Dawn of a New War: The Debut of Hulk Hogan on TNA Impact!
By Sean Chin

History was made on Monday January 4, 2010. I am not talking about the history made when Bret “The Hit-man” Hart made his WWE debut on RAW. And I am not talking about the history when “The Immortal” Hulk Hogan made his TNA debut on Impact! I am talking about the first time in over a decade that the “Monday Night War” returned. Competition always leads to companies producing a much better show. If you love WWE or TNA and despise either one, you shouldn’t this is a win-win situation for all wrestling fans alike.

I have been a WWE fan since I was born and I have been a big TNA fan since it was conceived in 2002 and here I will be reviewing TNA’s live 3-hour Impact. From my experience and background knowledge of wrestling, I hope to share with all of you my opinion of Impact. It is undeniable that this was TNA’s chance to take on goliath head to head for the first time ever.

The way Impact was presented was very different than usual with almost an “eerie feel” and slightly difficult to follow with odd spots at times within the first hour. We started off the show with a montage of the history of TNA up until Monday’s historic night then we have typical TNA pyro but I noticed that the Impact Zone seemed “larger”, perhaps they implemented more wide-angle shots I am not totally sure, but the six-sided ring was still in place.

I personally felt that Impact was very calculated and did its job showcasing TNA’s best to a new audience on TV. Hogan gave all the new viewers a “taste-test” of the best and for the hardcore fans, an epic main event.

The first everyone noticed was the iconic red Steel Asylum. This was great as it was a way of stamping the X-division as the gem of TNA and is what made TNA famous. It was chaotic with some great acrobatics from Amazing Red and the Motor Machine Guns until Homicide took out everyone including his partner with a baton ending the match in a DQ. Fans charted chanting “bullshit” and it was for a moment but then out of nowhere the “charismatic enigma” Jeff Hardy (who was WWE WHC just in August) emerges from the crowd and delivers a wicked shot and Twist of Fate to an aggravated Homicide.

Then TNA is shocked once again as a limo we were expecting to be Hogan shows up but turns out to be the “Nature boy” Ric Flair! Apparently Flair then goes to chat with the TNA Champ AJ Styles.

The next match up is for the TNA Knockouts Championship where ODB defeated Tara to retain her belt.

I believe this was a fast match, but it was strategically placed as the Knockouts are known to gather the highest ratings for TNA and having a title switch so that the ENTIRE set of TNA champions were all TNA originals was a testament to Hogan’s commitment and promise to giving the new talent a chance to shine.

We continue with more hot Knockout action backstage as we play Strip Poker with Beautiful People. Next we are taken outside the Impact zone only to see executive share holder Mick Foley being denied access the facility. We then also oddly and suddenly witness Bobby lashley as he “quits” “TNA for MMA.

Then finally, the TNA debut of the” immortal” Hulk Hogan to TNA happened. Sporting a “Hollywood” Hogan clothing and theme song, the fans explode with excited as no one in the entire world would have ever thought that he would ever be a part of TNA. However, he was shortly interrupted by Scott Hall, who introduced himself as “the bad guy” and Sean Waltman. Scott and Sean looked like they just stepped out of a time machine as they wore exactly the same gear they wore in the nWo era in WCW. Hogan reinforced the fact that he is TNA to make it a better place, but then Kevin Nash comes out to back Scott and Sean provoking Eric Bishoff to aid Hogan and the “bad guys” leave the ring. We then hear from Eric and Hogan that they are going to start a brand new set of matches right on the spot. However, the camera man plans up and what do who do we see? The return of the “Icon” Sting in the rafters and I get chills down my back.

I personally thought this was so well calculated on Hogan’s part. Like many others, I too was planning on quickly tuning into the intro for RAW as I wanted to see Bret Hart’s debut. But Hogan’s debut started 5 minutes before RAW and by the time his segment was done, it was always past 9:30 pm EST. Genius plan Hulkster.

The next match again, showcased the talented women of TNA as we witnessed Awesome Kong and Hamada defeat Taylor Wilde and Sarita for the TNA Knockout Tag Team titles in a fast spaced and high-spotted match up.

This was followed up by Matt Morgan and Hernandez defeating Dr. Stevie and Raven in a squash match.

Up next is The Pope vs Desmond Wolfe, two of the newest and brightest stars on the TNA roster. They hit all their signature spots in a very short amount of time when Pope steals a win with a schoolboy.

So, I thought the Kong/Hamada vs. Taylor/Sarita match was really good but the next two could have been much longer. I felt that Hogan just wanted all the new viewers to get used to seeing new faces thus giving them a shorter time to showcase their work. I see Desmond Wolfe and Hernandez doing big things in the future.

We see TNA founder Jeff Jarrett in the Impact zone rally up the troops only to Hogan putting him down saying that TNA is the partnership of himself and TNA president Dixie Carter. We will probably be seeing a power struggle storyline in the near future.

The next match is a heavy weight bout between Samoa Joe and Abyss. This was a pretty straight forward brawler styled match up. Again, both wrestlers hit all of their spots. This match ended with Joe hitting Abyssa with a chair and forcing him to submit with the rear-naked choke.

Backstage we see the Nasty Boys destroy an absent Team 3D’s locker room as they are currently wrestling in Japan.

The main event of the night was epic. The TNA World Heavyweight Championship was put on the line when Eric told AJ Styles that his match against Olympic Gold medalist Kurt Angle at the next PPV would be tonight! After Styles hit the styles clash 3 times and Kurt hitting the Angle slam twice and signature moves back and forth for almost 25 minutes, Styles came out victorious with a 450 degree splash pin. Hogan then came out and said they were the best in the business today.

Hogan then gets called up and runs backstage to see Nash, Hall and Waltman beating up a helpless Mick Foley. Copyright is shown with a close up on Hogan’s face.

I thought Hogan and TNA did an amazing job at catering to all the new viewers with short but sweet matches, planting seeds for new future storylines, and catering to the hardcore fans with the title matches especially Styles vs Angle in the World Title match. He made it so that by the end of the evening, every single champion was a TNA original.

But like I said before, it was a glorious night for all wrestling fans. Two of my most favorite “all time good guys” Bret Hart and Sting returned to the wrestling world and a new dawn for the wrestling wars began.

Cheers,

Sean Chin (www.blog.seanchin.com)