No! No! What was Dixie Carter thinking? She runs a business, so shouldnt she have done a background check on the people she hires? Yes, Hogan is the biggest name in wrestling history, but hes also been a political nightmare behind the scenes. He also wasnt drawing ratings in his last run in WWE (did Dixie even watch Mr. America?), or during his last couple years in WCW. Eric Bischoff was at the helm of WCW when he ran that thing into the ground. Neither men learned from their past mistakes, and took absolutely no blame for putting their former company out of business. That apparently didnt bother Dixie at all. She was starstruck, and brought both of them in to battle WWE. This plan worked out for exactly one night. Hogan's debut in TNA drew a great (for them) 1.5 rating. But that night, and the next few weeks led to troubling TV. Hogans cronies The Nasty Boys, who were washed up by over a decade soon showed up. Along with those two wastes of money came Hogan's other good pal Bubba the Love Sponge. Other former WWE talent like Rob Van Dam, Val Venis and Orlando Jordan also signed on. These were big paychecks that never paid out. By the time Hogan and Bischoff left, the ratings were actually lower than when they started! Their run came at a huge cost. During Hogans time in the company, he received far and away more TV time than anyone else. This is despite the fact that he only wrestled a single match during his tenure. His daughter was also brought in to head up the Knockouts Division (despite having no prior experience in wrestling, brother!), and later received a major storyline with Bully Ray. You can imagine that if Nick was into wrestling he would have become the X-Division champ. Much like Hogan and Bischoffs time in WCW, the duo were hopelessly dated and put over all the wrong talent. There were so many poor decisions made during this time period that its a wonder the company didnt begin collapsing even sooner.
As Rust Cohle from True Detective said "Life's barely long enough to get good at one thing. So be careful what you're good at."
Sadly, I can't solve a murder like Rust...or change a tire, or even tie a tie. But I do know all the lyrics to Hulk Hogan's "Real American" theme song and can easily name every Natural Born Thriller from the dying days of WCW. I was once ranked 21st in the United States in Tetris...on the Playstation 3 version...for about a week.
Follow along @AndrewSoucek and check out my podcast at wrestlingwithfriends.com
