At one point, TNA hired Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff to steer the ship for the promotion. But soon they realized that they couldn’t save the company. As news spread that Hulk Hogan’s contract was expiring, TNA did an angle where Hulk was walking out on the company, but Dixie Carter begged him to say.
While speaking about the storyline on his latest 83 weeks podcast, Eric Bischoff took credit for the storyline by saying he came up with the idea because he wanted the heat to remain on Dixie Carter.
“That was my idea. That was all me. That wasn’t Hulk. I’m telling you the truth. That was my idea. I wanted to put heat on Dixie (Carter). I wanted her to have heat. I wanted to create a story and I wanted Hulk to leave strong as he could. You may hate the idea. I may hate the idea right now, but at the time Hulk was going, (I) didn’t want any of TNA because he didn’t deserve it. I didn’t want it on Hulk Hogan. I wanted the stink to be where the stink needed to be and deserved to be, and it was not on Hulk.
So, I was willing to take the risk to put the heat on Dixie and make her look like an insane character who was hanging on to something she couldn’t control because there was talk about Hulk coming back as well. Hulk was hurting because that had a lot more to do with that Hulk liked Dixie a lot. Hulk and Dixie were close. There was no animosity there whatsoever. I think Hulk had a lot of empathy for Dixie. He really did. But, I wanted to make it clear that Hulk was leaving as strong as he came in as best I could, and I wanted heat on Dixie and that was the end I came up with. It had nothing to do with Hulk.”
Eric Bischoff on 83 Weeks
While Dixie Carter wanted to emulate Vince McMahon, she failed at this and put TNA in grave jeopardy. While TNA later rebranded to Impact Wrestling, the company’s financial situation hasn’t improved that much.
H/T to Ringside News
Follow Corey at @CoreyBrennanBS on Twitter
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