8 Signings That DESTROYED Wrestling Promotions
7. Hulk Hogan & Eric Bischoff
Depressing for those that lived through it and simply bleak and predictable for those that didn't, the Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff hit-job on TNA was a sad case of two pro wrestling figureheads who were smart and established extracting money and opportunities from one that very much wasn't.
It was a destruction derby of the (distant) Number Two North American major so clichéd that some might speculate that the pair were sent by WWE to dismantle the brand, but the reality of Hogan and Bischoff's reign atop the company was the worst possible CV application if they ever wanted positions of power again.
From night one, they seemed resentful of everything TNA had been before they arrived, pointedly minimising the presence of in-house success stories such as Pope D'Angelo Dinero, Beer Money and Desmond Wolfe in order to make space for what felt like a never-ending run of crony hires that were either past their best physically or beyond moving the needle with bygone star power. Eric and Hulk weren't wrong about the company needing more to propel TNA beyond the holding pattern it had been in for years, but Val Venis (!), Bubba The Love Sponge (!!) and The Nasty Boys (!!!) were the opposites of the
Hogan's signing should have been all about the buzz, but it cast a shadow before he landed thanks to a Dixie Carter talent bollocking that nonsensically aired shortly before he arrived. The golden oldies were left with no choice but to lean into the negative perception, with Hogan in particular constantly gabbing about how he was here for positive change despite their self-serving power-trip booking presenting such a polar opposite that they were part of the millionth lame nWo retread stable by the end of their first year with the company.
The organisation otherwise impervious to lasting brand damage had at long last located a kryptonite - it was as if Hogan and Bischoff were walking talking toasts to the generational mismanagement, rather than an attempt to do away with it forever.