1/28 Impact Does A 1.4 Rating

Last night's TNA Impact drew the highest-ever rating on Thursday nights with a 1.38 rating (Spike TV rounding to a 1.40) off a first hour 1.46 and second hour 1.30.

TNA Impact live on Monday night, January 4 scored a 1.45 overall rating, but the final two hours head-to-head with WWE Raw scored a 1.44 and 1.22, respectively.

Coming off the show-closing Montreal Screwjob angle on last week's show, the first 15 minutes of last night's Impact scored a 1.51 quarter-hour rating.

Impact then trailed off each successive quarter for the rest of the show until the final quarter-hour of the show.

The show went from a 1.51 first quarter-hour to a 1.22 seventh quarter-hour before jumping to a 1.30 quarter-hour rating for the final 15 minutes of the show.

Linda Bollea Settles With the Grazianos

Linda Bollea has settled her end of the lawsuit by the Graziano family according to a report this afternoon in the St. Petersburg Times.

Bollea's attorney Raymond Rafool announced she had reached a settlement out of court in the auto negligence civil suit filed by the Graziano family on behalf of John Graziano, who suffered severe brain injuries while a passenger in a 2007 crash in a car driven by Nick Bollea, Hulk Hogan's son.

The terms of the settlement were confidential. George Tragos, the attorney who represented Debra Graziano, said Debra Graziano was satisfied with the settlement, which was finalized on Friday.

The lawsuit is still open with Terry Bollea (Hulk Hogan) and Nick as defendants.

The Grazianos apparently had the weakest case against Linda of the three.

"Linda, she was obviously in a different position than everyone else," said Tragos. "She was in California at the time of the accident and she did not sign for Nick Bollea's drivers license as Terry did, so she's in a different legal position."

Danny Jacobs, who drove the other car which at times had been alleged Nick was racing, although Hulk Hogan denied any racing was going on in his accounts of what happened, had already reached an out of court settlement with the Graziano family.

Hulk's Pay Per View Debut Met With Mixed Reaction

As you know, Hulk made his TNA pay per view debut last night with TNA's 'Genesis' show. The reaction to the show, as you may have guessed, has been mixed. Some say he's killing off TNA's identity with the changes. Some say they're happy to see TNA take on a more traditional feel.

The night started with Hulk and Bischoff talking to the crowd about the new four-sided ring. This turned out badly, as Hogan went from a nice ovation to receiving heavy boos as he told the fans that the six-sided ring only got them but so far.

The "major" acquisition was revealed to be Ken "Mr. Anderson" Anderson. Some feel that it was a bit of a disappointment, considering how much Hogan hyped him up. Although, anybody with common sense knew it wasn't going to be an actual "major" guy.

Longtime TNA backstage announcer Jeremy Borash was "removed from TV" by Eric Bischoff due to his mishandling of the Mick Foley situation. Hogan associate Bubba The Love Sponge is being rumored as his replacement, causing a little disappointment within TNA loyalists.

More Hogan influence was seen as Sean Morley debuted on pay per view and actually beat The Fallen Angel Christopher Daniels with the Money Shot. The crowd was very audible with their displeasure - and its a bad look for Hogan, as Morley is one of his guys.

The nWo, now known as "The Band," had a messy night as well. Scott Hall, who was advertised to wrestle in a tag match with longtime friend and partner Kevin Nash, was subtracted from the card due to apparent discomfort with how he looked in his ring attire. Sean "Syxx Pac" Waltman replaced Hall after they had a backstage segment in which he beat Hall in a classic game of paper, rock, scissors. This was met with "boring" chants. Their appearance was capped off with a loss to Beer Money Inc. after Scott Hall "attacked" a planted fan, causing a distraction. Sadly, fans who paid to see a little Outsiders nostalgia didn't get their money's worth.

The night was capped off when AJ Styles completed a heel turn after using some of his advisor Ric Flair's dirty tricks. After Flair removed referee Earl Hebner from the ring to prevent Styles from tapping out to Kurt Angle's ankle lock, AJ Styles hit Angle with the world title that was thrown to him by Flair. When Hebner came to, he counted 1-2-3, AJ retained his belt and sealed a new partnership with the Nature Boy. This match is generally being called the high point of the pay per view.

