Hogan debuts for WCW. His first match was at Bash at the Beach and it set a bunch of records etc. and he won the world title. That’s all fine and good. However, after a little while, the fans started booing. Why did they start booing Hulk Hogan? They started booing him because he was Hulk Hogan. He was the same guy they had seen doing the same thing for ten years. What was the appeal? He could have a match with Flair that we never got in the WWF and then…what? It’s the same guy all over again. Look back at Kane again: if we had known he was Isaac Yankem or “Diesel”, we would have written him off for awhile, or at least made it a lot harder for him to get over.

Now before you ask, no I’m not saying that Hogan should be redone or anything. What I’m saying is that he should have come from out of nowhere. Again, flash back to the summer of 1996 at Bash at the Beach. Hall and Nash have shows up and are fighting WCW. There’s a third man but no one knows who that is. When Lex Luger goes down with an injury, Hulk Hogan appears. In the greatest swerve of all time, he drops a leg on Savage and changes wrestling forever. I have never seen a more emotional crowd than that one. Why were they emotional? Because they never saw that coming. Imagine something with me if you will. There has been no press conference. There has been no announcement of Hogan signing. AJ has been attacked on a regular basis. At Final Resolution, the attacker, clad in black and a mask, comes out to confront AJ. He reaches his hand to his mask, and IT’S HULK HOGAN. Now tell me with an honest face that you wouldn’t mark the freaking hell out. Now tell me with an honest face you wouldn’t be glued to your TV Thursday night at 9.

With the element of surprise, the whole announcement could be better. Now a lot of you are likely to say that this is impossible given today’s day and age. I offer you this as a counter argument: Kurt Angle. Back in 2006 when Kurt Angle debuted for TNA, NO ONE, and I mean NO ONE knew it was coming. They kept that the biggest secret of all time and it shocked wrestling. If they can do that for him, they can do it for Hogan.

If TNA had not had the press conference and had Hogan be a surprise, it would have been their biggest moment ever. It still is, but it pales in comparison to what was possible

 

[Lancer]

At first, I was pumped that TNA had signed Hogan, or vice versa, or however you wanna put it. But over the past few weeks, we have been shown the same lame video clips and heard the same thing from each and every TNA wrestler: "Hogan will be a great addition to TNA," blah blah blah. There's only one problem with all of this: Where the hell is Hulk Hogan? Yes we know he's down under doing the Hulkamania thing, but in a kayfabe sense, he exists only in video packages to the casual TNA fan.

Perhaps TNA management thought that with the announcement, that the ratings for Impact would have improved or something...who knows. Your idea is great KB, if TNA had kept it under wraps like they did with Kurt Angle, and had Hogan debut in some capacity at the PPV, then the wrestling world would have been on fire. This site's servers would not be able to handle the traffic trying to read the lastest headline:

BREAKING NEWS: Hulk Hogan Debuts at TNA Final Resolution

I would have indeed marked the fuck out for that. Good thread.

 

[deathdrop81]

That's the problem with TNA. When they brought in top stars like Sting, Lashley, Angle, Foley and now Hogan, they didn't know how to get a big bang out of their debuts. News of them signing with TNA came off as mere announcements. Surely, Angle's surprise video promo was memorable but nothing to write home about.
These guys should have made surprise debuts by attacking other wrestlers or showing up live on pay-per-views.
I think we can trace this back to how WCW handled Bret Hart's signing with the company. The NWO and the announcers talked about Bret possibly showing up in WCW, destroying any element of surprise whatsoever.
The idea of Hogan being revealed as A.J.'s attacker is gold. But of course, TNA doesn't do things that make sense.

 

[CoolioCM]

I disagree completely.

Them announcing Hogan has signed with them, gives TNA instant credibility and since then, Hogan has gotten the name TNA out to places it never would have before. Thats not a bad decision. Its a great one for their company.

Now I agree, the same clips being played and stuff are making it a little stale, and I feel like personally they should be teasing him coming back a whole lot more. Play his music during others promo time or matches (Obviously with someone who he will be fueding with or tease a fued)! They could be doing this whole thing alot better.

