So Monday, January 4th is the dawn of the Hogan era taking over TNA, with them airing a special episode of TNA iMPACT against WWE's show RAW. Which is reminiscent of the old Monday Night Wars of WWE and WCW. TNA is trying to make a statement that they will be the number one promotion with the help of Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff, two guys who were very influential back in WCW but ultimately killed the product.
So here we are, ready for the Hogan regime on TNA, a much smaller promotion then WCW ever was with the fear of Hogan and Bischoff repeating what they once did. And with rumours of guys like Scott Hall, Sean Waltman (X-Pac), Sid Vicous and The Nasty Boys joining along with Hogan running around, it started to sound like Hogan was rounding up his friends for some easy money. But with Hogan constantly saying that he wanted to push the younger guys and make them the talk of TNA, I was hopeful... at the least.
Anyways, the show started of with a Steel Asylum match with for the X-Division Title. A Steel Asylum has the basic concept of a Steel Cage match (escape the cage to win) but is more of a dome form then a standard square. There is one hole in the centre of the dome which the wrestler must climb up and go through to win. If there is one thing you can say that defines TNA, it would probably goto the X-Division. They are the high fliers and risk taker type of wrestlers but with a bit more intelligence then just "Imma jump out of the ring and get a big pop from the crowd" kind of mentality. I may start to sound a bit too technical but it is a mix of the risk taking and intelligent in ring thinking that these guys have that make them special. They aren't just there to do a spot fest, their there to put on a good match.
So it was a good idea to put these guys in the first match on the card. Some of the problems about this though was that there were eight guys in this match. So somebody making a name for themselves in this type of match (especially considering that they were limited to being inside a cage) would be quite a task. Alas, the match went and was fairly strong. If you haven't seen an X-Division match you should check one out (maybe not this one but any other should be fine). That was, until about five minutes or so into the match. One of the wrestlers; Homicide decides to take out some sort of baton and started attacking everyone. Which lead to a disqualification with no real finish.
After the match, a huge surprise happened when Homicide decided to escape the Asylum and BAM! Jeff Hardy (Of WWE Fame) decides to crash the party. Homicide decided to attack Hardy but was met with a steel chair to the head and a Twist of Fate (Hardy's finisher) on the steel ramp. Afterwards, Hardy climbed the outside of the structure as the other wrestlers were still inside of it, and Hardy decide to perch himself on the top, just sitting there until the show cut away from him.
There were a few problems with this whole match. The first one was that there was no finish to the match or any real length. When you are attracting a new audience based around the idea of Hulk Hogan coming to your promotion along with some other people, the other people shouldn't take priority over the talent you have now. You want to showcase the talent you have to the audience and say "This is what we're about". Instead, they made the match short and ended it with a stupid finish only to have Jeff Hardy over shadow everything that happened before. Does anybody out their care that Amazing Red is the X-Division Champion? Does anyone know any of the other wrestlers in that match at the end? Did anyone know that there was an X-Division let alone a champion for that Division? No, but hey, Jeff Hardy is now part of TNA OMFG RIGHT!?!?
Anyways, there was a match for their womens division title (called the Knockout Championship) against ODB and Tara (Victoria of WWE Fame) who just so happens to be the Champion after she won it about a week ago and TNA's last PPV event. Again, nothing wrong with the match because it was too short but with Tara loosing the belt two weeks after she won it is stupid. Not to mention that she won it from ODB so there should of been no reason for ODB to loose it in the first place.
Sometime later, Scott Hall and Sean Waltman make their appearance trying to get inside of the event only to be shut down by the security blocking the entrance. Smart. But then a few shots later their in the audience as Hulk Hogan makes his way to the ring. Hogan starts to talk about how he's excited to be part of TNA and says its a dawn of a new era. Eventually, Hall and Waltmen make a ruckus, which leads to Hogan calling them to the ring.
Hall and Waltmen start talking about how this will be just like the good old days, with lot's of money and a bunch of other things. Hogan decides to ruin the talk with him stating that things will be different this time and promises it will be about the new young talent. Eventually, Kevin Nash comes out to defend Hall and Waltmen only to have Eric Bischoff make his way to the ring as he talks about the old days and how it was these guys in the ring that changed WCW. But he also said that things will be different and everyone will have to prove themselves. Nash accepts, and leaves with Hall and Waltmen, while Hogan and Bischoff once again state that it is a new era and blah blah blah.
