Why TNA needs to look to alternative options rather than Hulk Hogan.

So first of all I would like to state that these views are coming from an English wrestling fan who has been a fan of TNA Wrestling since day one, someone who has watched them week in and week out since they’ve started. I would like to add that growing up I idolised Hulk Hogan, being brought up watching old school Wrestlemania’s made me a big fan of Hogan but enough is enough.

There’s no doubt about it, at the start Hogan did wonders for TNA such as; building some current stars, gaining more publicity, signing some former stars of the WWE which have actually had a positive effect in TNA as well as the actual Hulk Hogan factor which most likely made a few ‘Hulkamaniacs’ tune in to TNA. So don’t get me wrong he’s helped build TNA, however in my opinion he’s the one that is making it stale, the reason other fans won’t tune in and taking away the unique factors TNA had which made them refreshing and different to every other show.

My first reason of why Hogan needs to go is the change of the ring. I started watching TNA from about 2003 however watched some of their original stuff in 2002 when they started with they likes of AJ Styles, Jerry Lynne, Ken Shamrock, Low Ki and Scott Hall amongst many more. I recall it was 2004 when first I started to be intrigued in TNA Wrestling to watch week in and week out and what got me really hooked is the fact they had changed to has six sides, this is what made it different to WWE, WCW, ECW and bigger than ROH and that was their plan, to be something different, something fresh, something to separate them and make them different to any other wrestling company on the USA Network. However it wasn’t long after the arrival of Hulk Hogan in 2009 that it was the end of the six sided ring. Yes we have the cage matches and the lethal lockdown’s but they were so much better six sides of steel. It was different, hadn’t been seen before and it actually worked and made TNA which meant there weren’t any reason they should have gone but come 2010 the unique six sided ring was no more.

To my second reason of why TNA should part ways with Hulk Hogan, the unique match types and tournaments we had here in TNA, they’ve gone. One match type I am referring to is King Of The Mountain, something than no other wrestling company to my knowledge has used, again this was in the six sided ring, with a ladder match with a small penalty cage box, this match would normally be for the World Heavyweight Championship. This match was so good and I’ll use the word again ‘unique’. The match rules were simple, to win you climb the ladder and grab the gold. However each participant started ineligible to capture the gold until they had scored either a pinfall or submission on an opponent.Those who had been pinned or submitted would spend a 2 minute penalty in the caged box which could hold more than one wrestler which could lead to them fighting within the cage which could get pretty heated. Anyhow this match was the symbol of Slammiversary, a PPV which is recognition of the start of TNA, and Hogan came in and the last King Of The Mountain was Slammiversary 2009, surprise surprise, like the six sided ring it was no more.

Stated above is two examples of why TNA should part ways with Hulk Hogan, the fact two of the great reason’s TNA was different and original and they had soon been left behind from the ‘Hogan Express’. I have three more topics which I would like to discuss which will cover the following; X-Division, Feast or Fired and his air time. So firstly I will discuss the inconsistency Hulk Hogan has with the X Division. So from day one TNA has been known for the high flying, risk taking exhilarating X-Division, however when Hulk Hogan came in, it came all about him, we no longer had the likes AJ Styles, Chris Daniels, Samoa Joe, Petey Williams, Chris Sabin, Jerry Lynn, Alex Shelley & Frankie Kazarian have x-division matches which would be more appealing than the actual main event, he started to actually cut promo’s stating that he wanted the X-Division out, which Abyss then held the X-Division title during Hulk Hogan & Eric Bischoffs Immortal period. This in my opinion was appalling and disrespectful for what the company stood for and the fact the guys we had fighting for the division was people like Brian Kendrick, not amused. TNA need to forget the ‘big guys’ and go back with putting X Division before Hogan and his ‘recruits’. Then X Division picked up once more thanks to ‘A Double’ Austin Aries, which it seemed like Hogan was all on board for the X Division to pick up once more, they then added the stipulation of whoever holds the X Division belt cashes it in for a title shot at Destination X which A Double successfully did. Sounds good right? Then the X Division dipped down again to the fact they needed RVD to carry the belt to make it have some sort of importance, still not that important in my opinion. Then Hulk Hogan seemed to endorse Rockstar Spud in his BootCamp, however X Division hasn’t picked up till the past couple of weeks with the new triple threat rules bringing back stars such as Petey Williams. As you can probably tell TNA and in my opinion Hulk Hogan are very inconsistent with the X Division, even where the former champs such as Daniels, Styles & Joe aren’t getting a look in for the World Title. Hogan likes big guys because he is a big guy, this is why I think TNA should part ways with him so they could have some chance of competing slightly with WWE and go back to their routes the six sided ring with X Division as the focus point.

I won’t get into this stipulation which seemed to have disappeared since the arrival of Hulk Hogan, however the ‘Feast or Fired’ match was interesting, 14 participants would fight for four briefcases strung up on four poles. The briefcases would consist of a World Title Shot, X Division Shot, Tag Title Shot (where they can chose their partner) and a briefcase would fire the participant containing that case. This was original and refreshing and could shake things up in the whole of the company just with that one match. That soon disappeared from TNA.

The last topic I would like to discuss is the fact the Hulk Hogan gets more air time than most if not all TNA superstars. Is this really fair? Is this really going to build stars to be as big as The Rock, Stone Cold, Undertaker, Triple H, Shawn Michaels, CM Punk? I don’t think so. It’s hard enough with WWE being mainstream let alone having the GM and his ego taking up most of the air time and always being involved in the main storyline, it’s not going to build the stars which TNA have got which would be more than satisfactory if they were in WWE, but nope they’re in TNA having to take a back seat to their GM, not fair at all, this isn’t going to help the likes of AJ Styles, Bobby Roode, Austin Aries, Samoa Joe, James Storm or any of the other talent which hasn’t been recruited from WWE, as they’d all be an asset to WWE in my opinion and should be the guys leading the company rather their GM.

Thank you all for reading and I hope you've liked my first post, please comment below with your reaction’s, views and comments to my post.

Feel free to check out our Twitter Account @Kayfabebloggers

-Kurt Johansson-