With all that said, there's a long road to travel for Hulk and Bischoff. They have their work cut out for them. While some of the changes they're making may be good over the long haul - TNA loyalists are not going to pop for Hogan coming in and changing elements of TNA's identity. And they need to be careful how they handle this. People tuning in to see Hogan on PPV last night saw him draw boos, which isn't good for business. Yes, change is necessary, but they need to be careful about how far they go.

TNA To Bring Back 4-Sided Ring Tonight?

Rumors today that TNA will indeed do away with their signature six-sided ring in favor of the traditional 4-sides. Hulk Hogan has made it no secret that he isn't a huge fan of the TNA ring and has seemingly gotten his wish. It'll be interesting to see what the general reaction for this news is. Some of the TNA loyalists are disappointed, as they feel its part of TNA's identity - but it may make their product more appealing to casuals.

Hulk Supports Somebody Who Shares Names With The Two People He Hates Most

Hulk Hogan has been doing a press tour to promote Impact . The Hartford Courant has some quotes from one of those appearances:

On Linda McMahon's Senate chances: "I think she's going to win. She's brilliant. She's a very gracious, very smart lady, and her intent and her agenda has always been to help the community and be plugged in and be involved. Inside or outside that wrestling world that the McMahons have created, Linda McMahon is a great person."

On whether wrestlers from his era have ended up like Randy the Ram in "The Wrestler": "Most of my guys or my friends that are in the twilight of their career, they are working in the high schools on the weekends. They are making $3,000 to $4,000 on the weekend. So they are doing good. They are making $700 or $800 a night selling pictures, and it's not that final dive to your death."

On WWE's model: "My philosophy is different than the WWE model where Vince McMahon will ride someone until they drop. He will shoot them and eat them...Nothing has to be edgy and personal and pull the carpet out from under people. There's a way to make all of this work, but the focus has to be on the future, and that's one of the things
that has to happen. And that's the biggest mistake that Vince McMahon made. My time should be over. I should be done and gone. There should have been two generations already that should have replaced me. But because things were executed correctly, I'm alive and well, and I can sell out any ring in the country right now.

On keeping the older generation around: "These older guys have a lot of wisdom. They can teach the young guys how not to get hurt. They've been around forever. And, creatively... it really enhances how quickly these young guys can move along."

1/14 TNA Impact Does A 1.3 Rating

According to Meltzer, this past week's Impact scored a 1.3 (rounded up from 1.26) rating. This shows continued interest in the Hogan regime, as the show had been doing regular 1.0-1.1 ratings prior to his debut.

Hogan Pleads With Spike Officials To Go Live

Hulk Hogan was interviewed by IGN.com's Matt Fowler on the big subjects following TNA's live Impact on January 4, including Hogan saying a move to Monday nights on a regular basis is "gonna happen way way sooner than I expected."

Hulk Hogan said he basically pleaded with Spike TV executives at last night's dinner meeting to take Impact live on a regular basis. Hogan said there just wasn't the same energy on January 5 when they taped the Impact episode that aired last night.

"The next night when we taped I was like 'hmmm. We need to switch gears and keep going live.' It was a different vibe (Jan. 4). It will work. It's not 'if,' it's 'when.' We had a crazy dinner last night with all the big dogs and I was just badgering them to death. Just beating them to death," Hogan said. "It's just time and momentum. And they get it. They understand that whole energy thing. That feel."

Hogan said his belief is that TNA can't go live once in a while "then disappear," as it leaves an opening for WWE to grab the Monday wrestling audience again and force TNA to re-build the audience all over again.

You can read on his feelings about AJ Styles, Kurt Angle, the 1/4 WWE Raw show, and smarks here.

Hulk And Dixie Meet With Spike TV President For Dinner

TNA president Dixie Carter and Hulk Hogan held a meeting with Spike TV president Kevin Kay in Los Angeles last night.

Carter said on Twitter they had "very exciting talks" and she suggested a programming announcement will be coming soon.

With that said, can we be looking at a permanent move to Monday nights? Or just a live weekly show? Either would be exciting news for the company.

TNA Selling New Hogan T-Shirts

With the new buzz surrounding Hulk Hogan's return to wrestling, TNA has created two new shirts for the icon. The first is your standard Hulkamania t-shirt in red.



The second is a mock Obama-style shirt with the word "Change" underneath Hulk's picture.



They're both priced at 19.99 and can be purchased here.

Tom Lawlor Impersonates Hulk At UFN

LawlorMania- Runnin Wild
by FtheUG