When did TNA Become the Hulk Hogan Show?

It's Impact Wrestling starring just Hulk Hogan

With work and Wrestlemania, I have only now managed to catch up with what’s happening with Impact since Victory Road and it seems to have all its focus on one man.

The Thursday after Victory Road, Sting decides to leave his position as General Manager and become a full time wrestler. He recommends to Dixie Carter that his replacement be Hulk Hogan. Yes, the same Hulk Hogan who had a similar position of power a couple of years ago who then went on to ally with Eric Bischoff to form Immortal. Hulk Hogan was offered the position and decided to make his decision next week. At the end of the following week’s Impact, Hogan finally accepted the position. This week, Hogan became General Manager and made a couple of matches for Lockdown, which prompted Ric Flair to think that Hogan was out of control. All throughout Impact, he is either featured on the show or mentioned six times. I mean, what the fuck?!

I understand that a change of General Manager, especially when it’s Hulk Hogan, is a big deal. It doesn’t need it to be the main story on the show. If you compare this to what is happening in the WWE, it’s not a big deal. John Laurinaitis (did you know he’s the Executive Vice President of Talent Relations and the General Manager of both RAW and Smackdown?) has just become the most powerful man in WWE after Vince McMahon. I agree that it is a big deal but is it the main focus of the show? No, it isn’t. TNA could have made this storyline go for just one episode. You could have Sting announce that he’s resigning as General Manager and he has already offered the position to a friend. Hogan comes out and convinces Dixie Carter to let him take the job. There you go, instead of spending 2 weeks about Hogan, it could be done in 5 minutes and you could spend the rest of the time on, I don’t know, developing other storylines.

TNA are going into one of their flagship PPVs this Sunday with the potential of a tremendous story going into it. James Storm is finally getting his rematch for the World Heavyweight Championship against his former Beer Money Inc partner Bobby Roode. This is a story about a person who was betrayed by his former partner not once but twice, who now has the chance to gain revenge in his home state of Tennessee. However, that’s not the main story. It’s Hulk Hogan once again feeding his ego at the expense of others. TNA has a talented group of wrestlers and it would be nice if they take a little bit of the focus that they have on Hogan and use it on their roster.