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00:00Ladies and gentlemen of the media and TNA fans all over the world watching via the internet at TNAwrestling.com,
00:08we welcome you to the Impact Zone. We welcome you to Orlando, Florida, for what promises to be a very
00:15historic, a very exciting, and a very monumental announcement.
00:19For the members of the media, immediately following the principal's speeches, you will have the opportunity for a Q&A
00:26in addition to one-on-ones.
00:29At this time, ladies and gentlemen, let me introduce to you the TNA president, Dixie Carter.
00:38It is my destiny. It is the truth I seek. In this world, I'll find a way to cross the
00:47line.
00:49Everybody's doing the same thing. I'll be doing what I'll be doing. I'll be doing my thing.
00:56Thank you so much for coming. Six short years ago, TNA moved to the Impact Zone right here at Universal
01:05Studios,
01:06and shortly after, signed our first deal with Spike Television in 2005.
01:11Since that time, we have grown from an impossible dream to an amazing reality.
01:18You know, no one expected us to last six months, much less become a global entertainment company
01:25with programming seen in more than 120 countries worldwide, and with global touring and licensing.
01:32We took that another step on January 4th, when we made the decision to move Impact to that Monday night
01:41for a special live three-hour broadcast, and it was a very successful trial.
01:47The ratings were wonderful for our company, and we did 2.2 million viewers that night,
01:54held for three hours, and at one point peaked to 3.4 million.
01:58We also had record ratings across every demo.
02:03So, after seeing those results, Spike TV and TNA saw the potential on what could happen
02:10if we moved Impact to Monday night, where historically the wrestling audience has always been.
02:18So today, I'm very happy to announce to you that starting March 8th,
02:22TNA Impact is moving to Monday nights at 9 o'clock Eastern and Pacific.
02:29We're very, very excited about the move, obviously, and it's no coincidence that four months ago,
02:36a lot of excitement and buzz started happening in our company.
02:40We got more headlines around the world than we've ever had, more media generated,
02:45record ratings, both domestically and in countries around the world.
02:51And on October 27th, I think it was, at Madison Square Garden, Hulk Hogan shocked the wrestling world
02:58when he announced me and TNA as his new wrestling partner.
03:04We said that day we were going to turn the wrestling world upside down, and I think we've done just
03:11that.
03:11He also said that TNA was a great company with amazing talent, an amazing fan base,
03:19and just needed that little bit of rocket fuel, as he said.
03:23And today, I'm here to tell you, I think Hulk Hogan has definitely been that rocket fuel that TNA needed.
03:31So I'm excited today to be the one to introduce him at a press conference.
03:35So ladies and gentlemen, please welcome the pop icon, Hulk Hogan.
04:05Well, I like that Hulk Hogan, a little bit of rocket fuel imitation.
04:09That was cool.
04:10This is amazing.
04:12It's overwhelming to me.
04:15I've been around the block a couple times in this business, and I had no idea with, you know, Dixie
04:22Carter, her dad, Bob Carter, TNA,
04:26this whole TNA family, the whole support staff, I had no idea how quick and in such a short amount
04:33of time
04:34such amazing things would happen.
04:36It's only been a few weeks, and here we are making this huge announcement.
04:40It's game time.
04:41It's game on.
04:43And we're getting momentum, you know, each and every taping, each and every day when we have our meetings.
04:49I've never been around a company before that has so many positive things happening from the people, from the ideas,
04:56from the work ethic.
04:58This is an honor to be here.
05:01If you had told me three or four years ago that in the twilight of my career, I would have
05:06an opportunity to be around such great people,
05:09I would have thought you were crazy.
05:10But being here today, this is bigger for me than any wrestling moment in my career,
05:18because just when I thought things had leveled out, just when I thought, you know, Hulk Hogan and my whole
05:24career had peaked,
05:26and there was this unbelievable height that I'd achieved, we're getting ready, and we are making history.
05:33And things from this day forward are going to change like they've never changed before.
05:38So hang on for the ride.
05:41TNA has everything we need to go somewhere no sports entertainment company has ever gone before.
05:48Everybody's dedicated here.
05:51On my level, in the dressing room, that old barbaric wrestling mentality is gone.
05:56These guys are all about working hard, raising the bar, you know, actually, you know, finding new ground to take
06:02wrestling to.
06:03So to be here, I actually feel young again.
06:05I feel, you know, a spring in my step, and I'm just so proud.
06:09And thank you, Dixie.
06:11Thank you, Bob Carter.
06:13He's over in Texas, not up there.
06:15And TNA, the whole family, thank you so much for letting me share, for letting me be here.
06:22And if it wasn't for the hard work that everyone has done over the years, this moment wouldn't happen.
06:30It's not a Hulk Hogan thing.
06:32And I thank you very much for the little extra, you know, gasoline-type cliche.
