TNA 5 Spot: Top 5 Underutilized Wrestlers on the TNA Roster Right Now

Welcome to the TNA 5 Spot, the second in new series of articles I am sharing with you right here at Bleacher Report.

If you go to the TNA website and click on the roster link you will see 60 faces appear in hi-res thumbnails.

That does not mean TNA has 60 wrestlers to work with; that is definitely a good thing. If so, TNA would piss off about 45 of them due to the fact that they have the worst roster-utilization of any promotion within the industry.

When looking at the TNA roster, as it appears on their website, you have to subtract the announcers and ring attendants because they do not wrestle and thankfully so.

So that means So-Cal Val, Christy Hemme, Mike Tenay, Taz, Willy Urbina, Hector Guerrero, Jeremy Borash and Don West have to hit the bricks.

That takes us down to, carry the one, minus that...that leaves us with 52 wrestlers to work with.

Well, almost.

Hulk Hogan still tries to wrestle but is not a wrestler anymore (some would say he never was), Ric Flair is embarrassing to watch in the ring so we subtract him from the mix and Eric Bischoff thinks he can do anything in the business including wrestling (and oh how deluded he is) but he cannot be counted either so was can subtract his happy butt too.

That leaves us at 49 active wrestlers on the roster.

Yes, I realize that Anarquia cannot wrestle and should be removed but he is good for a punching bag in a squash every now and then so he will stay.

Of those 49 wrestlers, 21 of them have appeared only once if not at all over the last four Impact's. Eighteen of them have appeared once or less in the last 8 taping's.

Don't get me wrong, some of them appear at house shows but TNA has been using the same set up people for Impact. This is training the audience to think there is nothing more to Impact than the same people week in and week out.

That is not a very good business model for a supposed growing company.

Here is but a few names collecting dust while working for TNA:

Mark Haskins—a high flying, X-Division wrestler that is usually a heel and can flat-out go in the ring. The dude is young too. We have seen this guy once on Impact in six months. What a waste.

Shannon Moore—Getting up there in years but this cat can still fly in the ring. He has won titles in many promotions over his career and with Jesse Neal gone, there is no other character like him within TNA. He has appeared only twice on Impact in the last five months.

Robbie E—I know what you are thinking. "Who care's about Robbie E, not seeing him is a good thing!". Normally you would be right but the fact that he is the T.V Champion and has not defended that title on Impact in over two month's is a problem for me. Get him on the screen just once so he can drop that belt to someone that deserves more air time, like Haskins, and the product will immediately improve.

Those mentioned above are just a small sampling of talent that are not being used properly if at all within TNA. There are bigger and better players wasting away.

Here are my TNA 5 Spot picks for the most underutilized roster talents within TNA right now.

Enjoy!

#5 Anthony Nese

When Anthony Nese first appeared on Impact last year it was in an elimination tournament for the right to win a TNA contract.

He appeared to be a heel, looked great and was eventually signed.

He was rewarded by being put into a storage container on the front porch of Funk and Wagnall's old country store for months until someone within TNA found a packing slip with his name on it, remembered who he was, and dusted him off for a recent best of three series on Impact against Zema Ion.

The winner would become the fourth player in a PPV 4-way match for the X-Division title held by Austin Aries, the current champ.

The video clip above is from the second match in that best of three series vs. Ion. Nese would win this match-up to tie the series before ultimately losing the third and decisive match to Ion the following week on Impact.

The thing about Nese that defies his current residency in moth balls is that even though he lost the series he came out of it looking like the better performer in all three matches. Ion is extremely talented but his move sets look stiff and highly choreographed while Nese's offense seems to come out from no where and appears to be more fluid than Ion at times.

Nese's inactvity given his performances is truly mind boggling.

In my weekly Impact Review the week the third match in the best to three series won by Ion I had a poll up asking all of you When do you think you will see Nese again?

Here are the results to the questions presented.

A few weeks : 29.6%  

A few month's: 31.0%

They pulled his storage box back out...probably won't see him again until next fall: 39.4%

It is sad that we can predict TNA so easily, is it not?

We have not seen this talented guy on Impact or anywhere else for that matter since 12/29/11.

Nese can fly, he can wrestle and he has a look that would be over with the crowd. I have seen him give promo's on the Indy Circuit (search Anthony Nese promo on You tube) and he's not bad on the stick.

Yes he might be a bit vanilla but he is also way too talented to be kept in the spice cabinet.

