Hulk Hogan was in tremendous pain after his match on Impact. He had to ice his back for a long time after the show, despite being protected as much as possible during the match and doing only two bumps. He is not expected to wrestle again any time soon, although plans are likely to change.
Sting had surgery on his shoulder recently and cannot work any long matches either. His bout with Rob Van Dam was therefore restricted to just a few seconds.
Rob Van Dam has said that Booker T was the one who recommended he sign with TNA. Booker left over a problem with the writing team and said he would have stayed had things been different with the writers. Vince Russo tried to bring RVD in for the Main Event Mafia last year but RVD declined the offer.
Sting’s beatdown of RVD with the baseball bat was not planned to go as long as it did. Hulk Hogan was meant to do a run-in in the early part of the second hour of Impact in order to maximise ratings. Things had run short during the first hour, however, so they stretched out the Sting angle in order to keep the Hogan appearance at the precisely planned moment. Sting had to start using the referees and teasing a return to the back in order to kill some time. There was a similar timing issue on last week’s show as they did not want Sting to enter the ring until exactly 10pm. After Hogan challenged him to get down from the rafters into the ring Sting had to stall again to make the time.
Credit: Wrestling Observer
