Hulk Hogan Talks About How Much Creative Control He Has In TNA

Hulk Hogan recently did a Q & A with the St. Louis Post Dispatch. Below are a few highlights and you can read the entire interview HERE.

Have much creative control do you have over the company? I do not control creative at all. I’m kind of like the last pass before we go out in front of the cameras. I will be here during the day listening to ideas and contributing, but at the end of the day, the decision lays in the hands of the writers and Spike TV because they have equal say in direction.

Creatively I’m not involved. I cannot even begin to tell you the direction of a story six months from now backwards. But I do, on a weekly basis, get very involved with development and make sure ‘OK you guys, you have to mention that Chris Sabin is having personal problems and he is not here this week’ and mention that Rampage Jackson wasn’t supposed to touch Tito Ortiz this week. I make sure that we stay within the parameters of that we’ve drawn for ourselves. 

Mixed martial artists Quinton “Rampage” Jackson and Tito Ortiz signed with TNA recently. Has that increased TV ratings and attendance at live events? I think they’re intriguing. Some people watch wrestling and want to see wrestlers. Some people watch MMA and only want to see MMA. These guys have a chance to cross over like Brock Lesnar did. They have a chance to bring a new demographic to Bellator and bring a new demo to Impact Wrestling.

I talked to Tito (over 10 years ago) about wanting to be in the wrestling business. He’s been a fan. He’s had the passion for such a long time. And “Rampage” has national sneakers ads and the movies he’s done and his exposure, I think it brings a lot to the table because these guys are passionate about the business.

I think it translates into a different demo into a larger audience. I think it makes the ratings shift. At the end of the day, it’s not an overnight process. I think the more “Rampage” and Tito train in the ring for professional wrestling, I think the more interested the fans will get. We are going to have them hooking horns here soon.

How has their transition from MMA style to wrestling been? So far, so good. Being that they both have a great presence in front of the crowd and the fact that the fans know who they are makes it much easier to translate that energy from being an MMA guy to stepping into the wrestling business. They are not no-name guys. I think they’ve been in the ring on a pretty darn consistent basis trying to learn, to shift gears from the MMA ground and pound to the performance in the ring as wrestlers to becoming entertainers and mixing and matching both.