Recent WWE & TNA Attendance & Ratings, Hogan Book Excerpts

– Men's Fitness will be running exclusive excerpts from Hulk Hogan's new book "My Life Outside the Ring" in the November issue, which will hit newsstands next Monday. Here are some of the highlights?

On the after-effects of steroids: "The only aggressiveness those shots and pills ever laid on me was a powerful desire to lift weights and eat. Maybe it gave me some sort of 'Mat Mania," where I was more pumped up than the next guy about getting back into the ring to wrestle. I'll certainly admit I was addicted to that high of being in the ring. But that's about it. Taking testosterone made a lot of guys super horny, where they were chasing girls every night of the week. Not me. Others were rendered completely useless in the bedroom, and that wasn't me either. The worst thing I can say about steroids is they made me sweat a lot, which could be kind of embarrassing. They would occasionally give me killer acne–like I'd get a monster zit on my ass, the kind that's so tight you felt like you could bend over and shoot it across the room: 'Hey, catch this!' "

On meeting Sylvester Stallone when auditioning for Rocky III: "Stallone and I met at a gym. I had blue jeans on and cowboy boots, and my nose was all taped up–it got smashed in a match in Japan and I hadn't had a chance to fix it yet. I wasn't prepared at all for some kind of audition. But Stallone insisted: 'I want to see how you move in the ring.' So Stallone starts doing his Rocky thing and starts reaching out to try to punch me. 'What do you want me to do?' I asked. 'Well, see if you can stop me,' he said. 'Stop you?' I laughed out loud. He was maybe 170 pounds, and I was pushing 320 at that point. But he stayed pretty serious about it. 'When I try to punch you, see if you can get a hold of me,' he said. So in one move I grabbed him and hooked him and pinned him to the canvas.'

On a serious knee injury during Hulkamania in 1984: "But the closest I came to a career-ender was right when Hulkamania first took off–on the night I won the belt from the Iron Sheik in 1984. The stakes were so high that night, every move I made was over the top. Halfway through the match I jumped up in the air real high and dropped a knee in the Iron Sheik's chest. Even when the mat is perfectly flat, it hurts. But that night there was a board in the ring that was out of place. The edge of that board was sticking up into the canvas–and that's exactly where my left knee landed. I exploded my knee cap. Here I was at Madison Square Garden, knowing I was going to win the world title. There's no way I wasn't going to finish that match. It was the ultimate high, being in that ring, so I just pushed through the pain. A few minutes later, when I couldn't take it anymore, I started Hulking Up–I hadn't really perfected that whole thing yet, but I had to do something to end that match quick. So I rallied my strength for everyone to see, and got ready for the finish, and I pulled the crowd right with me. With that kneecap totally blown, I laid the Leg Drop on the Sheik, and 'One...Two...Three!' I won the title."

– Here is a breakdown for the latest WWE and TNA television ratings courtesy of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter:

TNA iMPACT! on 10/8 drew a final 1.0 cable rating with 1.3 million viewers. The show did a 0.53 in males 18-34 and 0.91 in males 35-49.

TNA Global iMPACT! 2 on 10/8 that followed iMPACT! drew a final 0.68 cable rating with 838,000 viewers.

WWE Superstars on 10/8 drew a final 0.8 cable rating.

ECW on SyFy on 10/6 drew a final 1.1 cable rating (rounded up from a 1.05 rating) with 1.4 million viewers.

WWE Monday Night Raw on 10/5 drew a final 3.3 cable rating (or a 3.31) with 4.71 million viewers. This is the show that went head-to-head with big Vikings-Packers Monday Night Football game that ended up being the most viewed show in cable history. Raw did a 2.59 in males 18-49. 67% of the viewers were male and the average viewer was 38.

We don't have any figures for WWE Friday Night Smackdown on 10/2. As reported on earlier, Smackdown ratings could be hard to come by from this point forward as MyNetworkTV pulled themselves from Nielsen as being considered an actual network.

– Here are some recent WWE attendance figures:

10/10 in Terre Haute, IN (Raw): 6,500 fans.
10/10 in Bristol, TN (Smackdown/ECW): 1,500 fans.
10/11 in Toledo, OH (Raw): no attendance figures.
10/11 in Huntington, WV (Smackdown/ECW): 5,500 fans.
10/12 in Pikeville, KY (Smackdown/ECW): no attendance figures.

– Here are some recent TNA attendance figures:

10/9 in LaCrosse, WI: 750 fans.
10/10 in St. Cloud, MN: 450 fans.
10/11 in Mankato, MN: 300 fans.