via z.about.com

View full size photo »

Much has been made of Hulk Hogan, Eric Bischoff and Vince Russo not learning from the mistakes they made during the death of WCW and being generally clueless to the WWE product.  However, one thing that has been slept on is the lesson of the last time Hogan faced Flair on a Monday night and it's not a good omen for TNA. 

The night was May 13th 2002.  Hogan was in the midst of his last WWF title run, inspired by the big pops his nostalgic red and yellow Hulkamania schtick was getting.  Flair, in the storylines, was a co-owner of WWE, controlled Raw and had just turned heel on Steve Austin.  So the ultimate nostalgia match was booked with Hogan eventually Hulking Up and hitting the legdrop to vanquish once again the Dirtiest Player In The Game.  However, for the time it was an umitigated ratings disaster, as the Raw rating fell by seven tenths of a whole ratings point and was the lowest rated non-holiday episode of Raw since November 5th 2001.  Hogan doing his routine with the Rock was something special, going through the motions with Ric Flair again just reminded everyone how old and stale their acts were.

If it didn't work in 2002, how is it going to work almost eight years later with both men being much older and more broken down, a point Hogan has stupidly reinforced in viewers minds in the hype for tomorrow's Impact main event?  That TNA are repeating the same mistake WWE made eight years ago seems to be borne out by Impact's rating on Thursday night, where the big closing angle where Hogan bloodied up Flair was the lowest rated quarter of the night by far, drawing a dismal 0.9 rating.  And that was without Raw competition to take their viewers away.  Wish TNA lots of luck, they're going to need it!