06:38But it's not me.
06:39It really isn't.
06:40This company has a foundation that's unselfish, that's giving, that's committed like no company I've ever worked for before.
06:50These people are real.
06:51There's no agendas here.
06:53This is a one team.
06:54It's a one vibration going forward, and it's all positive.
06:59Thank you, Dixie.
07:00Thank you, TNA, Bob Carter.
07:02I love you guys.
07:03Thank you for giving me a chance to have life after life.
07:06And TNA is on a roll, so put your seatbelt on.
07:10The ride's getting ready to really take off now.
07:13Thank you, guys.
07:14Can we open it up for some questions?
07:16Absolutely.
07:17That's what we're going to do.
07:17We're going to open it up for questions and answers from the members of the media.
07:25How long do you foresee this happening?
07:28Is this something that will be going on for three, four months, or with Spike TV is six months, a
07:33year?
07:33Has that been determined?
07:35I think we see this happening forever.
07:38I mean, we have no plans to do anything else.
07:41We want to make this as big as it possibly can be.
07:45We will be going live on Monday, March 8th, and we will be taping some episodes and being live and
07:53others.
07:53But this is a move we are committed to making.
07:59Why the decision to go 9 to 11 rather than maybe 8 to 10?
08:04You know, we could have done either one.
08:06It doesn't mean, look, since we've been at Spike Television, we have, I think, moved time slots three times, two
08:12different days.
08:13That wonderful, amazing wrestling fan base that TNA has has always followed us and has always grown from, you know,
08:22the 600,000 viewers we started with each week to almost 2 million now.
08:26So that doesn't mean we can't change it or we can't tweak it.
08:29But I think this was the decision that we felt was best to start with.
08:33For me, brother, you know, this is from a wrestler's point of view, not a corporate or a business point
08:39of view, which is the most important, believe me, now that I've started to figure that out.
08:43But from a wrestler's point of view, if you're going to prove that you're the best and you're going to
08:48get in a fight, you want to have the fans, you know, make the choice of who the number one,
08:54you know, entertainment company is, who puts out the best product.
08:57So for me, as a wrestler, if I was lacing the boots up again, I would want to go head
09:03to head, you know, I would want to go head to head with what we call the competition.
09:07And so for me, that would be the only option.
09:10Now, the networks or for Disney, I mean, for, you know, not Disney, I'm sorry, for Dixie's motivation, there may
09:17be reasons to switch the time slot around.
09:20But for the wrestling point of view, you know, the wrestlers like a fight and they like to prove themselves.
09:26And that's what works for me and the guys in the back.
09:33Hulk, you were there a handful of years back for the Monday Night Wars, going at it again, Monday Night
09:39Wars.
09:41I'm sorry, I didn't hear the question.
09:42I said you were there a few years back, WCW, Monday Night Wars.
09:47Your thoughts about the Monday Night Wars once again?
09:50Well, I guess you could call it the Monday Night Wars.
09:52You know, I was there before when it took us about six months, you know, and we were actually across
10:00the street, you know, at Disney.
10:03And we were actually on the soundstage there.
10:06And within six months, you know, we were out in the live venues in front of, you know, 15,000,
10:1120,000 people a night.
10:12And within six months, we were dominant.
10:14We were controlling and we were the number one company.
10:17And it stayed that way for quite a long time.
10:19I don't think, you know, the same outcome is going to happen here, you know, because if we're going to
10:25war, we are going to win that.
10:27It's not if we are going to win that war.
10:29But to me, it's not a competition anymore.
10:31This company has a better product.
10:34This company has better talent.
10:36This company produces, you know, the matches and just everything I've seen here for being around, you know, almost a
10:43couple of months now.
10:44This company has bettered everything they do.
10:46So I think the war will be won.
10:49And then the final outcome, you know, if it is a war, we're just going to show that we're the
10:53better company with a better product.
10:55We're not going to repeat history.
10:57Like I said, we're going to make history.
10:59I want to add something.
11:00I think that this is, when you say a war, a war is fought over usually a long period of
11:05time.
11:05I mean, our goals have not changed from the very beginning.
11:09And that was to put out the very best wrestling company and continue to grow that product slow and steady.
11:14This rocket fuel, we want to increase that growth.
11:17But, you know, we set our targets on our competitors, you know, third rated show.
11:22We've surpassed that on an ongoing basis.
11:24Now our sights are set on the second rated show.
11:26And we'll just continue and continue and continue until we ultimately, like we already are in other parts of the
11:32world, the number one wrestling company on television.
11:36Were there any talks of going three hours?
11:39The special was three hours, but this is going to be a two-hour show.
11:42Were there any discussions about that?
11:44No, there were no talks to take Impact three hours.
11:48There are talks for additional programming, but not to make Impact a three-hour show.
11:53Any other questions?
