TNA Analysis: 'The Pope' No Longer Pimpin'?

TNA has a lot of talented superstars. However, one of these men, who has continued to impress me throughout his time with the promotion, is Elijah Burke, better known now as "The Pope" D'Angelo Dinero.

Before he was pimpin', Elijah was a member of WWE's ECW brand and it was during this time I took a liking to The Silver-Tongued Pugilist. Burke displayed all the talent in the world during his time on ECW. Yet, for some odd reason, they never really did anything with him.

Burke's biggest success came in leading his group, The New Breed, against The ECW Originals (Tommy Dreamer, RVD, Sandman, and Sabu,) in which the groups traded wins with The Originals. The Originals won a match at WrestleMania, but The New Breed won an Extreme Rules match the next week. That said, nothing really came out of that for Elijah.

During most of his time in ECW, Burke basically played CM Punk's glorified jobber with a small medium of success during ECW's talent exchange with Smackdown, until finally being released in 2008. In my opinion, it was a bad move releasing such a promising talent. Especially hearing that he wrestled in WWE using "The Pope" gimmick in dark matches.

Skip ahead a year, and we find Elijah in TNA as "The Pope" D'Angelo Dinero. A man who was a literal nobody in WWE is now one of the best TNA has to offer. Not only can Dinero wrestle but he's one of the best if not the best in TNA on the mic. At one point, it seemed as if Dinero was well on his way to a World Championship, beating the likes of Desmond Wolfe and A.J. Styles.

Dinero competed in and won the 8 Card Stud Tournament at Against All Odds in 2010 to recieve a title match at Lockdown against A.J. Styles, and though he came up short the match helped to put The Pope on the map as a man to watch in TNA, though an injury received during the match cost Dinero 2 months of action and derailed much of his momentum.

The Pope would return to action at Victory Road in a defeat to Kurt Angle before being entered into another tourney, this time to crown a new TNA World Heavyweight Champion. The Pope would beat Matt Morgan to join Jeff Hardy, Mr. Anderson and Kurt Angle heading to No Surrender in the semi-finals.

This would be a turning point in The Pope's career as it seemed TNA lost interest in Dinero. While Kurt Angle and Jeff Hardy battled to a draw at No Surrender, The Pope was eliminated from the Tourney. The match to decide a new World Champion at Bound For Glory would end up a Triple Threat between Mr. Anderson, Kurt Angle and Jeff Hardy, while The Pope was left out of the World Title picture, instead being placed in a feud that went nowhere with the creation of Immortal.

The Pope would become a target for Fortune/Immortal following Nash's departure and Sting's hiatus, continuing to come up short in battling Fortune and then Abyss.

As of now, The Pope is feuding with Samoa Joe and Okada as a heel. I have to question why Dinero was dropped as an adversary of Immortal/Fortune. Anderson, RVD, The Pope and Kurt Angle have all had issues with Immortal, but relatively speaking, Pope has been fighting them since before we knew who "they" were. Yet, out of all the people, Dinero is dropped. Why?

He has it all. He's got the look, the popularity, the mic skills, the charisma and the move set to be force in TNA. They spent a good deal of time building the man up, but haven't done anything with the credibility he's earned. I'm not saying he should have won the World Title at Lockdown, but Pope should have been a key player in regards to who's fighting Immortal, especially with the recent return of Sting.

The Pope could be doing many things in TNA right now. Feuding with Gunner over the TV Title (In wait for the return of Abyss to continue the program they had,) feuding with Anderson (the man who essentially took him out of the main-event scene,) feuding with Fortune/A.J., (the group who used to beat on him on several occasions,) or allying with Ric Flair (similar gimmick and could prove a suitable replacement for A.J. as Ric's protege.)

My point is that The Pope deserves more than what he's getting. He's in a feud with Samoa Joe and Okada that doesn't look to be going anywhere big. That's a shame when Dinero could be doing so much more. I'm not against keeping it in my head that his talents will eventually be rewarded but looking at things, I really don't know.