TNA Impact Wrestling Coverage: Long Promos Matter

While Sting’s antics last week made his attempt to emulate the comic book character The Joker apparent, his change in face paint made it blatantly obvious. Essentially an exact copy of Heath Ledger’s costume in “The Dark Knight,” Sting’s change in persona has him treading in scary waters.

Not quite a face, not quite a heel, fans will find themselves in a rough spot. Do they cheer him? The fact that some of the fans in the Impact Zone cheered Hogan during an excessively long interaction to open the show only proves that.

The bottom line is, this character is an icon and is being tampered with in a way that could change his legacy.

TNA creative has to play this smart.

Judging from what they’ve done with the careers of other legends over the years, fans of the Stinger should be worried.

On a more positive note, it appears not only will Low-Ki will be on the next pay per view, but Jerry Lynn as well. The four corners match that was announced for next week between AJ Styles, Christopher Daniels, Lynn and Rob Van Dam also looks interesting.

Nevertheless, in spite of the solid wrestling action on the show, the limited commercial interruptions made all of the promos run entirely too long. If TNA cut every promo down by a minute, they could have easily got one more match in.

Small things like this continue to hurt TNA’s overall appeal and ability to develop its audience.

Matches:

Devon vs. Joe: Why TNA continues to waste Samoa Joe’s ability to beyond words. After a front standing sidewalk slam, Devon got the win, further tarnishing Joe’s role in the company. While Joe was in charge most of the match, he was unable to put Devon away. Overall, this character needs some wins and fast or might go down as the biggest waste of potential in the company’s history.

Matt Bentley vs. Low-Ki vs. Jimmy Yang for a TNA contract for Destination X: Best match of the night that saw Low-Ki get the win with the warrior’s way foot stomp. Bentley and Yang both performed well too. The match had a ton of high-impact offense and a nice pace that continues to tease the Destination X pay per view. This is a match that should be on every Impact card in one form or another.

Madison Rayne, Angelina Love and Winter vs. Miss Tessmacher, Tara and Mickie James: Aside from Love miraculously being awoken from her zombie state, this match was nothing special. Sure, the action was solid, but forgive us for not being interested in Winter getting a title shot. Although she continues to get better every time she gets in the ring, she’s still incredibly green.

AJ Styles vs. Gunner: These guys continue to prove they are capable of a long-term program. At this point, Styles continues to put Gunner over, who got the win in this contest. It’s getting a bit boring though. Hopefully, these two can have a heck of a match at Destination X, with a clean winner being declared.

Sting vs. Scott Steiner: A shoddy Main Event that saw Sting win with the reverse DDT after five minutes of routine action from both stars. Afterward, Mr. Anderson and Bully Ray came to the ring and helped Steiner beat up on Sting. Soon after, Hulk Hogan joined the party, before Kurt Angle hit the ring to help Sting.

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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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