After over a year of active storyline participation, it’s fair to say that the Joseph Park experiment was a partial failure.
Fans want to see Abyss, a monster capable of defeating the Aces & Eights, not an overweight attorney that can’t wrestle. The fact that they are the same person, is scary. Chris Parks has been a dedicated TNA employee for a decade now and has played both parts well and ultimately, the botch is on TNA creative’s shoulders, not his.
The original, “I’m looking for my brother” arc worked, for the simple fact that Park deserved some time out of the ring, but needed to be on TV. The guy wrestles physical matches and combined with his huge frame, it’s easy to see that injuries could take their toll after a while. Legends the likes of Mick Foley (who Abyss draws constant comparisons to and for good reason) and Stone Cold Steve Austin have done this in the past to excellent results. Ironically, TNA made Park a fun, yet sympathetic character. Even though at times it felt like his presence on the show was filler and merely to tease Abyss’ return, he was able to make himself “fit.” That accomplishment wasn’t an easy one and is a byproduct of Park’s underrated promo skills. Naturally, even in spite of Park’s surprising charisma, TNA didn’t didn’t stop there. Instead, they took him to wrestling school and allowed him to join the TNA roster. Big mistake.
While the casual fan may not see this as a big deal, it’s detrimental to the Abyss character as well. Professional wrestling had evolved tremendously thanks to the Internet. Everyone knows who is behind the mask and writing the stories. To have a crown jewel of your roster turned into a greenhorn for the sake of storyline simply isn’t fair and it’s illogical. Parks worked tremendously hard to be a player in TNA and the creation of Joseph Park essentially made him start from scratch. He didn’t need another gimmick. He had one that worked already. Regardless of why the Joseph Park character was crated or not, it’s time to put it to bed.
With the TV title already around his waist, Abyss isn’t starting from the beginning, but the fact that the Joseph Park character hasn’t been laid to waste yet proves that Abyss isn’t going to get the gigantic push everyone expected when he returned last month.
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.
After over a year of active storyline participation, it’s fair to say that the Joseph Park experiment was a partial failure.
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