11:56What kind of reaction, if any, do you expect from WWE and Vince McMahon?
12:01I've never heard him, so.
12:03You want the inside scoop, brother?
12:05You want to know what's really going on?
12:07Well, I expect no reaction, you know, because they don't acknowledge what they would consider anybody else in the wrestling
12:16business.
12:16They live in a world of their own where no one else exists.
12:19I know a little bit about that company.
12:21I was there for quite a long while.
12:23So I expect nothing as far as them acknowledging this.
12:27But what I do know on the inside, if you want to get the scoop, is the macho man said,
12:32ooh, brother, I got it.
12:34The talent is cheering us on.
12:36I've got several friends there that are going, go, go, go, because for the talent, this gives them an option.
12:42You know, right now, it's almost like, you know, in my opinion, it's almost like a monopoly.
12:47You've got nowhere to go, nothing to do in the big scheme of things.
12:50I mean, this is a great company, but making this move and doing what we're doing, it opens up the
12:55world for the talent.
12:57They're cheering us on, brother.
12:59Believe me.
13:00But the people in the office, the corporate side, they're running around the building like it's on fire.
13:05They're panicking.
13:07That's the scoop.
13:10Are there any expectations from the company or Spike TV on how the success has to generate itself?
13:17Are there ratings numbers they want to see, look at?
13:20Is it going to evolve over time?
13:22Is there anything like that that's been discussed?
13:24Yeah, I think it'll grow over time.
13:25I really do.
13:26I think if we can hold numbers like we've had success on big Thursday nights and continue to grow that
13:33and even have the kind of success we had on that one Monday night on January 4th, you know, it'll
13:38be a good place to start.
13:39And then we'll just, you know, to continue to grow it from there.
13:42You know, the real winner in all of this is the wrestling fans.
13:47I mean, think about it.
13:49I mean, this is, you know, it's our job.
13:51We are having so much fun at what we're doing, and we want people to feel that.
13:56You know, we want people to feel the passion that we feel, and maybe they'll get that passion back
14:02that either they've lost from being a wrestling fan from the past, or they've never been a wrestling fan before.
14:08So how cool would it be for them to feel what we're feeling and become involved and ride this ride
14:14with us
14:14and, you know, be proud to be a wrestling fan.
14:17I've been saying lately, you know, how come it's, you know, okay, I'll admit I'm a wrestling fan.
14:21Why do we have to admit it?
14:23You know, let's be proud of it.
14:24And we want to give them product that will make them proud to be a fan again.
14:32That's it.
14:34Thank you very much for attending.
14:35You will have an opportunity.
14:36You know, Brother Michael, I want to say one last thing, that last question, bro.
14:38You know, what's so cool about this company is it's kind of like going to church.
14:43You know, a lot of people, oh, my God, I've got to go to church.
14:46I've got to go to church.
14:46I'm fortunate enough to be, I go to a church that people love going there.
14:51It's just great, you know, to see people in the church that I go to, and they're happy to be
14:55there.
14:56It's the same way with this company.
14:57I used to go to work in another place, and it was the longest day in my life.
15:02I'd walk in there at noon, and from noon until midnight, because I was usually the last guy to leave
15:07the building, it was like being there 10 years.
15:10You know, an hour was a year.
15:12The people here love being here.
15:15And when you talk about benchmarks and are there things we need to hit or different marks or quotas, I
15:21don't think I'd even try to put a parameter on it.
15:23These guys are moving so fast, and they're raising the bar so fast.
15:27If I said, okay, by next month we need to do X amount of, you know, numbers, you know, with
15:33the ratings and stuff, I'd be afraid to predict anything.
15:36These guys are working so hard here, and there's this energy and this attitude about being here that we don't
15:42even have a graduated scale of where we want to go.
15:44These guys are raising the bar every time we come out here, so, I mean, I'm just hanging on for
15:50the ride because these are a bunch of young guys with young attitudes, and the whole company's fresh.
15:55So, when you talk about are there certain marks or however you put the question, I wouldn't even know where
16:00to begin because this thing's happening fast, and I'm really happy to be here.
16:06Thank you guys so much for coming.
16:08Thank you. Hulk Hogan, Dixie Carter, we thank you very much.
16:11TNA fans watching around the world at TNAwrestling.com, we thank you as well.
16:16We will see you this Thursday night on Spike TV, and remember, Impact moves to Mondays on March the 8th.
16:22Thanks very much.
17:19TNAwrestling.com
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17:55The next chapter in the Hulk and Bischoff regime is about to unfold in TNA Wrestling's most brutal pay-per
18:04-view of the year,
18:06Lockdown.
18:06It's a jagged battlefield, where every heated feud and championship will be settled inside the steel cage.
18:15TNA presents Lockdown, live April 18th from the Family Arena.
18:19No fear.
18:21TNA Island.
18:22No.
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