By James Caldwell, Torch assistant editor

Hulk Hogan says he's looking to tap into UFC's character development to make wrestling fans care about the newer stars in TNA. He says he wants to "breath life" into the wrestlers on the roster as the head of creative.

"They (UFC) developed the characters; they made people care about the fighters; the people found out who the fighters were; they breathed life into the fighters," Hogan said about UFC's Ultimate Fighter show. "That's what I want to do with TNA. They've got the best talent in the world down there, but no one is breathing life into the characters."

Hogan's statement in an interview with Fanhouse.com makes it seem like the Jan. 4 live Impact announcement coming on a UFC special earlier this month wasn't an accident.

Hogan's "mission statement" on how he plans on developing TNA wrestlers comes with an indictment of the current creative effort that has depended on a mixture of the previous era's "crash TV" style and D-Level soap-opera writing.

"I have learned a ton of stuff from MMA, watching them," Hogan said. "They remind me of TNA. Ton of talent, but no one has put that Frankenstein, shock the monster, breath some life into the characters."

Caldwell's Analysis: Here's our first piece of tangible information on how TNA under Hogan could look starting January 4. If Hogan is going to focus on the wrestlers and the wrestling matches in which the wrestlers are competing with a completely different feel to the product with reality-show/UFC-style "first-person interviews," then TNA is on the right track to differentiate the product from WWE. It's good news for wrestling fans looking for an alternative to WWE, which is still producing TV the same way Kevin Dunn and Vince McMahon have done it mechanically for two decades.

Link: Hogan interview.

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