TNA Power Rankings: Hail Sabin

After the dust settled on Destination X, TNA is a vastly different company, going in a direction creatively that continues to boggle the mind. Regardless of the wacky storylines, TNA’s in-ring product continues to be more than admirable.

Check out our Power Rankings to see who made the most of the free-TV pay per view.

5: Sonjay Dutt/Manik/Greg Marasciulo: Dutt won a quick match with a perfectly executed Moonsault stomp to get into the Ultimate X match to crown a new title next week. Manik won his qualifying match with the Double Underhook Gutbuster. Marasciulo, known to WWE fans as Trent Baretta, has the most charisma of the three and won with a cool Package Buster finisher. This looks to be an interesting match next week. While none of the three are fan favorites, Marasciulo has the best look and may be the best fit to wear the strap. Lets face it, Manik, while a great performer, isn’t to be taken seriously in the Suicide gimmick, while Dutt’s run with the X-Division title should have happened years ago.

4: The Main Event Mafia/Aces and Eights: Sure, it’s not the most engaging angle among factions, but it could be a lot worse. At this point, the drama isn’t taking up the entire show and TNA is at least smart enough(even if they lack logic at times) to let the matches in the ring do the talking. While Rampage Jackson, Magnus and Joe look out-of-place in the group, Anderson has been great with Bully Ray and Devon in the Aces and Eights. With Luke Gallows not in the group anymore and D’Lo fired, there’s no leftover fat to trim. Perhaps now the group can get back on the same page, even if Ray isn’t the TNA Champ any longer.

3: Austin Aries: This guy is one of the most entertaining performers in TNA today.In one of the best opening matches in TNA Impact, Destination X, cough, history, Aries took down the longest reigning TNA World Heavyweight Champion, Bobby Roode with a vicious Brainbuster. Regardless of his trouble-making antics earlier in the year (just ask Christy Hemme), Aries deserves to be in the main event every night.

2: Bully Ray: Say what you want about him, but Ray was an excellent heel champion. If not for the terrible writing and pacing that beleaguered the Aces and Eights, Ray and his boys could have and should be much more over.

1: Chris Sabin: The former Tag Champ and X-Division Champion looked great against Bully Ray this week and don’t let the way he won the World Title, using the hammer, fool you. This was karma. For all the sidesteps and bullock Sabin has had over the years, this was his opportunity and he took it.

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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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