Hogan, TNA ready for war

Several months ago it was reported in this space that TNA had plans to go head-to-head with WWE juggernaut Monday Night Raw.

It was made official last week when TNA president Dixie Carter and Hulk Hogan announced at a press conference that TNA Impact will be moving to Monday nights on a weekly basis starting March 8. The two-hour show will compete directly with Raw from 9-11 p.m.

Impact has aired on Spike TV on Thursday nights for the past four years. Its regular audience has been in the range of 1.5 to 1.8 million viewers. A trial run going up against Raw on Jan. 4 garnered more than 2.2 million viewers, TNA’s best to date, and gave the company and its home network hope that a permanent Monday night spot could be successful.

But it’s not going to be easy. WWE is entering its busiest time of the wrestling season, leading up to Wrestlemania, and viewership should be at a high point for the next couple of months.

The Vince McMahon-Bret Hart feud will continue to heat up, and it’s a program that still holds intrigue 13 years after their confrontation in Montreal. To add a little more fuel to the fire, “Stone Cold” Steve Austin is being brought in prior to Wrestlemania to serve as a guest host on Raw.

The odds, though, don’t seem to bother Carter or Hogan, who says he sees the competition as “a fight.” Hogan even says there’s no reason to stagger the time slot against Raw by going head-to-head for just an hour, since that’s not a wrestler’s mentality.

Carter, perhaps a little less optimistically, added that perhaps the door would be left open to tweak the time slot in the future. She also said the company was talking to Spike about future additional programming.

It’s a bold move, to be sure, to go up against WWE. The last outfit to do so was WCW 15 years ago. Vince McMahon bought that struggling company in 2001.

Impact will begin on Mondays on March 8 with a live edition, then will produce live programming every other week after that.

Since Hogan and Eric Bischoff took over at TNA, viewers have been treated to a little of everything — the good, the bad and the ugly.

But keep in mind Bischoff was the last man to beat McMahon and company in a wrestling ratings war. And there’s no time like the present, he said last week on his Facebook page, to go to war once again on Monday night.

“The television audience drops significantly during the spring/summer months,” said Bischoff. “Fall brings Monday Night Football. There is never an easy answer, but I think that all things considered, this is the best time to pull this trigger.”

Carter told Brian Fritz of fanhouse.com last week that Hogan has been the ultimate team player since joining TNA.

“There are people out there who ask why would you bring in Hulk Hogan to this company and why would you do this. It has been the best decision I ever made. I don’t think I’ve ever had one conversation with Hulk Hogan about Hulk Hogan. Every conversation I have with him is about the other TNA talent we have and how can we make them better and how can we make them household names. People are just starting to see the very tip of this man’s genius in some of these things that we are going to do that are going to make stars who have worked so hard to get to a certain level and truly take that next big step.”

The question to which there has been no official answer to date is whether WWE is taking the TNA threat seriously.

Hogan thinks he knows the answer.

“They don’t acknowledge anybody else in the wrestling business,” he said. But inside the corporate offices, he adds, it’s a different story.

“The corporate side of the office is running around like the place is on fire. They’re panicking. That’s the real inside scoop.”

Hogan doesn’t expect to see overnight results, but he also doesn’t foresee TNA suffering the same fate as WCW.

“Within six months (WCW was) dominant and it stayed the same way for a long time,” he said. “I don’t think the same outcome is going to happen here. It is a war and we will win this. This company has a better product. We’re not going to repeat history ... we’re going to make history.”

Hogan even uncharacteristically had good things to say about TNA creative head Vince Russo.

The Hulkster told fanhouse.com that he loves Russo — but only from a distance.

“Yeah. I love Vince Russo from a distance ... And so far the writing staff — Vince Russo and Ed Ferrara and Matt (Conway) — these guys have really stepped up. They really have. And they’re open.”

-- Just how respected was the late great Jack Brisco?

Dick Bourne of the super Mid-Atlantic Gateway site (midatlanticgateway.com) relates a conversation he recently had with Jim Nelson as the two were lamenting Brisco’s passing.

Nelson got his first big break in the business in the early ‘80s as one of Sgt. Slaughter’s two Marine recruits (along with Don Kernodle) here in the Carolinas. Jack and brother Jerry Brisco had just returned to the Mid-Atlantic region during that period, and they were set to meet Gene and Ole Anderson in the main event of a card at the Township Auditorium in Columbia.

Relates Bourne: “Jim was on the card that night as well, and in the same locker room as the Andersons. Jack had been suffering from the stomach flu and sent word to the Andersons in their locker room via referee Sonny Fargo to go easy on him that night. Ole, sensing an opportunity to make Jack miserable (as was apparently Ole’s tendency to do to everyone), just laughed and said, ‘We’ll see about that.’ But Gene, one of the legit toughest guys ever himself, knew better.

“‘Don’t mess with Brisco, Ole,’ Gene said. ‘You mess with Brisco, you’re on your own.’

“Ole, who probably really knew better, decided not to heed Gene’s warning and when the match began, Ole started going after Jack pretty good. The word had gotten around, and Jim said all the boys in both locker rooms had their heads sticking out the door to watch what was about to happen.

