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By Chris Reed, Torch specialist

-- 10/29 TNA IMPACT HITS & MISSES

Hulk Hogan TNA Impact was Hulk Hogan on the Hulk Hogan air this Hulk Hogan week. We had some interesting Hulk Hogan news hit the Hulk Hogan airwaves lately. What Hulk Hogan changes could we see on Hulk Hogan Impact? Here's what worked this Hulk Hogan week. Oh, by the way, have we mentioned Hulk Hogan yet?

IMPACT HITS

Hulk Hogan - The Good Points: If there's any one person who has the ability to draw the entire wrestling world from stem to stern onto TNA, it's Hulk Hogan. You could go out on the street and randomly ask ten people to name one person who is the biggest name ever to be associated with pro wrestling, and I'd bet almost all ten of them would answer Hulk Hogan. I don't think anyone, even Dixie Carter herself, saw this one coming until it was officially announced a few days back. Then again, no one ever thought Hulk Hogan would leave WWE for WCW waters. Hogan's signing to TNA brings a much-needed boost of ratings, press coverage, and just the overall hype that the name Hogan brings with it. If Hogan works with TNA in the right way and keeps the excitement about the wrestling, this could spell gold for TNA.

Styles's Stalker Not Given Away: If there's one sore spot I've had with a number of TNA angles, its that there is no question at all as to who is behind the dirty deed. Last week, A.J. Styles was ambushed by an unknown hooded man from behind. This week, we didn't even get to see the attack happen, just its aftermath. Samoa Joe is planting the seeds nicely for a possible Daniels heel turn, but at the same time, no one, not even Styles himself, has a clue yet as to who the stalker could be. Let's just hope that TNA doesn't pull a "Rikishi Was The Driver" horrid swerve and make this angle worth watching. As for right now, Styles is on edge, Daniels is frustrated, and Joe is pulling the puppet strings. All make for nice TV to watch.

The Beast Is Back: Awesome Kong is eating TNA Knockouts for lunch again. Sweet. When Kong was the monster who just steamrolled over the entire Knockout division some months back, it drove ratings up because TNA fans wanted to see two things: one, Kong eat everyone's lunch, and two: set up one particular wrestler to be the one to defeat the undefeatable Kong. Taylor Wilde was supposed to be that white-hot face to take that spot, and it didn't go as well as TNA had wanted. So, let's hit the reset button and try the angle again. Should be interesting.

IMPACT MISSES

Hulk Hogan - The Bad Points: Let's face facts: for as much name recognition that Hulk Hogan brings to the table, he is a fifty-something-year-old wrestler who passed his prime way too many years ago, and seems to care about nothing more than stroking his own ego for longer than he should be. Why else would he have allowed the reality shows "Hogan Knows Best" and "Brooke Knows Best" to even exist? Even when Hogan was battling Linda in the divorce proceedings, it seemed that every time Hogan went to the restroom, a camera crew was with him. TNA has tried to begin passing the torch, so to speak, to the next generation of wrestlers, like Samoa Joe, Daniels, A.J. Styles, Hernandez, Matt Morgan, and many others I won't name here. But Hogan working with TNA could be nothing but a huge step backwards towards becoming "WCW at the end of its run" for the company. I can't imagine any scenario that doesn't have Hulk Hogan holding the TNA World Championship within six months, and that's just sad.

World Ugliest Uranage: It wasn't just the fact that Brother Ray botched the move badly in the ring, so bad to the point that it completely knocked Chris Sabin out cold, it was the fact that TNA had to show it at least four separate times in slow-motion to sell the effect of the move. This was just sick, in my opinion. There needs to be a place in wrestling where a line is drawn when a wrestler is clearly hurt out of storyline. I mean, would you have wanted to see in slow motion repeatedly the fall that wound up sending Owen Hart to his death? Or the leap that shattered Sid Vicious's ankle in two? Wrestling is wrestling, and yes, wrestling fans want to see the phenomenal moves on replay, but I don't want to see a man legitimately hurt over and over again on my TV set.

Legends Title Becomes Global Title: A belt that no one really cared about and that had practically no history behind it became a title that no one really cares about and has practically no history behind it. Yawn. So what if the Legends Title is now going to be called the Global Title? It still is probably the most meaningless belt in almost any promotion out there. Oh wait, I forgot about the Knockout Tag Team Titles.

Concussion Angle After A Real Life One: The match between Desmond Wolfe and Kurt Angle was definitely thrown out there too early to be appreciated, but what I was the most uncomfortable with was the fact that TNA played out a kayfabe concussion story for Kurt Angle just minutes after a real-life concussion knocked Chris Sabin silly. And not only that, but the announcers gave more concern and care for this fake story than the real one that happened earlier in the day. It almost makes me sick.

Chris Reed is a PWTorch Specialist covering TNA Impact with a weekly Hits & Misses column.

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