For a guy that appears to despise the “dirt sheets”, Eric Bischoff sure spends a whole lot of time paying attention to them. 24 hours after mocking them for being misinformed, it is the TNA producer who appears to be the one misinformed.
There is an odd battle being waged currently between TNA producer Eric Bischoff and the wrestling news community. Bischoff loves to tweet every so often and mock the community at large. Bischoff did just that recently when he poked fun at the dirt sheets for a report over Hulk Hogan appearing in WWE 2K14. It didn’t take long for the news community to fire back with the biggest antidote to Bischoff’s snarkiness…facts!
[adinserter block=”1″]The Internet Wrestling Community all found it odd that Hogan was appearing in the WWE 2K14 videogame. Many, including yours truly thought it made TNA Wrestling look rather silly when they are paying Hogan a handsome salary only for him to turn around and help the WWE out with a videogame project, in exchange for compensation. TNA employees and staff also reportedly found it funny and infuriating. Bischoff didn’t find it too funny or accurate.
“There is no Hulk Hogan/2K Sports deal. WWE is simply utilizing tradmarks/assets they currently own in a repackaged video game. Nothing new.” – @EBischoff
“Interesting to read the “choir of idiots” suggesting that Hulk did a deal with 2K Sports. Illustrates just how ignorant these “experts” are” – @EBischoff
Bischoff took joy of course in retweeting the two TNA fans that agreed with him while the rest of the IWC were quick to point out how ignorant Bischoff was. It didn’t take long for them all to point to a quote from the WWE 2K14 director that indeed talked about making a deal with the Hulkster.
Cory Ledesma told GameHub TV, “We wanted to obviously make sure we had the biggest matches, the most iconic matches [for the 30 Years of WrestleMania mode],” Ledesma said. “The first hurdle we had was Hulk Hogan. Hulk Hogan’s not currently with the WWE. We knew that if we couldn’t get Hulk Hogan, we weren’t going to have a ’30 Years of WrestleMania’ mode, it’s just not possible. Hogan was involved in so many matches and so many moments, that he was critical to the game. We knew once we could overcome that hurdle, and Hulk Hogan was able to get into the game, we knew that it was going to be kinda downhill from there and we’d be able to secure a lot of the talent that might not be with WWE anymore.”
Burn! Bischoff of course has ignored anyone pointing this out to him and instead appears to be sticking to his ridiculous story.
“This is going to be fun. In a twisted, pull the wings off of a fly/burn ants with a magnifying glass adolescent kind of way. Stay tuned….” – @EBischoff
Once again for a man that gives little credibility to the “dirt sheets” he sure seems to be a bit obsessed. It is almost embarrassing to a man at his age jump on Twitter and tweet as if he was in junior high school. I’d be a little embarrassed if I were TNA Wrestling by this point.
I don’t know where to begin. I don’t think anyone believes that Hogan was just put into the game without some kind of deal being worked out. That just makes zero sense. Could the WWE put videos of Hogan in there and send him a royalty check without his consent? Maybe, but I can’t imagine a video game company can just create him and use him in game promotion without making any kind of a deal. That makes no sense and if Hogan and Bischoff are using that story to quell any heat in TNA than Dixie Carter is dumber than I thought.
[adinserter block=”2″]More importantly and nobody has really pointed this out (at least from what I have seen), read the quote from the 2K14 director carefully. “We knew that if we couldn’t get Hulk Hogan, we weren’t going to have a ’30 Years of WrestleMania’ mode, it’s just not possible.” In other words, the game mode was virtually impossible without Hogan. Nice of Hogan to help out TNA’s competition isn’t it? Not only did Hogan make a deal for himself here, but he also could have kept a big revenue generator from being made by TNA’s competition. Does anyone not think Hogan’s willingness to a deal here wasn’t about extending an olive branch? This was 100% selfish on Hogan’s part.
Don’t get me wrong. There is nothing wrong with Hogan going out and cutting his own deal. He has every right to do so. I’d just be a little upset if I were asked to make sacrifices as a TNA Wrestling employee while Hogan is just doing whatever benefits him whether it is good for TNA or not. I am sure Kurt Angle would love to make a deal, as would Sting, the Dudleys, and a few others that could have had similar opportunities but didn’t because they are signed to TNA Wrestling.
It’s also funny to me why Eric would go out and pick a fight with the “dirt sheets.” Bischoff has done very little if anything to turn TNA around since he and Hogan came on board. You would expect someone with such little to show for his tenure to have some humility. Additionally I would think that it would be more beneficial to TNA to have a professional relationship with the pro wrestling media as opposed to an antagonistic one. Not that the newsletters and websites should sacrifice objectivity over a relationship but why pick a fight with people that could help you promote your product? It makes no sense to me. I would suspect that if Eric Bischoff owned TNA he’d treat the media much differently.
I am not sure what Eric’s game is here. By even bothering to spend time tweeting about it he is only bringing more attention to it and making the story even bigger. Why even comment on it in the first place unless he is trying to put a fire out? The story has nothing to do with him. There is a story here and Bischoff pretending that there isn’t is not only an insult to wrestling fans but an insult to all of his “co-workers” in TNA Wrestling.
I will say this. If Eric Bischoff can conclusively prove otherwise I’d be happy to update this blog to reflect his facts. I doubt those facts are coming.
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OK, just did another search. Bischoff is not lying, and unfortunately by writing a slew of opinion pieces based entirely on conjecture, the IWC has once again been made to look a trifle stupid:
http://www.wrestlezone.com/news/277821-hulk-hogan…
I felt too that Bischoff was lying on this one, but having read the quote from Cory Ledesma, I'm not so sure. He doesn't talk about signing a deal with Hogan at all. All he says is that they wanted Hogan in the game, and they weren't sure if they could get him since he isn't with WWE. He said they found out that they "could overcome that hurdle"; this does not necessarily mean by striking a deal with Hogan.
It seems that Hogan signed a 20 year "Legends" deal with WWE, which would include the rights to use his likeness in WWE branded video games, but doesn't prevent him from working with other wrestling promotions as a performer. I can't verify this as I haven't seen the episode, but apparently he visited WWE's offices and signed that deal on an episode of Hogan Knows Best a few years back.
Taking that information puts the quote from Cory Ledesma into a context that makes more sense. The company didn't necessarily do a deal with Hogan; perhaps they contacted WWE's legal team who confirmed that they could use Hogan's likeness under the terms of the "Legends" contract that is still valid.
That also puts Bischoff's comments into context; "WWE is simply using assets they currently own".
Will have to wait and see what else Bischoff has to say on the matter, but I think the IWC has jumped the gun on this one without truly understanding the situation.
He didn't exactly say that at all. Read his quote and then read what Hogan's agent said. If we were to believe what Hogan's agent said is fact, than that would make Cory Ledesma's comment completely off base. Why would the director of the game be worried about getting Hogan in the game if he was already signed with THQ? Hogan certainly isn't on any legends deal or he wouldn't be able to appear in TNA.
It is also not what Bischoff said at all which makes me doubt the validity even more. If Bischoff would have said what Hogan's agent said, I may have believed it. Now you have two guys close to Hogan with two completely different explanations as to how he is in the game. Something doesn't pass the smell test to me. It sounds like a big case of CYA!