Garett Bichoff makes his way back down to the ring. Garett thanks the fans for having his back and supporting him, and for the first time tonight the cheers sound piped in. Garett gets ready to introduce his trainer but Eric's music hits and he and Gunner make their way down to the ring. Eric says he's got spies in the back so he knows that his trainer isn't really here so he just needs to give this up before he gets hurt and then Hogan's music hits and the fans lose their minds! They REALLY lose their minds when he comes through the curtain. Hogan goes right after Gunner and he and Garett take turns hitting him with right hands! The fans are eating this crap up! Gunner rolls out of the ring and then Hogan and Garett turn around and point at Eric. Gunner grabs Eric by the leg and pulls him out of the ring as Eric screams "I'm your father!" A big "Hogan" chant erupts as he and Garett shake hands. Hogan does the t-shirt spot and the fans are still eating this up. What I did miss on this show was what was going on from behind the scenes with Hogans promo cutting the tapings for spike TV. ----------------------------------COMMERCIAL BREAK----------------------------------------- In the back Hulk Hogan says that Eric knows he has a huge target on his back. He says he can run but not hide and he wouldn't be surprised if the Hulkamaniacs grab him and toss him to the and Garett's feet. Hogan says he's a marked man and they will hunt him down. Hogan talks about it being 18 years since he'd been in front of a UK crowd. He says he's going to feed Eric to his son and then he'll take the leftovers. Hogan says he can feel TNA getting "this close" and he says it's coming. He says greatness is TNA's destiny.
QUICK RESULTS:
My TNA RECORDED EXPERIENCE!!
HULK HOGAN UK TOUR BRIEF INTERVIEW
Why have you been away from the UK for so long?
"I don't know what happened, it seems like I've been missing out. I was saying the other day I snuck in here a couple of years ago to do QVC and it was great because this buzz started happening when I was in town and people started showing up at hotels and restaurants although nothing was announced…"
Well, I can't imagine you'd really be able to sneak around unnoticed...
"I did pretty good for a few days! This time the fans have acted like I've never left. They are so kind and so nice here it's ridiculous. I got remarried last year and my wife is here and she says, 'I can't believe how nice everybody is, it's just amazing'."
You're over in the UK for three shows in Nottingham, Manchester and London, with the London show at Wembley on Saturday being taped for TV. What can fans who've never seen TNA live before expect?
"Hopefully you will get to see what I expect. I know what happens every time I get in front of a UK crowd - they just go nuts and they are so nice and excited and crazy and they won't sit down. There will be excitement during the show. I know when I come out there I have such a crazy relationship with the fans. I've been around so long and no matter if I've done good things or bad things, or my personal life has been good or bad, the fans have always stuck with me. I can tell you when I come out there it will be insane! I'm sure I will get physically involved with something because I usually do even though I try to keep my nose out of everybody's business!
"In my opinion this is the most important night for this company, this is what we should be doing. TV gets pumped into all these different countries and different areas, but you need to go and service your fans and show up in person. Instead of just showing up and wrestling we're actually filming TV and producing television, which is what we should be doing with pay per views and all kinds of stuff. This is what the company needs to do and this is the most important night in the history of this company coming up on Saturday."
Surely it's a massive challenge sending everything over to the UK for these shows - how far in advance are these things planned?
"Well, that's pretty funny. This tour was planned months and months and months in advance and I wasn't on it, and all of a sudden they called me three weeks ago - to show you how quickly this happened - and said, 'We're thinking about doing TV'. I said, 'Can you get everyone over there?' A lot of the people they hire are independent guys, especially the guys we call the shooters, who walk around with the hand held cameras. You need to break these guys in and spend years training these guys.
"We have two or three guys who are really good but they didn't know about this and booked themselves out doing other shows. My first question was, 'If you're doing TV over there who are you going to get for shooters to catch all the action?' I knew a couple of people who used to work with another company (laughs) so I made a couple of suggestions and got a couple of really good guys on to do that.
"Actually, they just made the decision to do the TV here three weeks ago. They'd told me they might be doing that, and I'd had some problems with my face - a dental surgery gone awry - and I needed two operations which they were going to spread out, but I told Eric, my partner, that I wanted to do both operations right away just in case they got the TV clearance and I could fly over. So I had the two operations and two days later they said, 'Can you fly?'
and without even asking the doctor I said, 'Yeah, I'll be there'. Actually, it doesn't take long to take all the equipment over here, but it kind of freaked me out they wait until the last minute to do it!"
Lots of wrestlers are on Twitter now so fans can really engage with them. How much do you think that has added to the sport?
"I think it helps with a lot of the talent, it makes them more tangible. I hate to toot my own horn but I just feel that I know people and I know fans and I don't feel there is that Angelina Jolie/Brad Pitt barrier with me. I've always felt from everyone I talk to that the fans feel like I'm tangible and they can talk to me and they know me. I think it's helped with a lot of the wrestlers; fans feel more comfortable, they can know them better, they warm up to them, it's helped personalise the wrestlers a lot, so it's helped across the board definitely."
Source credit for abover interview and photos fully goes to www.digitalspy.co.uk
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