Source: Fighting Spirit Magazine
During iMPACT Wrestling’s recent tour of the United Kingdom, Hulk Hogan spoke with Fighting Spirit Magazine and made an interesting comment regarding the current TNA World Heavyweight Champion Jeff Hardy. According to Hogan, he would have rather made the tour of the United Kingdom with a fighting world champion on the roster and thus he would have stripped Hardy of the title and found a way to get the belt on Bobby Roode. Specifically, Hogan said:
“Dixie runs the company, but if it was up to me and it had been my decision, Bobby Roode would have been a great champion to have right now. The (UK) tour plus a champion makes sense; a tour with no champion doesn’t make sense. [But] I choose my battles; some people look at the picture differently to how I do.”
He also stated that he gets exhausted with the booking process, suggesting: “A lot of it is a compromise, but there are ways to fix that. But every once and a while, I’m just like, ‘I need a time out, guys’.”
On the one hand it doesn’t look good when Hulk Hogan is criticizing decisions made by the company he works for to the press.
On the other hand, I have to give him kudos for wanting a guy like Roode to be champ over Hardy.
Roode is the better all-around performer in my opinion, in particular trumping Hardy on the microphone, and he gets heat like nobody’s business, and he’s a homegrown star.
Most people who can’t shake the past image of Hulk Hogan as a selfish WCW-crushing a-hole would be surprised to know he picked Roode over the merchandise seller from WWE.
True. I’m always surprised that there are people who can’t understand that Hulk Hogan is no longer in WCW and that he wasn’t even there in the end. Did he help bring it down? Well, that’s debatable as to whether he personally helped bring it down, but big money contracts like his didn’t help. Of course, who wouldn’t take a huge big money contract if it was offered to them, right?
I’m not entirely sold on the idea of Jeff Hardy as the world champion. The fans at the live events love him, yes. And if that love can translate into more butts in seats when iMPACT Wrestling goes on the road, then so be it. However, I’m just not sold on him as a long-term champion… yet.