By James Caldwell, Torch assistant editor

Hulk Hogan appeared on CBC's "The Hour" in Canada on Thursday night to promote his new book and talk pro wrestling after his partnership with TNA. The following are some of the key highlights from Hogan's interview. (Watch the Video interview.)

-- Hogan said the storylines in wrestling "have become incredibly bad over the last year or so." That drew a chuckle from the studio audience. Hogan then addressed speculation and concern that he's going to fire the current TNA writers and bring in his cronies. He said that's not where his mentality is to help boost TNA.

"This situation with TNA, that's one of the things. Everyone is going, 'What's Hogan going to do? Is he going to fire (Vince) Russo right away or is he going to bring in all of his old friends and put the belts on everybody?' That's not even where I'm going with this thing," he said.

Hogan name-dropped Bret Hart and Andre the Giant as two former wrestlers who weren't told by writers or agents what to do in the ring. He said wrestlers needing people to write for their characters makes for "very robotic and very boring and contrived programming."

-- Hogan, trying to drum up interest in a possible conflict with WWE, said he doesn't think Vince McMahon was too happy with him joining TNA or holding the Madison Square Garden press conference. "There were some people in-house in WWE who said he didn't respond favorably," he said. "I kind of slid in there and made the press conference for TNA."

-- Hogan also put himself over as the guy WWE comes to when they need a big main event. He referenced the "Babe Ruth" storyline WWE proposed to Hogan to write off his career.

"About eight weeks ago, I was actually talking with Vince again because every year when they need like a main event, they'll call me to wrestle (John) Cena like last year when I blew my back out and I couldn't make it," he said. "They were talking to me about hosting the show at the Garden and shooting an angle and coming back in. I don't think he's too happy."

-- The interview opened with a highlight package capturing Hogan's career and Hogan was asked about separating the character from himself, Terry Bollea.

"I'm really happy that I can distinguish between the two. A lot of my buddies that are here and that are gone couldn't," he said. "Sometimes they think that if they're great in the ring, they're great in real-life."

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