How about we look at five more wasted wrestlers in TNA and Impact Wrestling history. Are some of your favorites on the list? Let’s find out.
Mr. Kennedy (2010-2016)
Ken Anderson was actually in TNA longer than I thought. As a matter of fact, he also debuted sooner than I remembered. This makes it even worse.
He was heavily used upon his debut with the company in 2010. The following year saw him still in the mix of things including feuding with the Immortal faction. This year also saw his first World title win and the second one that summer.
Anderson’s slide began with heavy involvement with Aces & Eights. He went from being a surprise, major member to being another member of an uninteresting faction.
Even after leaving the faction, he never regained that momentum but was still involved in other storylines.
In reality, he should’ve been used more like Christian Cage, Angle, or Jeff Hardy but ehh no one said TNA’s booking was concrete and consistent.
Cheerleader Melissa (2008-2010, 2011, 2013)
During the 2000s, Cheerleader Melissa was considered one of the very best women wrestlers in North America. She even picked up a future legend award from the Cauliflower Alley Club.
Impact Wrestling had her on its roster three times and did little with her each time. The most involvement she had was as Awesome Kong’s manager.
For those with a good memory of late 2000s-early 2010s TNA, she there as Alissa Flash and was still underutilized. That aside, she had an interesting and physical feud with Hamada.
More could’ve been done with her and it’s criminal that she didn’t have at least one Knockouts title reign.
Christopher Daniels: Near Impact Wrestling Lifer (2002-2010, 2012-2014)
Daniels was close to an Impact Wrestling lifer that you could get without naming Abyss, Styles, and Storm. He’s a TNA Original to the bone but unlike those three he never got to hold the World title.
Mind you, he’s won many championships, tournaments, and End of the Year awards for his work in the company—even during times when the company felt out of favor.
Daniels has even had several shots at the belt. Yet the World title seemed to be off-limits for him. He was definitely utilized in TNA but not to maximum effect.
Hernandez (2003-2004, 2006-2014, 2015, 2018, 2020-)
Impact Wrestling and Hernandez are a really good mix but he’s always been presented as being strong in a tag team combination.
In Impact’s defense, Hernandez is a really good tag wrestler. If you need to bring power to a team, he should be in the upper reaches of your list.
That said, he had a period where he was solo and being promoted as “Super Mex” where I felt “Yeah, he could make a strong run at the World title.”
In present-day Impact, there’s nothing that says he shouldn’t be a champion—especially with several TNA Originals and old heads returning to the company now and days.
Frankie Kazarian (2003-2005, 2006-2014)
Kazarian is a brief one because it’s mainly for the same reasons as Christopher Daniels. Numerous championship, tournament, and award wins under this guy’s belt.
He also had a good look and like Daniels, he was—and still is—very skilled in the ring. Unfortunately, he was never given a run with the title.
I’ll put him under “utilized a lot in the company but not to his maximum effectiveness.”
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