Personally I think the concept is not will Hogan show up, but rather when will he? Which in turn, can be just as shocking as anything still. So when you take that into account, they could still have a great moment on their hands plus the exposure he brings to them, I think they are making the right choice. Again,think of Jericho returning like two or three years ago. Even though everyone knew it was him coming back, you got excited because you werent sure of when, so when he did finally comeback, it was a classic moment.

TNA has the opportunity to do something major with the return of Hogan still, but again, if they keep booking it this way, the interest will be low. Either way, I feel like its all in how its booked from here.

 

[NSL]

I agree wholeheartedly with KB. Remember when Jeff Hardy debuted? Just about none had a freaking clue, and it was amazing. Not only was it at a PPV, but it was against AJ Styles in a title match.

Hulk Hogan does a press conference, and then waits 3+ months to show his face, if he does at all. He said that he wants to survey the landscape of the company before jumping in. Even if he decides to pop up at a PPV and make a big entrance, it will be more of "Oh, there he is..." than "Holy shit! It's Hulk fucking Hogan!".

 

[Kenny Powers]

I think they probably should of done it that way with Hogan. They could of brought Hogan in as either AJ's attacker, or bring him out at a PPV when no one is expecting it. TNA did a good job of keeping the signing of Hulk a secret until the press conference. I strongly feel that they could of done the same thing if they waited until next month to bring him in. Now, the buzz has died down and Hogan isn't even expected at Impact until probably January.

I feel TNA did drop the ball on this, just like they did with Lashley. Everyone was excited that Lashley signed with TNA, but when the time came for him to wrestle and actually be apart of the show, people got sick of him. Hogan is obviously a bigger name compared to Lashley, but they should kept him under wraps.

I don't think the Impact crowd will welcome him with open arms to be honest. I guess TNA wanted to come out so they could actually get some publicity since Hogan is going on talk shows and plugging his book. The sad thing is that Hogan barely mentions TNA Wrestling or what its about when he is on the talk shows. Its sad too because Hogan could be great in TNA if used correctly.

 

[wrestlemaniac]

In my opinion, the problem here is that we all know he's signed. All wee see is clips o him signing but not him. I think that is tna's mistake. In my opinion, these clips should not have even been played til 2 or 3 weeks prior to his 1st actual appearance in a TNA arena. I'm not saying they shouldn't have signed announced his signing, I think they did the right move there. As said, that adds instant credability. Same with lashley, they just kept advertising him and not until around BFG did we actually see him do something. He should have stayed heal imo like in AAA but switching back to hogan...the problem is that just repeats the same clip and by the time he does show, i'll just be thinking...."finally"... of coarse I am hoping TNA surprises me and has him debut in a shocking way. I mean yea...we all know he is signed but tna can still do something like not even announce his involvement in a ppv then bam outta nowhere we get hogan

 

[Rip]

That sounds great, it really does. Except there is one small flaw in your logic. Back in the 90s it was a lot easier to repackage Glenn Jacobs and hold secrets. Today? With the internet? With the IWC?

There is NO way to hide something this big, no way. Someone mentioned Jeff Hardy's debut in TNA. I don't know if you remember, but many sites (including this one) were reporting about him going there for months. Sure, they didn't say "He will debut on the X date of iMPACT!", but it was certainly no surprise.

Same with Hogan, someone with that profile... it would leak.

The other flaw in your logic is that the scenario that you played out in your post would appeal to US... the wrestling fans... sure. BUT they need to get TNA name out there, they need to get more people watching. Keeping it quiet and then having him show up at a PPV or TV would be good just for the people watching. They needed to make a big deal right away to get people talking.

Sure his physical debut won't be a big deal, but the announcement of signing was still huge no? Still a surprise, wasn't it?

 

[NSL]

There is NO way to hide something this big, no way. Someone mentioned Jeff Hardy's debut in TNA. I don't know if you remember, but many sites (including this one) were reporting about him going there for months. Sure, they didn't say "He will debut on the X date of iMPACT!", but it was certainly no surprise.

It was a big deal, and a big surprise though. There were "rumors", but no one knew for sure. Look at everything circling over Kennedy. There's tons of talk of him going there, but no one knows for sure. If he popped up on Impact this week, people would fall out of their seats.