To be honest, I got teary eyed when I heard Hogan said he wanted to push the younger guys. How it was about the new talent and things were different. If there is one thing all wrestling fans want, its something new. Not something new with old faces, but something new with new faces.
Anyways, they showed a bunch of debuts of past WWE workers like Orlando Jordan and Val Venis along with the old Nast Boy's . All of them I'm sure nobody really cares about. I mean there is some nostalgia with Val Venis and the Nasty Boy's, but does anyone really remember Orlando Jordan? Did he have that much of an impact for people to remember?
The night went on and didn't really showcase much of the TNA talent, as some of there tag teams (British Invasion, Beer Money Inc) were either not showcased, or shown laying down beaten up by a mysterious attack who was later to be revealed as the Nasty Boys.
Later on, Founder of TNA Jeff Jarrett came out and started to sing praises about TNA's new journey which got the crowd real hot. Hogan came on the titantron and started bad mouthing Jeff Jarrett, and said he was the reason this company almost failed if not for now owner Dixie Carter. This didn't go over with the crowd who were just generally excited for TNA and just wanted to cheer on. And when Hogan started to say how stagnant TNA was the fans let him know, with constant chants of "Bull Shit" as he was talking.
Finally the Main Event of TNA Champion AJ Styles against Kurt Angle was next. It was generally a good match and got the crowd excited. There was some weird part when a mysterious masked man came in to interrupt, only to be thrown out by Kurt Angle. All of which lasted about less than a minute. The match continued till a surprise appearance by Ric Flair, as he watched some of the match by the entrance ramp. Some time later he decided to leave before the match ended, which didn't make sense, and the match ended with Styles pinning Angle for the win.
Hogan came out and praised the two only to find out that Mick Foley was looking for him. Shoot to backstage, Foley is looking for him only to meet Bischoff and they talked a bunch. After some chatter Hogan appeared and Hall and Waltmen attacked Foley from behind while Hogan had a smirk on his face.
So this whole entire show, which was going to catch new people watching TNA probably did a good job... on some basis. What kept the show moving forward was the constant surprises of old guys that you probably remember. Which was reminiscent of the old WCW shows. The show never made you care about any of the current roster which is what they really should have done. TNA had a three hour show and a chance to showcase what TNA is all about. To tell the world "This is our style of wrestling". Instead, they blew the first hour with a horrible X-Division match, a womens match that had no purpose of even being on the card and Scott Hall and Sean Waltmen beating up Mick Foleyending the show . Aside from AJ styles, none of the champions were properly showcased (two of them lost their belts) and one didn't even appear.
One of the most over Tag Team's in the company; Beer Money, were just scene lying on the ground instead of being in a match to showcase what their all about.
What the show seemed to focus more on, was getting people to watch the next episode of TNA iMPACT more then anything else. Which is a fine way to start off. But if you keep throwing surprises well... WCW. I'm sure on some fan perspective that this was a great show. But you have to think long term about a show like this.
TNA hyped up this special episode and got more viewers then they ever had. What they could of done was make people care about the TNA product. Make people care why they have something called a X-Division, why they have a Tag Team Knockouts (Womens) title, and just exactly how they are different from WWE aside from their six sided ring to coincide with the appearance of Hogan.
But they didn't, they went the route everyone was thinking would happen. And while I'll give you Jeff Hardy was quite a shocker, everything else was all according to plan. I won't judge yet but, there still is some positive things going around. If Hogan is true to his word about pushing the new guys, then you can use all the old guys to get a rub off of the young guys. But they didn't do it in WCW so how much hope do we really have?
Its been nine years since the death of WCW with tons of people writing down their own thoughts on what really killed it. And while nobody knows what Hogan will bring creatively, everyone still remembers the past. If Bischoff and Hogan have truly learned from their mistakes and are %100 pushing the new talent then we are in for some interesting television. And well, to be honest, even if their not, it will still be awesome to see the train wreck that could happen.
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