00:00By 2008, TNA was finally gathering momentum.
00:04The company had a unique product, showcasing a six-sided ring and the high-flying X-Division,
00:12and talents like AJ Styles and Samoa Joe were becoming household names amongst fans.
00:18TNA had a seriously deep roster of former WWE superstars too, and their fanbase was growing all around the world.
00:28Everything seemed to be in place for a breakthrough, and then they signed Hawk Hogan and Eric Bischoff.
00:35Just four years later, and the men would leave the company in a far worse state than when they arrived.
00:44TNA Wrestling was founded in 2002 by Jeff and Jerry Jarrett to fill the void left by the closure of
00:53WCW and ECW.
00:55The unique selling point of this new promotion was a weekly pay-per-view model, but despite a talented roster,
01:03they soon started to struggle.
01:06It proved difficult for them to build an audience when fans had to pay $9.99 each week in order
01:13to keep up with the show.
01:14Production quality issues made the shows look less polished compared to WWE, and fans could just watch Raw and Smackdown
01:23for free each week.
01:24Everyone expected the place to go out of business.
01:28That was until Panda Energy stepped in and purchased 72% of the company, and it became a family business
01:36with Dixie Carter running things backstage.
01:40With Panda's support, TNA moved away from the weekly pay-per-view model and got a show on Spike TV
01:47in 2005.
01:49They signed major former WWE superstars and started touring internationally, but things were still far from perfect.
01:59Dixie was proving to be a poor leader backstage.
02:03She lacked experience when it came to running a wrestling business, and she was struggling to book the show and
02:10keep her staff under control.
02:12The turmoil behind the scenes started to affect the on-screen product.
02:17The pay-per-views were badly promoted, and the matches often featured screwy finishes, and despite TNA turning a small
02:25profit, the fans were still not satisfied.
02:29Something had to be done, and Dixie thought that signing Hulk Hogan was the solution.
02:35Hogan's star power was expected to elevate the entire brand, and hopefully attract more fans to the product.
02:43And the deal on the table was fantastic for the Hulkster too, as he would be getting paid $35,000
02:51per appearance.
02:53According to Eric Bischoff, he negotiated that contract on behalf of Hogan, and after making that kind of deal, you
03:01can see why Hogan wanted Bischoff by his side in TNA.
03:06Dixie had no interest in bringing Bischoff in, but Hogan insisted.
03:11Hogan sat Dixie down and explained to her that Bischoff was the visionary behind WCW's turnaround in the mid-90s,
03:21and that with his star power and Bischoff's creative vision, they could easily put WWE out of business.
03:29And so, the deal was done.
03:31On October 27th, 2009, during a press conference at Madison Square Garden, Hulk Hogan announced that he and Eric Bischoff
03:40had signed with TNA.
03:43During the presentation, Dixie Carter said,
03:46Our goal is to become the world's biggest professional wrestling company.
03:51Hulk defines professional wrestling, and we look forward to partnering with him in a variety of ways as we continue
03:58to grow TNA globally.
04:02Bischoff's influence as an executive producer was felt immediately.
04:07He argued that the six-sided ring was just a gimmick, and it made TNA look like a joke.
04:13He said that people flipping the channel wouldn't recognise it as a wrestling show unless it was in a four
04:19-sided ring.
04:20Much of the fanbase were immediately up in arms about the decision.
04:25To them, it was one of the things that made TNA feel unique and special.
04:30But there were bigger changes coming to TNA at the hands of its new executive producer.
04:37Bischoff had come close to beating WWE back in the 90s when he was running WCW, but ultimately, he was
04:45beaten by Vince McMahon in the Monday Night Wars, and WCW was put out of business.
04:52But now Bischoff saw an opportunity to get his own back.
04:56Bischoff, Hogan and Dixie Carter sat down with the executives at Spike TV and convinced them to give TNA a
05:05live Monday night show going head-to-head with WWE Raw.
05:11Fans were left baffled and scratching their heads, wondering how two of the supposedly brightest minds in wrestling and Dixie
05:21Carter could have come up with such a stupid decision.
05:24It must have been one heck of a persuasive sales pitch.
05:30Spike TV agreed to a special live episode of Impact on Monday, January 4th 2010, which would herald the on
05:38-screen debut of The Hulkster.
05:40The promotion for the show went through the roof, with TNA spending an absolute fortune on advertising.
05:47But before Hogan had even stepped foot in the impact zone, it became apparent that he was up to his
05:54old tricks.
05:55As the show came on the air, Mike Tenet and Taz welcomed their new broadcast partner to the company, Bubba
06:03the Love Sponge.
06:04Bubba was a radio DJ of the shock jock variety from Florida.
06:09He and Hogan were long-time friends, and Hogan got him on the TNA payroll as soon as possible.
06:16The fans hated having Bubba on the show, and it was an early sign that Hogan was only out to
06:23exploit the company for his own gains.
06:26In January 2010, he made some disgusting comments about the Haiti earthquake that killed 220,000 people,
06:35and it was reported at the time that the wrestlers backstage despised Bubba and couldn't believe that he'd managed to
06:43hold on to his job.
06:44Awesome Kong took issue with his comments and punched him in the face twice backstage,
06:51and yet TNA continued to employ him.
06:55Kong ended up quitting the company because of it.
06:58It was a clear sign of the metaphorical chokehold that Hogan had on Dixie Carter,
07:04and Bubba the Love Sponge wasn't the only one of Hogan's buddies to get a job in TNA.
07:10As Hogan strolled down to the ring on the first live episode of Impact,
07:15Scott Hall and Sean Waltman were shown at ringside.
07:19When Hogan started cutting his promo, Hall interrupted.
07:23Now, when me and Pac heard that Eazy-E was here, that Hawk Hogan was going to be here,
07:29and Big Kevin Nash has been here, that means one thing to us.
07:33Big paychecks, big sold-out arenas, and big parties.
07:38As we all started getting flashbacks to WCW and the inmates taking over the asylum,
07:44the Hulkster snapped us all back into reality.
07:48He assured everyone that this time, things were going to be different.
07:52TNA was going to become the number one company in the world.
07:57But we should have known better back then,
08:00that you can never trust a word that comes out of Hogan's mouth.
08:03In fact, it was almost insulting how Hogan didn't even try and hide his nepotism,
08:10and he'd already brought in Bubba, Scott Hall and Sean Waltman,
08:14but he still wasn't done for the evening.
08:17Bischoff showed up, who had no reason to be on TV as an executive producer,
08:22and everyone had just assumed that he was going to be working backstage for TNA,
08:27and not as an on-screen personality.
08:29And then Hogan's nepotism became literal,
08:32as they showed his own daughter, Brooke, sat at ringside.
08:36And, just to ruin everyone's night,
08:39the Nasty Boys made their TNA debut.
08:43These two fat slobs were barely relevant in the 90s,
08:47but they ended up on the gravy train too,
08:49just because they were a couple of Hogan's best friends.
08:53I'm surprised Brutus didn't show up somewhere.
08:56The special live episode of Impact drew a 1.5 rating,
09:00while Raw, on the other side, scored a rating of 3.7.
09:05But, TNA's performance was enough to convince Spike TV
09:09to allow Impact to go head-to-head with Raw on Monday nights,
09:14starting in March 2010.
09:16And, sadly, this wasn't Brooke Hogan's only appearance in TNA,
09:22and she was announced as the head of the Knockouts division,
09:25a role that she had absolutely no right to play.
09:30And it was just blatant nepotism on behalf of Hogan.
09:34But Hogan had an ulterior motive in getting the kid on TV,
09:39and that was to promote her awful music career
09:42that nobody was interested in.
09:45Brooke was involved in a storyline with The Aces and Eights,
09:48where she played Bully Ray's love interest.
09:51Her acting was better in Hogan Knows Best,
09:54and that's not a compliment.
09:56The Aces and Eights was a biker faction
09:59who were inspired by the Sons of Anarchy TV show.
10:03It was one of Eric Bischoff's attempts to copy the NWO in WCW,
10:08and to begin with, it looked like a promising storyline.
10:11What made them so interesting to begin with was their identities were actually hidden,
10:16and fans were surprised to find out who was underneath the balaclavas.
10:21But it was a case of diminishing returns,
10:24and each reveal was more disappointing than the last.
10:28And when Garrett Bischoff was revealed to be one of the members,
10:32it was game over.
10:34Of course, Eric couldn't help himself but take a leaf out of Hogan's playbook,
10:40and got his own son on the TNA payroll.
10:44This dweeb stunk up TNA for years,
10:47and he wouldn't have been anywhere near a TV-based wrestling show
10:51if it wasn't for his daddy.
10:53We even had to put up with a Bischoff vs. Bischoff match on pay-per-view at one point.
10:58The Aces and Apes was actually Bischoff's third attempt at emulating the NWO,
11:03with the band being his first try.
11:06Kevin Nash, Scott Hall and Sean Walkman attempted to run Riot like it was 1997 all over again,
11:13but all it proved was that Bischoff was a one-trick pony
11:16when it came to running a wrestling promotion.
11:20Original NWO member Hawk Hogan stayed away from the band,
11:24telling everyone that things were different now.
11:27But that all went out of the window at Bane for Glory in October 2010,
11:33when just like back in 1996,
11:36Hogan and Bischoff turned heel and formed Immortal.
11:41This was Bischoff's next attempt at recreating the NWO.
11:45The only highlight here was Jeff Hardy's brilliant heel run,
11:50which came out of nowhere.
