Easily one of the best episodes of Impact Wrestling over the past year and change, TNA had it all going on this week, good storyline, solid in-ring work and a fast pace.
Here’s who earned their stripes during the first week of 2013.
5: Bully Ray: His promo with Hulk Hogan was solid, but it’ll be more interesting to see what happens moving forward. He’s come such a long way over the past year. From a tag team superstar past his prime, Ray has found himself as a singles performer involved in an angle with the most popular performer in the history of the sport.
4: James Storm: The former TNA World Heavyweight Champion got a much needed win over Frank Kazarian and got his 2013 started on the right foot. He’s lost a ton of momentum over the last few months, but he’s still a big fan favorite. Maybe a tag team partner and a feud against Kaz and Daniels can get him going again.
3: Christian York: After he earned the win against ECW and X-Division veteran Kid Kash, York, a fellow ECW alumnus himself, advanced in the X-Division tournament. Continuing to get the support of the fans, York is establishing himself as a good worker and a dependable mid-carder with promise.
2: Jeff Hardy: The marks awarded him the 2012 TNA Wrestler of the Year. Although it means nothing, the fact that he granted both Austin Aries and Robert Roode a title shot at Genesis definitely gives him some bonus points. Say what you want about Hardy, but he will go out and work his tail off and destroy himself for the fans.
1: Aces and Eights: Although Sting came back and made the group pay, the addition of Mike Knox and the possible addition of Ken Anderson as well as their decimation of Kurt Angle and Samoa Joe prove that they are an elite faction in the sport today.
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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