TNA Still Experiencing Growing Pains

Aside from a few interesting spots with Mr. Anderson and an engaging main event with Jeff Hardy and AJ Styles, this week’s TNA Impact was a mediocre wrasslin’ fest, at best.

For one, Hardy’s spot in the beginning of the show was a disaster. Sure, he’s charismatic, but calling out to his “children of the night,” at the end of the segment was one of the corniest moments in the new Monday night war. A true shame considering how talented an athlete he is. Perhaps he needs a manager or a valet with more skills on the microphone. At this point, many of TNA’s most talented athletes need some more help in that area and it’s obviously dragging down the show.

Seeing arguably the best wrestlers in TNA, Alex Shelley and Chris Sabin resort to talking about Generation Me’s girlfriends later in the show makes you wonder exactly who is writing the scripts backstage. Eric Bischoff and Hulk Hogan have promised change, but so far, the company’s story-lines haven’t been all that fantastic. Aside from several old faces joining the fold, TNA hasn’t stepped up their game where they should be, the ring.

No offense to Ric Flair, but no one wants to see him bloody himself up anymore. The same thing goes for watching Hogan and Scott Hall hobble around the ring.

On the other hand, the times when quality wrestlers with microphone ability get on the screen however, you get more than solid action. For example, the spot with Kurt Angle and Anderson was intriguing and looks to be one of the best matches on the upcoming PPV. Aside from that, the Styles/Abyss encounter will undoubtedly be a blockbuster, as well as both of the X-division contests. The same thing goes for the ladies match, which ironically looks to be an excellent one as well. Daphne is out of her mind, in the best way possible, and Tara is easily one of the best female wrestlers of this generation, with the most devastating finisher. All in all, this PPV doesn’t look to be all that shabby.

However, one part of the upcoming PPV that has gone undeveloped is the match between Rob Terry and Magnus for the Global Championship. Instead of watching Bischoff get his hair cut off, why not devote a few minutes to seeing Terry in a tune-up match? Also, where is Samoa Joe? Why not give the Nasty Boys less time on the air and let the youngsters run with the ball?

In spite of this, TNA still has tons of promise and is still a more than provocative offering on Monday night, but it doesn’t take Phil Collins to know what’s coming in the air tonight if these type of antics continue.

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About Patrick Hickey Jr. 13821 Articles
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports. Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders. His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023. Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief. Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale. Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.

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