Big Poppa Pump is Back… And

With Big Poppa Pump Scott Steiner back in TNA, showing up during the main event of this week’s Impact, next week’s Impact should be an interesting one. However, his appearance did little to bolster a mediocre show that was bogged down by a horrible Knockouts match and way too much talking and not enough wrestling.

Lasting over 15 minutes, the knockouts match was a complete disaster. With several botched moves, it appeared at one time that the competitors in the ring were completely out of gas. The fact that TNA Knockouts champion Madison Rayne knocked herself out by falling on her “loaded” glove was completely moronic.

Seriously, who is writing this?

Aside from wondering why she’s able to enter the ring with a “loaded glove,” seeing her fall on it and incapacitate herself is so silly that whoever wrote it should be ashamed of themselves.

Later on, Velvet Sky came out to address Winter, who allegedly attacked her backstage after the match. While Sky has to work on her wrestling ability, her beauty and charisma make up for her shortcomings in the ring. Winter, however, is so green that she induces more sighs than a bottle of Nightquil mixed with tequila. With so much time invested in this angle, it slowed down the pace of the show incredibly, to the point where any reasonable fan would have changed the channel.

Another weird point was Ric Flair’s actions. Is this kayfabe or is he that crazy? Several times it appeared members of Fourtune and Immortal seemed to be pulling him backstage while he went crazy at Kurt Angle and Crimson. The fact that he berated Rob Terry before the main event and couldn’t remember Gunner’s name in the first quarter of the show is scary too. While the guy has the ability to be a great heel manager, he needs to take a small step back and let the action come to him more.

From the look of things, it appears he wants to get back on Space Mountain.

But guess what Ric? No one wants to see that anymore. You’re one of the most important faces in the industry and you bugging out like that on TV makes you and the company you work for look like fools.

In order for TNA to be taken seriously, all the big egos need to play a part and not be the whole goddamn show every time the camera points their way.

That advice should be taken seriously by the likes of the Pope as well, who is utterly boring while spewing nonsensical garbage about making people smile. Bottom line, put him in the ring with Samoa Joe and end this feud already.

Aside from that, matches between Matt Hardy and Mr. Anderson and the main event, which pitted Kurt Angle and Crimson against Immortal, were average, nothing special. Trying their hardest to build up to next week’s show, this episode of Impact was more of a tease than anything else. On a positive note, Crimson looks good in the ring, even though it would have been nice to see his Mercy Kill finisher. While still a bit green, if the company can hide his flaws and build him up properly, he can prove to be an asset.

Essentially, they have to do the opposite of what they did with Terry.

The best match of the night belonged to Amazing Red, Chris Sabin and Max Buck, in a three-way bout in the tournament to crown a new number one contender in the X Division. If TNA is serious about resurrecting this title, matches like this have to continue. While it was full of high spots and could have benefitted from some more psychology, it was easily the most entertaining match of the night and a small reminder that TNA has the best in-ring competitors in the world.

Saving the show completely from going to the wayside was the appearance of Steiner, who with Angle, Crimson and Matt Morgan, look to be the group [with more faces apparently being added to the mix next week] to take down Immortal and Fourtune. Could this be the return of the Main Event Mafia? While it’s too early to tell, it appears there’s a war brewing on-screen in TNA.

Will it be captivating?

That’s too early to tell as well.

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About Patrick Hickey Jr. 14230 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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