Reliable sources say that Hulk Hogan has agreed to work for NWA:TNA on November the thirtieth in their first Sunday night Pay Per View. Whether this is a good thing or a bad thing has been debated at length online and in the newsletters. Personally I think that, assuming TNA aren’t making a huge financial commitment to Hogan, the rightness or wrongness depends entirely on who he will be wrestling.

All indications are that we will see Hogan vs Jarrett for the NWA World Title. Although there is a logical storyline coming off their Bash at the Beach 2000 controversy, I can’t help but think that this is the wrong match for a number of reasons.

Firstly, the finish. Hogan pins Jarrett and you get an NWA champion whose only long term commitment is that he wants to be at Wrestlemania 20. Jarrett pins Hogan and no one will see it because they’ll all be watching the pig flypast overhead. Or they might do a screwjob and piss off the people who ordered the PPV in the hope of getting value for money. It’s a match with no creative upside and downsides whichever way you look.

Secondly, the value of the match. No one but the hardcore fans remembers Bash at the Beach. It was during the lowest months of WCW and the PPVs were unwatchable and unwatched. Besides, it was Russo and Hogan who clashed, not Jarrett and Hogan and the real life bad blood will prevent Russo and Hogan from working smoothly together.

Thirdly, do TNA want their top star to be in a truly awful match, to be exposed as a midget and to be double crossed as a nobody by the business’s top selfish manipulator?

So if it were up to me I’d scrap the Hogan vs Jarrett plan and go in another direction. Jarrett should defend the NWA title against Raven in a battle of TNA’s two most recognisable national stars. The two work well together and could have a worthy main event calibre match. This would be the match for the hardcore TNA fans and make them feel that it’s still “their” event despite Hogan stealing the limelight. Hogan on the other hand could face Sting (who still has some kind of TNA contract). They have a history on PPV and it could be built up as the climax to both men’s careers. Or Hogan could face Roddy Piper (who again has a TNA agreement) in a true battle of the legends. The match would probably suck but then we thought Hogan vs McMahon would suck and it didn’t. As long as both men (and the booker) take the time to plan it out in detail they could put on a watchable bout. The third option (and the most unlikely) is one that would make a lot of people shudder. Hulk Hogan vs Dusty Rhodes. Two icons who have never had a high profile match (possibly never had any sort of match). The interviews to build the match would be camp classics. The match itself would be the height of kitch. The final possible match would be Hogan vs Savage. Savage isn’t connected to TNA in any way and, if rumours are to be believed, there is legit heat between them. But if TNA could pull it off they would certainly have a main event match that would get the attention of mainstream America and the cable companies.

Any of the above four matches would serve the duel purpose of creating a main event that would appeal to the casual fan and at the same time free TNA from the problem of what to do once Hogan has been and gone. He is like the guest star in Friends – they’ve had many actors and actresses appear who are much bigger stars than the regular cast but they never used those stars in such a way that they outshined the regulars because the producers knew that it’s the regulars who carry the show week after week and year after year. This is a lesson that TNA must learn before getting into bed with Hogan or they risk their biggest ever audience coming away with the impression that they’ve just seen a very big fish in a very small pond.

12th October 2003