Starting the Year Off on the Wrong Foot

With all of Fortune and Immortal in the ring to start this past week’s episode of TNA Impact!, it appeared the company was off on the right foot for the new year. However, by the end, it was impossible to escape the feeling of inadequacy the show left its viewers with.

While it’s hard to bash the in-ring action, because for the most part, it was all solid and what you’d expect from the company, several storylines are a disaster and were a waste of time on both this week’s Impact and the Genesis Pay Per View tonight.

For one, seeing the Jeff Jarrett MMA Invitational come to an end was a godsend for the company. Seriously, how can have a professional wrestler, in this day and age, waste fans time with a “MMA Exibition” every week? We know that it’s Jeff Jarrett’s company, but how egotistical can one man be to force fans [who would much rather want to watch people like Samoa Joe and A.J. Styles wrestle their asses off] to watch him pretend to be an MMA fighter? Despite the fact that it was great to see Kurt Angle come back at the hopefully-end of this angle as well, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to get the fact that their match tonight at Genesis is going to be a complete bore.

Speaking of a bore in the ring, seeing the Brothers 3D in the ring against one another is going to be something that’ll put fans to sleep faster than a handful of Tylenol PM. These guys are two of the toughest tag team wrestlers in the business and it’s been proven time and time again that they need one another to be as successful as they want to be. With that being said, why would TNA do the same thing the WWE did eight years ago, that didn’t work?

Even funnier is that TNA prolonged a boring as hell angle with The Pope, to only have Samoa Joe come out and call him out, with no match being scheduled for the future? With a pay per view looking flaccid as hell, why not get the newly re-signed Joe back in the ring with a talented athlete like the Pope? Instead, TNA would rather have them both talk drivel in the ring for five minutes and waste the fans time.

Another waste of time was having someone like Doug Williams, a solid technical wrestler, in the ring with a genetic freak with little talent like Rob Terry. A few months ago, Terry was the Global Champion and was being used in a way to make the most out of his powerhouse abilities- now he’s just the guy that holds Ric Flair’s jacket. Thankfully, that match was interrupted by Styles, a guy who will have a great match with Williams at Genesis.

Aside from that, the whole business with Rob Van Dam was a disgrace as well, as Jarrett ended up playing his MMA angle again in ridiculous match that was only saved by TNA Champ Jeff Hardy’s interference. Will those two face off at Genesis? If not, then Hardy’s interference in that match and the dozen or so minutes RVD was complaining on Impact! was all for naught.

In the end, TNA needs to manage its time better and give the fans more of what they want- great wrestling action and solid storylines. While they have the in-ring component down to a science, they need to improve their angle writing and fast.

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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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