Eric Bischoff Talks Hulk Hogan’s Impact On TNA Wrestling

Dixie Carter brought Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff into TNA Wrestling in early 2010. The deal actually came together in late 2009 but both Bischoff and Hogan would be on TNA programming that January. On an episode of Bischoff’s “83 Weeks” podcast, Bischoff discussed the impact Hogan had on TNA and the limitations they both felt while with the company.

“I was excited, I was excited at the possibilities and the potential that appeared at least initially to be there,” Bischoff said about debuting in TNA alongside Hogan in 2010.

He continued to say he didn’t feel TNA as a company did much to capitalize on the momentum they had shortly after Hogan and his debut, however.

“Had TNA as a company done the things necessary to take advantage of some of that momentum it may have carried itself forward.”

Bischoff then said that as things continued in TNA, he became less confident in the company’s ability to capitalize on the star power they had.

“The deeper we got into it the more we realized that there were no real resources put behind any of this by TNA. It was really wishful thinking on their part that all you had to do was throw these big names out there.”

“There were a lot of big names that were in TNA when we got there that weren’t really moving the needle the way they should have and I think a lot of that is because TNA didn’t know what to do with them.”

Bischoff also spoke about TNA’s brief run on Monday nights during that period.

“The idea of moving to Monday night wasn’t so much because we thought we could be competitive to the WWE,” Bischoff said. “I hope someone from AEW is listening to this. It wasn’t because we thought we were going to be able to be competitive but we knew when we went if we went head-to-head with Monday Night RAW much like making an announcement at Madison Square Garden we knew that going head-to-head whether it was for a short period, it was an experiment. We knew that it was an experiment. It was never intended to be or committed to be any kind of a long-term decision but we knew we would create a buzz.”

Bischoff’s comments can be heard in the player below: