TNA Power Poll (v.2)

[Rasha]

A week ago I made my first Power Poll based on the perceived "overness" of any active or at least MENTIONED TNA talent (sorry Hernandez and Wolfe). There have been two more episodes of Impact! since then, so I thought I'd revise the rankings with a pre-PPV edition. I've also added a little bit of commentary where I could. Thanks for reading, and I welcome your responses, disagreements, and your own rankings.

1. Kurt Angle (LW 1) - I'm confident any night, anytime, anywhere that Angle decided to show up he'd be the most over guy in the building. Got to keep him on top.
   
2. AJ Styles (LW 2) - Still gets huge responses and puts on the best matches in the company.
   
3. Mr. Anderson (LW 5) - Moved up two spots due to the obvious push. If not for his injury he might even be ahead of AJ right now.
   
4. Jeff Hardy (LW 6) - It's probably more TNA's fault than Jeff's, but he's done nothing more than hit Anderson in the head since the heel turn. He's wrestling Morgan this Sunday and they've had ZERO interaction.
   
5. Rob Van Dam (LW 3) - Nothing like an angle with EV2 to kill your heat.
   
6. D'Angelo Dinero (LW 4) - A PPV match with Abyss is TNA-speak for "we couldn't think of anything else for you." Still, the crowd loves him.
   
7. Motor City Machine Guns (LW 9) - It's almost a shame that Sabin and Shelley are in the tag division because either guy would be a better X-Division champ than Lethal.
   
8. Matt Morgan (LW 11) - Nice move up for Morgan. It will be very interesting to see if his push keeps going after the PPV or if this emergency duty is a one-time thing.
   
9. Samoa Joe (LW 8) - Is it just me, or would Joe have made more sense to fill in for Anderson this Sunday? Bad sign for him.
   
10. Jeff Jarrett (LW 14) - You have to give Jeff credit for becoming a significant entity again.
    
11. Beer Money (LW 7) - They had so much going for them coming out of the Best-of-Five with the Guns and it seems to be fizzling. Hopefully they get back in the spotlight as Fortune trims its membership.
    
12. Abyss (LW 10) - He's falling quickly from relevance. I think he needs to be involved more as Hardy's enforcer.
    
13. Jay Lethal (LW 13) - I don't blame Lethal for being stuck trying to carry TNA's "Shore" blunder in a too much, too soon PPV match. He deserves better.
    
14. Team 3D (LW 16) - I may be in the minority, but I think Bubba deserves a spot in the "Overrated Mic Workers" Hall of Fame. He bores the crap out of me.
    
15. Kazarian (LW 15) - He can thank Fortune for this ranking, because on his own he'd be pretty meaningless right now.
    
16. Doug Williams (LW 18) - Ditto.
    
17. Generation Me (LW 20) - The heel turn was a good move but they lost the heat immediately after the title shot. TNA's going to need to find another face tag team because rotating people in and out of angles with the MCMG isn't good for division depth.
    
18. Tommy Dreamer (LW 12) - Another casualty of the EV2 stink, though he's not blameless as his message has grown stale. He'd be much more effective as a mentor/manager for some young guy that needs a push.
    
19. Eric Young (LW 17) - He's doing the job he's been given, but it ain't worth much.
    
20. Brian Kendrick (LW 19) - Classic victim of TNA's booking mistakes; they make him an intriguing enigma but don't give him enough time to develop any substance.
    
21. Ink Inc (LW 22) - Moore needs to go X-Division and Neal needs to go back to the Navy.
    
22. EV 2.0 (all but Dreamer) (LW 21) - RVD should be mad at these guys for dragging him down the rankings. They give dead weight a bad name.
    
23. Magnus (LW 24) - Things would be much different for Magnus if Wolfe hadn't been injured. Hopefully he gets something going soon.
    
24. Orlando Jordan (LW 25) - The only person benefitting from the comic relief tag team is Young. This gimmick is going to kill Jordan.
    
25. Robbie E (LW 26) - I know he gets booed, but there's a difference between a crowd booing a good heel and a crowd booing a bad gimmick. The boos you hear are more directed at TNA for giving this guy time.
    
26. Rob Terry (LW 23) - You're less over than Robbie E. I can think of no greater insult.

 

[Vintage]

How is Robbie E at 25 my dude? Good or bad, he actually gets a reaction in the impact zone and it's not the usuall boo/yay dueling chants we get the majority of the time. He has legit heat for being an unknown and getting a lot of TV time. Throw in the recycled finisher of the current WWE champ and you got yourself a heat magnet. Yes he's a little boring on the mic but I just think he gets a little too much time. If it was Cookie doing the talking it would be a different story. More fist pumping, less talking and move him to 15 where Kaz is, moving Kaz to EY's spot. Young shouldn't even be on the list under his own entry and neither should Jordan.

 

[Rasha]

Thanks for the feedback. As I said in the poll, I don't view the boos for Roobie E as being the product of a good heel. I know his presence causes a reaction, but to me it's more that the crowd is booing TNA for wasting their time with this awful character. It's the next level down from a "BORING" chant, and you don't get a good ranking for that. Maybe I'll change my mind if it looks like faces are getting pops for beating Robbie's ass, but I haven't seen it yet.

As for EY and Jordan, I had to split them because I perceive the difference between them to be huge. I know you can argue that Moore is more over than Neal or maybe even that Roode is bigger than Storm, but I'd still make the case that the team is bigger than the individuals at the moment. When it comes to Young and Jordan, though, the team (which doesn't even have a name from what I can tell) still isn't as big as the two men involved.

 

[Chess]

I like the concept of this thread but I will mention a few things.

Where are the knockouts in your list. Tara, Mickie and BP are way more over than many in your list. Are women not included for any particular reason?

I would also go with Ric Flair as my number 1. He gets more reaction than any other talent in TNA, whether wrestling or not.

Another thing is that you count Kurt Angle (yes is probably the most over) but he has not been on Impact for a month. If you can count him, why is there no Sting who last appeared the same time as Kurt. Sting is definately over in a major way at the Impact Zone.

Young and Jordon are a Tag team that is useless yet Young is higher rated than Ink Inc (where I differ from you and think Moore is shit, while Neal has potential)

Once Douglas is purged from Fourtune (probably next week), then Kaz and Beer money should get a chance to shine as the group will be properly defined.

Dreamer Sucks, Sabu should be in the list as he gets more wrestling time than most of EV2.

 

[Rasha]

I didn't include the knockouts because I feel like they exist in their own world. It's hard to compare the pop Velvet gets for her ring entrance to what the male wrestlers are doing. It's a different type of entertainment.

Also, I left off Flair, Hogan, Bischoff, Foley, and anyone who isn't considered an active wrestler. I know Flair and Foley have been in the ring recently, but that's not what I was going for. If I had included them, I definitely would have had Flair at #2 after Angle.

I included Angle over guys like Sting, Nash, Wolfe, and Hernandez because he's still being referenced and shown in video packages for what went down with him and Jarrett. Heck, he was just on Impact two weeks ago (not a month). The other four guys just seem to be on a different level of "AWOL." I know Sting and Nash were on recently, but now they're "off the roster" (kayfabe) until something changes.

As for the other points you made, it's all pretty even at the bottom. I know I'd much rather watch Young than either guy from Ink Inc, so the higher ranking is more due to my personal taste than anything. And while you're right about Sabu getting more ring time than the other Ev2 guys, Dreamer's the one who is actually used more as an individual on the mic (like his segment with Fortune a few weeks ago) so that pushed him out of the pack for me.

Thanks for responding!