I'm not saying I want him there, but it's an example. As for Hogan, sure there would be rumors, but there were rumors a few months ago, and everyone scoffed at it. They would have continued disregarding it, and then been amazed when he walked out.

Sure his physical debut won't be a big deal, but the announcement of signing was still huge no? Still a surprise, wasn't it?

The signing was a surprise. But, his signing ultimately has nothing to do with the future of the company. His arrival, and what happens afterward do though.

 

[Jack Tunney's Ghost]

I agree with KB about how the "surprise" reveal of a wrestler joining a promotion tends to be most effective way to introduce ANY OTHER newly signed wrestler to the fans... except for Hulk Hogan.

At this stage of the game, Hogan and the name "Hulk Hogan" is simply just "too big" for this kind of gimmick. Especially when TNA is basically trying to garner the attention of the "casual wrestling fan" and those who don't normally watch wrestling. To TNA, bringing in Hulk Hogan isn't trying to put Hulk Hogan over... in TNA's eyes, Hulk Hogan is there to put TNA over.

So, by plugging the hell out of Hogan's signing with TNA makes total sense. I wouldn't say that Hogan signing with TNA gives TNA "instant credibilty," but, it certainly would raise curiosity about the TNA brand and ideally, would draw people who don't know of or watch TNA to at least check TNA, if anything, just to see what Hogan is up to.

The "surprise reveal" with someone like Hogan would be wasted because only those (few) who already watch TNA would be pleasantly surprised, but, for everyone else outside of the TNA Universe, all that pomp and circumstance would be wasted as they would feel "left out" from the angle. It's sort of like watching a porno ONLY AFTER the "money shot" and everyone's putting their clothes back on. Sure, your buddy who watched it all the way through described to you what was going on in the movie and what happened before you started watching it, but, it's just not the same as seeing it yourself. And you're a pervert if you have your buddies telling you about porno flicks, but, I'm hoping you get what I'm saying here. But, basically, who wants to "be there" AFTER Hogan's "surprise reveal." Certainly not the casual fan or non wrestling types... they want to be there when Hogan makes his debut... hearing about it AFTER the fact wouldn't draw them as much.

Now, if it wasn't Hogan, but, say, rather, Shawn Micheals, it (the "surprise reveal") would work because wrestling fans would get what's going on, and TNA would probably draw people away from WWE, but, again, those who don't watch wrestling really wouldn't understand the significance of Micheals jumping from WWE to TNA.

While the number of dedicated WWE fans is considerably greater than TNA's... the number of people who don't normally watch wrestling or casual fans is considerably much greater than the number of WWE fans.

And it's the non-wrestling types that TNA wants a piece of... and pretty much EVERYONE is familiar with Hulk Hogan. So, yeah, ya damned straight that TNA is going to plug Hogan as much as they can even though he's never set a foot in the TNA ring thus far.

The only thing is, I'm wondering if TNA pulled the trigger too soon. They haven't really publicly committed to a date that Hogan will make his "official" TNA debut, and the longer this draws out, the momentum of the the Hogan signing with TNA news seems to die down a little each day. A month at the most should be allowed to break the news and then allow the excitement to build until the big debut. But, what TNA has done so far is making me a little less excited about the whole thing each time Impact! airs.

 

[ABMorales787]

Valid point KB, but this isn't TNA's biggest botch. Its not even TNA's fault. Its Hulk Hogan. Attention ****e Extrordinare ! Why does it surprise you that he wanted the contract signing in MSG? To draw attention. Positive or Negative. Its what he does.

When Jeff Hardy, Kurt Angle, Sting, Mic Foley and all the others debuted it was kept as under wraps as possible. But Hogan can't keep a secret and we know it. It comes with the territory.

