SoCal Val: “I Think There’s a Misconception of What Hogan and Bischoff Did (For TNA)”

Former TNA Valet SoCal Val was recently interviewed by Wrestle List, where she discussed a number of topics. Most notably was when Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff were in charge of the company, and the direction that it was going.

Below are some highlights from the interview:

On Early TNA Days:

I was there for nine years overall. I did my first show for them in January of 2003 when they were in Nashville. I was with a group travelling to Florida. I was with Roderick Strong at the time, managing him and a wrestler that was playing his brother, Sedrick Strong.

We had an opportunity to go up there in 2003 but that was just kind of a one-shot and then I was signed in 2005 but my first show with them was 2004 – I believe I was doing ring girl stuff. But even before that, I was doing production assistant work backstage.

Pillow Talk: SoCal Val with Velvet Sky

On WWE Competition:

If I’m very honest, I think their focus was way too much about being second to WWE. Competition is always good but if you’re always looking at the person next to you and just trying to compete, trying to compete, trying to compete and trying to beat them, you lose sight of your own product. So I think that TNA was guilty of that off and on. Probably the best era from a wrestling standpoint was probably a little bit pre-Hogan era. Around 2005 to 2008 was the biggest time for us with Spike TV, and the X-Division was super hot.

On the ‘Hulk Hogan-era’:

A lot of fans will come up to me and say “Eric Bischoff and Hogan – I don’t like what they did” and I say “Listen. You weren’t there. You have no idea what kind of professional guys Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff are.” They were the easiest to work with; they were the kindest to all of us. They did a lot for us – I know that Hogan got us a lot of exposure and he was so pro-TNA and I think it was some of the best time professionally that we were there. So I loved that era and I think there’s a misconception of what Hogan and Bischoff did for us.

They also discuss some weird behavior from the fans.

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