He is perfect to battle Robbie E and a few others for the T.V Title. TNA needs to wake up when it comes to this guy.

#4: Brian Kendrick

At one time, not too long ago, Brian Kendrick was all over the place in TNA. He was everywhere and while I liked what he could do in the ring, his choice of ring attire was laughably annoying and when he got on the mic I wanted him gone.

He is perhaps the worst mic guy in the business, not because he lacks ability but because he tries too hard to be different.

In the ring however, the man has no equal at times. He can fly, he can wrestle and for his size, which is small, his offense is believable.

With all due respect to Alex Shelley, Kendrick bakes a better sliced-bread as a finisher.

Kendrick is one of those guys that can elevate the product. When he appears in a match, and leaves the mic alone, the on-air product is that much better.

He is good for visual business.

If someone could teach him how to dress and take the bong away a few hours before he is expected to speak on the mic then TNA would have an all-around winner in this guy.

Kendrick is too tied to the X-Division so he is another guy I would like to see battle for the T.V title, a belt that should be defended or contended for on a weekly basis.

As a side note- Amazing Red, appearing in the match against Kendrick above, is another mistake by TNA. Incredible talent simply allowed to walk away. 

Crazy.

#3 Jesse Sorenson

In the matches that this guy has appeared in, including his performance in the match clip I included here, it is clear that this guy has the skills to not only compete at this level, but to also be a star.

Other than that not much is known about Sorenson because he has been regulated to sharing moth ball with Anthony Nese.

Somehow though, without appearing on Impact for more than two months, Sorenson managed to be placed within a major PPV match- a 4-way dance- between himself, Zema Ion, Kid Kash and Austin Aries for Aries X-Division title.

Since then, some 30-days later, we still have yet to see Sorenson on Impact. In fact, over the last 16 Impacts, Sorenson has been seen just twice.

You need a manual, a gyroscope, some magnesium nitrate, a microscope, a quartz crystal and an egg beater to figure out the how's and why's of TNA's creative dysfunction.

Sorenson has the look and ability that reminds me of a larger version of Amazing Red. I can see this guy being a future X-Division Champion but in order for that to actually happen he needs to leave the locker room and find out where the ring is.

His work opposite Kid Kash has been nothing short of excellent and he has proven that he can hang with the likes of Austin Aries, the TNA X-Division champ, as well.

The only thing stopping this kid is the lack of opportunity.

The video above is a small sampling of what Sorenson can do in the ring.

We should be seeing him nearly every week.

#2 Austin Aries

Some might question how a guy that is the X-Division Champion can be on a list of underutilized talents within TNA.

If you actually watch TNA, the only question you should be asking is why I do not have him as #1 on this list.

Who could possibly be used worse than Aries?

Just wait, you will agree.

Yes, Aries is the X-Division champion. He is also the best mic worker in TNA and arguably one of the best in ring performers in the company.

Yet despite all that, over the last 12 Impacts (that's three months for those of you keeping track) we have seen Aries only five times.

Most of that has been recent. In fact, at one point we went two weeks without seeing him until we got this amazing promo exchange between himself and Kash to promote a PPV match between them and then after that amazing exchange, we did not see either man again until their PPV match which as two weeks later.

It was one of the most boneheaded things I have ever seen TNA do. Aries and Kash blew the roof off the building in that promo on Impact and then...nothing.

After their PPV match we did not see either man again on Impact for three more weeks.

Unbelievable.

When we are honored with his presence, we see Aries on the stick talking (always good) instead of wrestling (we want hat too) about how he is the best (true) there is (screw you Bret Hart), has beaten everyone in the X-Division (almost true) and has no competition (arguably true) and that he is bored (I can see why..we never see him).

This prompts someone to come out to challenge him, the current victim is Alex Shelley, and they set up a match at a PPV- not Impact. 

We don't get to see him in a one on one match on Impact anymore and when he is allowed to grace us in the ring to do something other than talk (and oh how we love to hear him talk) it is as a tag team partner instead of a singles wrestler.

I know many of my regular readers would love to see this guy every week instead of every 3 to 4 weeks as has been the case since October.

TNA has a gold mine in this guy so it boggles the mind at his lack of use.

I would love for Aries to defeat Shelley, then have a match with Sorenson at a PPV, defeat him one on one then announce that he has done all he could within the X-Division and now it is time to move on to bigger and better things.

Like the Heavyweight Title currently held by Bobby Roode.