“The match got underway and Jack had soon had enough of it, and started stretching Ole — bad. Ole tried to tag in Gene, but Gene would short-arm him. ‘You (ticked) him off, you deal with him.’

“After the match, Ole came back to the locker room, all worked up. ‘How can a guy with arms that little make me hurt so bad?’”

And speaking of tough old cusses, Bourne also relates this story about two of the toughest, Danny Hodge and Ole Anderson.

Ole, who spent a few days in the hospital over the recent Christmas holidays while suffering from kidney stones among other ailments, confided to a nurse that he hadn’t been in that much pain for a long time.

“Have you ever felt worse pain?” she asked him. “Sure I have,” he told her. “What could have possibly caused you more pain than a kidney stone?” she asked.

Ole quickly replied: “Danny Hodge.”

The nurse didn’t get the joke, says Bourne, but Ole felt better for setting the record straight.

-- Bret Hart recently paid Jim Ross high praise when he noted that there’s one major ingredient missing from his current program with Vince McMahon — and that’s J.R. calling the action.

“As far as the WWE goes, all I can say is where the heck is Jim Ross? With everything that has transpired in my three appearances on Raw, it’s too bad he hasn’t been there to call it,” Hart said on his Facebook page. “There’s nobody that calls it the way Jim Ross calls it, and that’s the bottom line because I say so.”

Here’s hoping that the venerable Oklahoman is back in time to call Vince vs. Bret, or some facsimile thereof, at Wrestlemania 26.

-- And I just have to believe that Ross’ replacement on Raw, Michael Cole, would like to take back a statement he made following the Bret Hart injury angle on Raw last week. Cole remarked that it might have been “the worst night in Bret Hart’s life.” I’d also like to think that Cole wasn’t fed these lines, because either way it was poor judgment on someone’s part.

I’m sure Bret had far worse wrestling-related nights when he lost his brother Owen in a real-life accident at a WWE pay-per view in 1999, and when he was legitimately double-crossed at the 1997 Survivors Series pay-per-view. To name just a couple.

-- Ellen DeGeneres a WWE diva?

Jerry “The King” Lawler told USA Today that the comedienne would be a good one.

“She’d make a great WWE diva,” Lawler said while discussing one of his favorite shows — “American Idol.”

“You can tell she’s got that mean streak,” he added, “but she tries to hide it. She tries not to let it come out.”

Lawler, a master of one-liners and rapid-fire barbs, says he wouldn’t mind sitting in the chair occupied by outgoing “Idol” judge Simon Cowell.

“I would be somewhere between Simon and Howard Stern, I would think,” mused Lawler.

-- Chris Jericho will serve as co-host for the second annual Revolver Golden Gods award show recognizing top performances in rock music for the year.

Jericho, whose band Fozzy recently released its “Chasing The Grail” CD, will be co-hosting with musician Andrew W.K.

The metal-exclusive award show will be taped April 8 at Club Nokia in Los Angeles. It will air May 22 on VH-1 Classic.

-- WWE’s version of ECW ended on a high note when the show recorded a 1.1 rating for its final show on Scfy Tuesday night.

The Nov. 17, 2009, episode had been the last ECW telecast to reach a 1.1.

-- Efrain “Frank” Martinez, a journeyman wrestler during the ‘60s and ‘70s, passed away Sunday in Tampa at the age of 81.

The Puerto Rican native held the NWA Southern tag-team belts on three separate occasions with Al Greene in Tennessee and donned several hoods during his career. He was one half of The Untouchables with Karl Von Stroheim, and worked with Gypsy Joe (Gilberto Melendez) as The Blue Infernos and with Tomayo Soto as The Super Assailants.

“We came up together in a gym in New York City (in the late ‘60s),” recalled Lowcountry native Burrhead Jones (Melvin Nelson). The 42nd Street gym also would produce such future pros as Carlos Colon, Rufus R. Jones, Johnny Rodz and Gypsy Joe.

Jones said Martinez returned to New York City on vacation after turning pro, and told him that Nashville-based promoter Nick Gulas was looking for a black wrestler to work with Matt Jewell (Bearcat Brown) in Tennessee. Jones called Gulas and later began his wrestling career as Jimmy Jones.

Jones worked with Martinez many times and recalled a match in Blytheville, Ark., where he said “the ceiling almost came down on me.”

“That’s how hard he (Martinez) slammed me,” he joked. “Frank and Gypsy Joe were two tough wrestlers.”

“I had just seen him a couple of years ago in Mobile (at the annual Gulf Coast Reunion),” noted Jones. “ It was the first time I had seen him in a number of years.”

-- Old School Championship Wrestling will hold its next show Feb. 28 at the Omar Shrine Auditorium, 176 Patriots Point Road, Mount Pleasant. The Barbarian will meet Big Hoss in the featured bout. Bell time is 6 p.m. (doors open at 5 p.m.). Admission is $10 adults; $5 kids 12 and under.

-- George’s Sports Bar, 1300 Savannah Highway, will air WWE’s Elimination Chamber pay-per-view at 8 p.m. today. Cover charge is $5.

Reach Mike Mooneyham at (843) 937-5517 or mooneyham@postandcourier.com.