Brooke Hogan Set to Join TNA Impact Wrestling

Well the last 24 hours has been full of news for both WWE and TNA.  Things seemed to be on a positive path for TNA as they announced Impact would be live all Summer beginning May 31st, but this could turn out to be a "1 step forward 2 steps back" situation as TNA has now announced that Brooke Hogan will be joining Impact Wrestling on May 31st.

There hasn't been very much positive buzz about this at all on the net, as most don't see what Brooke brings to the table being she has never been involved in wrestling before.  The official statement from TNA is that Brooke will be the "Executive in Charge" of the Knockouts.  This role is iffy at best as the Knockout division has always been about respect and quality female wrestling, but now it will be "run" by someone who has never been in a ring and doesn't have much history of her own in wrestling.

I don't think this is going to go over well on live shows either.  The site of Brooke Hogan in the ring directing the Knockouts will be an open invite for the fans to boo her out of the building.  If she came in as a bitchy, drunk with power authority figure it might work with time, but with Hulk Hogan as the big face GM of the company it doesn't look probable any time soon.

TNA is treating this like they've signed a big media star that will also be helping the girls in a variety of ways backstage as well, hmm.  I really don't think anyone is going to buy it, and most everyone will see this as Hogan getting his daughter on TV in the same way Eric Bischoff has his son in a TV role now.  If Brooke had announced her music career had flopped and wanted to train to wrestle and the fans got to see her get her ass kicked and pay her dues, that would be one thing; bringing her in as some sort of media star who is going to be an authority figure....quite the risk.  The big question is now, is TNA fixing their problems or just creating a whole lot more?

TNA Impact Set to Go Live Weekly This Summer

In a very odd case of timing being WWE just announced RAW is going to 3 hours, TNA has announced that Impact Wrestling will be broadcasting live every Thursday this summer beginning on May 31st.  Both announcements came within minutes of the other, but in this case it has to be considered a definite positive move by TNA.  The live broadcasts will continue throughout the summer, but no word on what will happen beyond that.  TNA issued the following release on ImpactWrestling.com:

NASHVILLE, TN - (May 17, 2012) -- TNA IMPACT WRESTLING President Dixie Carter and SPIKE TV President Kevin Kay announce today that the highly-rated “IMPACT WRESTLING” will be going Live! from Universal Studios beginning May 31st and continue through the summer. This announcement coincides with the recently announced new, one-hour earlier time slot change of 8:00-10:00pm/ET every Thursday night beginning May 31st.

“We are excited to take IMPACT WRESTLING Live! all summer long, and have our first Live! summer show launch our new 8:00pm/ET time slot,” says TNA President Dixie Carter. “Summer of 2012 is going to be remembered as the most momentous time in our company's history-to-date. Stay tuned."                                       

TNA is no doubt losing some interest by taping weeks worth of TV at a time, and the results being readily available online before the shows air.  Now that TNA is going live, it is up to them to create some buzz that will make it "must see" TV.  Back in 2010 TNA tried moving to Monday Nights, but that idea was way too soon and bold as they weren't ready to compete on Monday nights.  Now 2 years later, TNA is trying a lot of new concepts like the "Gut Check" and "Open Fight Night" ideas that are at least attempts to be fresh.

Going live is something Eric Bischoff was very successful with in WCW, and hopefully he realizes that the other half of the equation is creating buzz and interest.  The one other piece to the puzzle will be getting Impact on the road regularly so the atmosphere can be much more upbeat than the Impact Zone in Orlando which sees TNA on a very regular basis.  Hopefully TNA is realizing and attempting to fix their current problems, but there will be a long road ahead that will hopefully lead them to success.

Shane Douglas Issues Statement on Extreme Reunion

Extreme Reunion has turned out to be the most talked about independent show this year, even if all the talk isn't positive.  On the good side, the promotion drew 2200 fans to the event, something that many of the high spot ridden big talk indy promotions can't do.  Shane Douglas went all out promoting this event, even invading Monday Night Raw which we reported don a few weeks ago.  The crowd was there, but the bad part is there were so many bad moments that holding on to that big crowd will be an uphill battle for the company.  There were so many negatives coming out of the show that Shane Douglas has issued a statement on how the company plans to improve.

On to what actually went wrong.  We're not talking about bad matches necessarily or the show just being lackluster as is the case with some shows.  Extreme Reunion unintentionally put a spotlight on some of the talents that can no longer handle the "Extreme lifestyle."  For starters, Sabu was set to headline the show against Douglas, but was unresponsive in his hotel room and paramedics had to be called.  Justin Credible tweeted a pic of Sabu unconscious in his hotel, and it really turned out to bite Credible in the ass as he was found backstage in similar condition and fellow wrestler and friend of Sabu Luke Hawx posted the pic of Credible seen on the right.  Sabu never made it to the show, and Credible was asked to leave and didn't work either.

The actual show saw technical difficulties which are fairly common for a first time presentation, and some of the matches had to be shifted around due to 2 main guys not being in condition to work.  There were a few bright spots like the Jerry Lynn vs. Devon Storm (Crowbar) match, but it seemed like more negative kept popping up in between the positive.  Raven apparently changed things on his own and ended up not actually wrestling, so 1 more main eventer not performing and pissing the fans off worse.  By the time Douglas came out for the main event against his new opponent 2 Cold Scorpio, the fans were hitting him with chants like "this show sucks!"

What we can't forget is that this show DID draw, and they have introduced some newer talent to the "reunion" formula.  Some positive changes could still give this company a presence (no word on if they will keep the name "Extreme Reunion" or come up with a new promotion name.  In the video below Douglas announces the first round of changes, including taking himself off the active roster and no longer allowing performers who are in any form of toxic condition.  Can Douglas make the right changes and form something that can be a legit alternative?  Time will tell.