TNA's 10 Most Costly Mistakes

9. Hiring Hogan

Jay Lethal Hulk Hogan
impactwrestling.com

Hulk Hogan was reportedly paid $35,000 for every appearance he made in TNA. While that’s a fraction of what he made at his peak in the WWF and WCW, he was still vastly, vastly overpaid.

Dixie Carter was a sucker for Hogan in late 2009, despite him not being a ratings draw in years. Hulkster was on the outs with WWE at the time, so she wasn’t really bidding against them for his services. Either let him come in at a reasonable rate (we’ll say cut what they paid him in half...and then cut it in half again), or just don’t let him come in at all.

Not only did they overpay him tremendously, but by the time he left the company, the ratings were worse than before he joined. And since he enjoyed more TV time and big angles than anyone else during his run there, his departure made it seem like their biggest star had left, making the struggling brand feeling even less relevant than ever.

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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