 

[toast92682]

To me, te thing to do would have been to have Hulk debut at a ppv. Then once that happened EVERYONE would tune in on thursday to see what the hell happened. They did keep this thing quiet. There was nothing on the internet about Hulk signing with TNA. First I read of Hulk signing with TNA, was the day of the News Conference. TNA has a weakness and that is rushing stories. I dont think Hogan will be ale to wrestle and if he does it wont be alot. TNA is impatient. I use to think that Vince Mcmahon rushed stories but Dixie Carter is Speedy Gonzalez compared to him. I remember when Eric Bischoff did the Sting storyline where he went black and white and had he crow face paint. The whole story for him to do that and win the world title took almost one full year. Thats a story. TNA had a chance to have a bombshell debut with Hogan and blew it. They kept it quiet that he was gonna sign, but as soon as he did Dixie or hogan thought..."Wow we have to have a news conference!!!" I believe Hogan deal took a wrong turn but either way, Im glad he's there!

 

[Jack Tunney's Ghost]

Well, no, I don't think Hogan was threatening to hold his breath unless TNA held a press conference because he was so desperate for the attention.

I'm pretty sure TNA was more than happy to make their announcement at the MSG press conference. Being at MSG, though, I'm sure was Hogan's idea, as a rib to Vince McMahon, but that's besides the point.

The press conference served a number of purposes -- it was held at the time that Hogan was on his book tour. So, for Hogan, it was a great opportunity to continue to shill for his book. The press conference was timed about a week after news of Hogan's suicide attempt made a lot of the mainstream headlines as well.

AND -- for TNA, THAT was the perfect time to ride on the coat tails of Hogan's media exposure from his book tour and the heavy media exposure from the attempted suicide story. And to a way lesser extent, Hogan was also promoting his Hulkamania Tour in Austrailia... didn't do much for the mainstream media in North America, however, it was still a buzz everywhere in the IWC who are still potential ticket buyers.

But, again, as I said in my earlier post, in TNA's eyes, Hogan is in TNA to put TNA over.

But, the ideal set up for Hogan's debut would be as follows --

* 6 or 7 weeks before debut -- TNA "leaks" a vague rumor on their website and mobile service that "major changes MAY be in TNA's future. Stay tuned" Let the IWC go nuts about this... maybe "leak" really vague hints to various internet "news" sites outside of the TNA website... just to stir interest. No names mentioned, or release false "red herring" hints (eg. Shane McMahon, Dana White, Mark Cuban, Trump, Bret Hart, JBL, etc...)

* 6 weeks before debut -- "leak" another vague rumor via TNA website & TNA mobile regarding TNA management changes or adjustments to come

* 5 weeks before -- Dixie Carter posts an "official" announcement about the press conference on TNA website, and on her Twitter Page

* 4 or 3 weeks before debut -- the press conference as we know it

* Same week, use Impact to review the surprise announcement regarding the Hogan announcement. Everyone's in TNA is in shock, curious, excited, concerned, scared... whatever.

2 weeks before debut -- on Impact!, announce Hogan will debut at up coming pay-per-view. Promise that Hogan will make announcements and make changes starting at PPV. Hogan releases a "statement" regarding this.

1 week before debut at PPV -- Go batshit crazy on a special LIVE Impact plugging the PPV and Hogan's debut a said PPV. Have Hogan cut a pre-recorded promo from his home or whatever that again, underscores he's going to make changes and make idle threats that particular TNA wrestlers should be worried without actually saying they should be worried. Show TNA talent freaking out or being excited and speculating what Hogan may do.

Hogan debuts at PPV and does whatever TNA is planning to do with him.

Impact following PPV -- (should be another live Impact) advance the storyline slowly... have Hogan appear and again, advance the storyline of whatever TNA is planning loaded with surprises and controversy.

 

[Rated_R_Superstar2010]

well the main problem with this is that tna has a shit fan base compared what wcw had and wwe does have. sure it would have been great and a huge surprise but so few people would have seen it that it wouldnt have mattered. they had to do a press conferance to get people to watch tna. i dont watch on a regular basis but i turned it on when i thought hogan was going to be there. but since they it was taped before hogan wasnt there and then the next week he wasnt there. and now guess what he isnt going to be there untill january. tna made a big deal out of something that wasnt even gonig to happen for 3 months

 

[Jack-Hammer]

When you think about it, I guess that you really can say that TNA may have screwed the Hogan presentation up. When you think about it some more and look at how TNA has debuted other big names in the company, they really just wasn't all that much sizzle in most of those instances.

