The Positives of the Hulk Hogan era in TNA
August 31, 2023
By Ryan Porzl
In 2003, Hulk Hogan would leave WWE and within months, rumors began to circulate of him appearing and competing for the upstart Total Nonstop Action Wrestling promotion (now Impact Wrestling). Ultimately, it didn't happen and both sides did their own things. Fast forward six years later on October 2009, TNA and Hogan would hold a press conference announcing his arrival to TNA which he eventually did in January 2010. At the time, the hope was obviously this would be a game changer for TNA and bring them to the next level like Hogan's arrival did for WCW in the 1990s. Unfortunately, and as it well known, this didn't happen and the Hogan era would last nearly four years which many wrestling fans and TNA/Impact fans would say was a failure at best, disastrous at worst as the promotions fortunes and reputation took tremendous damage that led to a massive decline during the early to late 2010s which left them on death's door by 2016 only to be saved by current owners Anthem. Obviously, there's plenty not to like about this time in TNA: the embarrassing attempt to compete against Monday Night RAW on Mondays to the arrival of washed up names to Hogan bringing in his daughter Brooke who contributed nothing to the product and was only there to try and raise her profile. However, was it all bad? Was there ANYTHING good from the Hogan era to look back on? Well, the answer is no, it wasn't all bad and yes, there were some good here and there. This is the second of a two parter article where we look back at Hogan in celebration of his recent 70th birthday. Keep in mind, I'm not trying to whitewash this era. I acknowledge it was a massive failure that did more harm than good. That said, I do think there were things Hogan (along with Eric Bischoff and TNA) got right during this time. There are things to look back on fondly from their attempts to take chances to coming up with concepts that are still around to this day while others are things people want back. Before I begin, I want to say when I bring up "The Hogan Era", I'm referring to when Hogan debuted in January 2010 to his departure in October 2013. I should also point out, with these examples, I'm not going to credit everything to Hogan and Bischoff as they didn't think of everything. If nothing else, I'm looking at positives from this period that they may or may not have had a hand in.
Note: I don't own any pictures, I found them on Google. Credit to TNA and Universal Studios
