10 Ways TNA Totally Screwed Themselves Over
2. Giving Hogan & Bischoff The Keys
Most of TNA’s problems can be traced back to Dixie Carter’s poor decisions, and she’s made few worse than bringing Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff into the fold in 2009. The duo’s politics, megalomania, and handing out big money contracts played a huge role in WCW’s death, and they almost repeated the act in TNA.
Hogan and Bischoff were effectively given free reign by Carter, and their list of crimes committed against the company is staggering. The endless stream of nWo copycat stables, the Bound for Glory series, Gut Check, the “restructured” X Division: every one of their grand ideas fall flat on its face, but their failings don’t end there.
Hogan proved himself a horrendous writer. His spell in that department saw AJ Styles become completely unlikeable as a mopey babyface, the entire Aces and 8’s angle, a pointless feud between him and Matt Morgan, and his daughter Brooke inexplicably named as the Knockouts division’s figurehead. Furthermore, he and Bischoff chose to push Eric’s woefully underseasoned son Garett and The Nasty Boys ahead of stars like Demond Wolfe and the Young Bucks.
Their decision to take TNA out of the Impact Zone and onto the road was a financial disaster, while the diminished Knockouts and X Divisions, abolition of the six-sided ring, and shift away from dynamic in-ring action saw TNA’s identity completely torn apart. Hogan and Bischoff were awful for TNA, and the company almost signed their own death warrant by handing them so much power.