For weeks and weeks now, we've known that Hulk Hogan is going to be part of TNA, Hogan's been making the rounds and pushing himself primarily and TNA as something of an afterthought and TNA continues to show the same footage from the MSG press conference. As NSL mentioned in an earlier post, whenever Hogan finally does make his Impact debut, said to be sometime after the turn of the new year, I don't think fans are going to mark out the way they would have if they'd just brought him out and said "Ok, here he is". Hogan just showing up at a ppv, unannounced would have ripped the wrestling world a new one. Now, whenever he shows up, I don't believe there's going to be nearly as much of a reaction. Each day, I seem to find myself caring less and less about Hogan's presence in TNA. As much as I hate to say this, I'm actually more interested in seeing if Hogan just demolishes TNA or not. Not very many are extremely happy with Hogan's presence and, since we all know his history, I think that a lot of us just have this deep hollow pit in our stomachs because it's not difficult to imagine Hogan ruining TNA at all. Not saying that he will, but history is against him. History doesn't always repeat itself, but it does quite frequently.

I think that if Hogan had just debuted rather than for TNA to announce his signing and plug the hell out of it, it would have felt more like instant credibility. However, by doing it the way they've done it, I think it raises more curiosity than anything else. Primarily, what we all want to know is what role exactly Hulk Hogan is going to play. He's come right out and said that he's going to be running the company. Now, that may be just more of Hogan's legendary bullshit and bluster. If it's not however, I think some people are going to tune into Impact in hopes of seeing a train wreck.

 

[Leafy]

I never thought about but I completely agree with you. TNA should have rewarded the loyal fans with a huge shock like that. If you watched TNA on Thursday and you saw Hogan attack AJ or just appear you would be sure to watch TNA the next week to see what's going to happen. Word would spread and more people would tune in to see what Hogan would do next.

 

[Kanye South]

KB is right. Nobody would have seen it coming if Hulk Hogan was the one attacking AJ. It would have made AJ a bigger star, as he would seem like a big deal if Hogan had it out for him. It would have been a bigger heel turn than the nWo thing, because nobody would have seen it coming. TNA could definitely keep it a secret, as evidenced by Angle, Hardy, and the Hogan signing itself. And if Hogan brought along some young talent (Kennedy, Umaga, etc.), then their association with him would have made them bonafide stars. TNA will probably still do this, considering the hints we've had from Foley and Nash. And also considering we haven't seen any sign of the big man since the announcement. The moment still could have been alot bigger.

 

[SuperKnockout]

hogan was heavily hyped, i he is the attacker of AJ, shoot the whole roof will blow off. But than again, hogan will most likely wrestle 1 matchup, lose, be ashamed, and become a stupidannouncer, or shareholder or something, just because he was a big face in wwe, wwf wcw

 

[Blade]

Well I guess it's due to TNA wanting to get the ratings now rather than later. If they announce Hogan is coming to TNA a couple months before he's actually on TNA programming, ratings will rise sooner. But it'll be people who don't really know about TNA but hear about Hogan joining TNA from whatever source. They'll tune in, Hogan won't be there, and they won't watch anymore. That'll be that. THey'll have been promised to see Hogan, but because he's off in Australia or whatever, he won't be on TNA. People will be disappointed, and after the slight rise in ratings, they will go back to normal again.

Now, if the Hogan thing had been out of the blue, then there would've been more people tuning in for the long term.
Like KB said, there was a few mildly interested people tuning in when Hogan first joined WCW. But when Hogan's heel turn came out of nowhere, people couldn't stop watching. It made Nitro beat Raw in the ratings for about 2 or so years. Something new and different involving a familiar face will always be more interesting than the same old same old. And some kind of swerve to announce Hogan in TNA would've brought the ratings.

 

[DarkAngel]

Patience. Hogan isn't suppose to take over the company until January, so right now TNA is beefing up his debut in the company and kind of smoothing things over a bit right now until Hogan is finished with his tour and settle in with the TNA company in January. Relax, it might be well worth the wait.