A top AEW talent has recalled one of Hulk Hogan’s heavily booed moments.
The early 2000s saw the emergence of TNA wrestling founded by WWE Hall of Famer and current AEW talent, Jeff Jarrett. The promotion soon hired several top indie stars or former WWE stars to get going. While the promotion started gaining popularity and traction, Hulk Hogan and former WWE manager Eric Bischoff entered the company.
Once Hogan and Bischoff entered in 2010, they decided to get rid of the popular six-sided ring in favor of a traditional four-sided ring. Many wrestling fans believe the introduction of Hogan caused the actual collapse of TNA.
While a four-sided ring represented a traditional mat, a six-sided ring gave more definition to the squared circle, and set TNA wrestling apart from the others. Recently speaking on his My World podcast, Jarrett opened up on Hogan’s leadership skills, and claimed how finishing the six-sided ring hurt the business.
“Talk about living in the bubble. Look, I mean, I’m always cache if I have to describe Hogan. I believe he’s the biggest box office attraction this business has ever produced. I think that includes Cena, I think that includes Rock, Undertaker, you name it. Anyway, so with all due respect, Hogan not having a clue what TNA Wrestling was all about — the six-sided ring, all of that, he was so far away from who our audience was. Again, I’ve always said, that’s on Dixie.
That’s 100% on her. Why she didn’t say, Hulk, this six-sided ring got us shelf space and we’ve sold a lot of licensing on it and the way we look at it and Spike looks at it.
They ain’t going to tell you no for any reason because you’re Hulk Hogan but let me just give you some context on this and that. I mean, they booed him on night one. Can you imagine how Kevin K and Spike felt? The big savior of TNA quote unquote that didn’t need saving, was on the right track, is gonna walk out there and they’re booing him on night one? It’s just like, guys, do y’all not see the forest? Nope, you can’t because of the trees. It was just unbelievable. Just a total disconnect on every [level]. Poor Orlando Jordan and the Nasty Boys and Val Venus. It was just everything that TNA wasn’t.”
H/t FIghtful
Jarrett claimed that The Hulkster’s failure to understand TNA wrestling’s audience led to his unpopularity amongst the fans. The decision was met with a lot of backlash, as tons of fans preferred the unique style of the six-sided ring.
WWE Hall Of Famer Has Called Out Hulk Hogan As A Piece Of Sh*t”
Recently speaking with Chris Van Vliet, Steiner was first asked about his transformation, that kicked off his solo run from Scott Steiner to ‘Big Poppa Pump’. Opening up about a lot of frustrations as a singles star, Scott Steiner blamed Hogan for some of his losses:
“So at that point, when I turned into Big Poppa Pump I was very p*ssed off and people could just kind of tell that in my interviews. Because I was tired of the bullsh*t of professional wrestling, things that happened behind closed doors. You don’t really know what’s going on. Luckily, I had some guys in the back doors that told me what was going on most of the time, but a lot of times I didn’t know.
That was a real thing back then the older guys keeping the younger guys down. When I said that I got beat in my first match after turning heel, the call was made by Hulk Hogan to have me beat. So the only reason I knew that was because somebody was in the vicinity of talking to him. So it might p*ss me off, but you can overcome wins and losses. People can see your personality and what you do on camera. Wins and losses, you can overcome them. But when another wrestler decides he’s going to decide who wins, it is bullsh*t.”
In other news: A former WWE star wants a television wrestling return.