11:51During his time in Immortal, Eric became the evil on-screen authority figure
11:57in yet another WCW flashback.
12:01He concocted a storyline where he declared war on the high-flying X-Division.
12:07For years, the X-Division was one of the few things that TNA did better than WWE.
12:13Even when the chips were down, fans could look forward to their version of the Cruiserweights
12:19putting on a spectacular show.
12:22But Bischoff managed to make the division look pathetic
12:25by belittling its roster every week
12:28and then by booking the Monster Abyss to win the title.
12:32He also introduced Fortune,
12:34which was a four-horsemen knock-off featuring Ric Flair himself.
12:39Eric didn't just manage to make a mess of the creative side of TNA,
12:44he also wrecked the production side of things too.
12:47His master plan of going head-to-head with Raw every Monday night
12:51was a total disaster.
12:53Despite WWE suffering from its lowest ratings in history at the time,
12:58this was still a monumentally dumb idea
13:01and proved that Bischoff just had no fresh ideas at all.
13:06From March 2010,
13:07Impact got battered in the ratings every week
13:10by going head-to-head with WWE
13:12before mercifully being put out of its misery
13:15and moved back to Thursdays.
13:17In a statement, Dixie Carter said,
13:20Our fans made it clear that they preferred the Thursday night time period.
13:25We're looking forward to delivering what the fans are asking for.
13:29They tried to dress it up,
13:31but the damage was done.
13:33The company already looked second-rate compared to WWE,
13:38but now they were second-rate and being laughed at.
13:41Bischoff also insisted that Impact went live every other episode
13:45and then they left the soundstage at Universal Studios
13:48and went on tour,
13:50all of which cost them an absolute fortune.
13:54They hardly ever managed to sell out any of the arenas they visited,
13:58even for the pay-per-views.
14:00They were renting out all of these huge arenas
14:03across the United States
14:05and only selling a few thousand tickets,
14:09which was terrible business practice.
14:11The pay-per-view buy rate also plummeted
14:14during Eric Bischoff's tenure as executive producer.
14:18For example,
14:20the 2010 edition of Bound for Glory
14:22did around 40,000 buys on pay-per-view,
14:25whereas the 2011 show did just 25,000 buys.
14:29Compare this to WWE,
14:32they drew 180,000 buys
14:34for the Hell in a Cell pay-per-view
14:37in the same month.
14:38And things weren't much better on TV.
14:41In November 2012,
14:43Impact's TV rating was down 21%
14:46on the previous year
14:48and they were barely achieving a million viewers a week.
14:51And no wonder,
14:53because the storylines were crap.
14:55The Claire Lynch storyline
14:56was an embarrassment involving AJ Styles,
14:59who was accused of having an affair
15:01with Dixie Carter
15:02and fathering a child
15:04with a drug-addicted woman
15:05named Claire Lynch.
15:07Lynch was portrayed by an actress
15:09who couldn't act, by the way,
15:11and the whole angle
15:12just dragged on endlessly.
15:14Bischoff took credit for this idea,
15:16by the way,
15:17and later said that he loved it.
15:19Obviously, the fans hated every second of it.
15:23And like that wasn't bad enough,
15:25the constant presence of Hulk Hogan
15:27turned even more fans off.
15:30He inserted himself
15:31in the never-ending Aces and Apes storyline,
15:34where he took on Bully Ray,
15:36who was having an affair with Brooke Hogan
15:39or some other crap.
15:40There were some rumblings
15:41that TNA was starting to struggle financially
15:45under the weight of all of these bad decisions.
15:49In October 2013,
15:50Hogan made his last appearance in the company,
15:54and then a few months later,
15:55TNA sent Bischoff home
15:57in order to finish out
15:59the rest of his contract.
16:01Just 10 days after Bischoff's departure,
16:03TNA licked its wounds
16:05and headed back to the soundstage
16:07at Universal Studios.
16:09They even eventually went back
16:11to the six-sided ring.
16:13But sadly, it was too little too late
16:16for Spike TV.
16:18They cancelled TNA Impact in July 2014.
16:23In the disastrous years
16:25that he was the executive producer of TNA,
16:29Eric Bischoff proved
16:30that he was just a one-trick pony.
16:32Apart from inflicting his useless son
16:35on the roster,
16:36he did nothing new.
16:38Lazily, he just went back
16:40to his WCW playbook,
16:42and this time around,
16:44none of it worked.
16:45And of course, it proved
16:47that the mere presence of Hulk Hogan
16:49isn't enough
16:50to save a wrestling company,
16:52and both men turned out
16:54to be nothing more
16:55than snake oil salesmen.
16:58Truly, TNA never recovered
17:00from this period,
17:01and it certainly never got back
17:03to the promising heights
17:05that he'd achieved in 2008
17:07before the arrival
17:08of Hogan and Bischoff.