He needs to be used more, end of story.

The video clip above is just an example of how enjoyable Aries is and also provides further proof that Jesse Sorenson needs to be used more.

#1 Pope

He is not better than Aries. No, that is not what this list is all about.

He is better than how he is booked. 

To be honest, I am not a fan of Pope's but I do recognize talent when I see it. 

This man has charisma. He can wrestle. He delivers solid offense, sells great defense and can work the Mic. The crowd reacts to him no matter his role. He is one of the few talents on the TNA roster that has all the tools.

When I first started watching TNA, the Pope was a face and a popular one at that. He was actually getting a push and was involved in some meaningful feuds.

And then the curse hit. The Samoa Joe Curse.

I can think of no career within TNA that has been damaged more than that of Samoa Joe. In fact, if I made this list a moth ago, Joe would have been on it and would have been number one. Recently though Joe has been paired with Magnus in a tag team that I predict will win the Tag Titles at Against All Odds next month.

Seems that perhaps, for now, Joe has been pardoned for whatever crimes put him in the dog house.

Pope, however, is a very close second to Joe when it comes to a career that has been tossed down the crapper. In fact, when Joe and Magnus win the titles at A.A.O the Pope will be the new Samoa Joe within TNA.

Not the monster Joe, the Jobber Joe.

They turned Pope heel in one of the lamest angles of all time as Samoa Joe, of all people, outed him as a fake and a cheat. Just when we thought things could not get any worse they put him in a program against Devon in which Devon's kids seemed to favor Pope over their own father.

It was cringe-worthy to watch and the only positive thing that came from it was that it finally ended.

It was long, drawn out, boring and sad to watch a man of these talents wasted in such a manner.

Pope is not one of the top five guys in TNA but he is close. He is certainly someone that should contend for the big title and at the very least he could find a tag partner or contend for the T.V title instead of taking up space which is the best way to describe him these days.

Much like Joe and Velvet Sky, Pope must have pissed in the cornflakes of someone influential within TNA to be treated in such a manner.

You almost have to wonder if it's a racial thing.

Yeah, I went there.

Pope is one of only two black wrestlers in the roster, just two. He has been clearly misused for some time and the other black wrestler on the roster is Devon who was one half of one of the most successful tags teams in history. A tag team that recently broke up with the white guy, Bully Ray, dominating Devon in their fall-out matches and now he is being pushed to the moon while Devon is basically just a jobber, like Pope,  a man with whom he was paired with in one of the worst angles of the year.

You hate to think it but one has to wonder.

Conclusion

These are just five guys of a long list of talent that TNA either misuses or completely ignores.

I could have made an entire article about the under-utilization of the X-Division itself to prove my point.

Don't even get me started on the talents they simply let walk away like Amazing Red and Jay Lethal. That's another TNA 5 Spot all its own and coming to a Bleacher Report slide show near you soon.

Every week we get Roode, Storm, Mickie James, Sting, Hardy Young, ODB and a handful of others that we see all the time while many more talents are left off the show.

Other than the five I mentioned here in this particular TNA 5 SPOT, arguments can be made for the likes of Kid Kash, Sarita, Shannon Moore, Ken Anderson and until last week Alex Shelley.

We hardly see Rosita and when we see Angelina Love, it's hardly as a wrestler which is a travesty because she is one of the few on the Knockouts roster than can actually wrestle.

I don't want to hear that there is not enough time in a two-hour program to do more than they are doing. We see Eric Young numerous times back stage and in the ring on the same broadcast. Some of that time could be given to someone else.

On a given Impact, we get 20-25 minutes of actual wrestling over 4-5 matches on the card.

The rest, after commercials, is about an hour of talking heads.Some time could be manipulated there as well to allow one or two more matches, upping the total to at least 6 matches on the card.

This would allow TNA to feature someone else currently lost in mothballs.

Another solution would be to add another hour to Impact or create another weekly one-hour show to showcase the X-Division and highlight the T.V title.

Until then, I suppose we will have to enjoy what we are offered and hope that one day TNA will wake up and realize they the path to success requires incorporating the entire roster and not just the hand picked favorites of the current creative team.

 

You got an opinion on this? I welcome the debate. The floor below is now open.

 

Check out the very first TNA 5 Spot right here

Check out my January 26TH TNA Impact review right here

I don't just over TNA, check out my most recent WWE column about Chris Jericho and his bust of a return right here

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