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Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff have signed with TNA Wrestling. The announcement was made at a press conference in New York City earlier today. There were SPIKE TV and TNA banners up at the press conference, and Jimmy Hart was present with Hogan. CNN's Larry King Live had a camera crew there shooting footage for tonight's Hogan appearance.
Until today, the signing was kept a secret to even the inner-most members of the TNA circle. According to a source, Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff coming into TNA does not mean that they will take the reigns of the company.

Eric Bischoff introduced Hogan, who talked about TNA and stated he was becoming a "partner" in the company and that he was feeling great and looking forward to being a part of the company. The conference left the impression Hogan may be involved as a personality, but not wrestling for the group.

TNA President Dixie Carter gave a short speech saying she was looking forward to working with Hogan and that while they have great ratings for a Thursday night, Hogan would be the "boost that TNA needed." SpikeTV's Kevin Kay was also in attendance and gave a brief statement about the network working with Hogan.

The Q&A session was said to mostly be fluff fan type questions, although one fan did ask Hogan whether working with Vince Russo would be an issue. Hogan responded that as long as Russo stayed in his place and didn't cross him, there would be no issues. Hogan then said that if he did, Hogan would have to take care of it.

When the topic of Eric Bischoff came up, Hogan did not say Bischoff was working with him in TNA but noted they have other side projects they are working on.

Eric Bischoff will not be involved with the day-to-day creative direction of TNA. His partnership with TNA is via his Bischoff-Hervey Entertainment company. Bischoff played a major role in getting Hulk Hogan to sign with TNA, and will now be working on getting TNA new TV programming.

TNA's deal with SpikeTV allows them to shop new shows around to other networks if Spike passes on them, so Bischoff will be trying to get TNA new shows. TNA has had interest in the past in launching new shows for the Knockouts, the X-Division, and the online Spin Cycle show.

Bischoff may appear on TNA programming in the future, but that isn't a given. The former Vice President of World Championship Wrestling has been quite critical of the organization in recent years as he's questioned their creative direction and labeled them as a minor league operation. Most recently, Bischoff told The Sun in a February 2009 interview that neither him nor Hogan were interested in joining TNA.