10 TNA/Impact Signings That Flopped By Hakeem Fullerton

Intro: In wrestling, signing new stars can be seen as adding a new element to a product that is already doing good or is in desperate need of a reboot.

Some signings could end up doing well for themselves or other cases produce great things for the company in regards to matches and an increase in profits and word of mouth from the general public.

However, not every wrestling signing works out the way fans, management or even the wrestlers themselves turned out; some could be disappointing, other times they could fail to live up to the expectations that they or company promised.

And today will be looking at some of those names who TNA/Impact management signed up and expect great things only to become a massive flop and a waste of time and money.

10. "The Miracle" Mike Bennett

Before 2017 onwards Mike Bennett was seen as a big deal; from his success in small independent promotions to meeting the woman of his life, Maria Kanellis in Ring of Honor and winning the tag team titles with Matt Taven along the way to a brief period in New Japan Pro Wrestling.

During the January 5th 2016 tapings, both Mike and Maria debuted in Impact with the former calling himself "The Miracle" and "Professional Wrestling's Jesus" (The messiah looking like a professional wrestler rocking a Colgate White Suit isn't the first thing I would think of but whatever).

During his time, Bennett would have matches with names like Drew Galloway, Braxton Sutter, EC3 and even Cody Rhodes.

His biggest moments with the company saw Bennett win the X division title, bringing Moose to Impact Wrestling (in Kayfabe) and ending EC3's undefeated streak (in hindsight probably the worst person to end the streak, next to Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania 30).

With how the company portrayed him on screen it seemed like only a matter of time before Bennett would become the next world champion, however that would never happen as Mike and his wife Maria would be gone by early 2017.

On an episode of Edge and Christian's Pod of Awesomeness, Bennett mentions how he was thinking about re-signing with Impact but had "that itch" for the WWE, this led to phone calls with Paul Heyman, William Regal and Kevin Owens who convinced Mike and Maria by saying " What are you guys doing? I heard you guys were resigning with TNA, I don't think you should do that. You should come here."

By early 2017, the Bennett's announced that they wouldn't resign with TNA due to "Personal Issues" which was revealed to be a lie as months later Mike would debut at the Money in The Bank 2017 PPV.

While he did accomplish some feats during his time with Impact, it was all during a low period within the company plus, his decision to leave one year after his debut despite being built for a possible world championship reign puts "The Miracle" Mike Bennett on this list.

9. Brittany/ Santana Garrett

Best known on the Indies as Santana Garrett, Brittany debuted with Impact Wrestling in March of 2013 after a few blink and you miss it appearances with the company over the years.

Her first match as an official member of the Impact roster saw her go up against and defeating Gail Kim.

This should of been to beginning of big things for her career and time with Impact but, just like many things that were happening with Impact at the time, it fell apart real quickly.

Santana/Brittany's gimmick was that she was a big fan of former knockouts champion, Madison Rayne and she decided to help her idol out by partnering with her during Madison's feud with former friends Angelina Love and Velvet Sky.

Things took a strange turn when during an in-ring segment between both Brittany and Madison, the young wrestler told Madison that "I just want to be closer to you." (You can image what she meant by that).

Madison was visibly uncomfortable with this and rejected this offer, thus leading to Brittany turning on Madison weeks later (if this whole angle wasn't made by Vince Russo, I'd be shocked).

Madison defeated Brittany in a no count out, no disqualification match ending their feud; Soon afterwards Brittany would reappear as the love interest for kayfabe creepy bastard and Dexter Morgan cosplayer, Samuel Shaw.

This storyline also ended in quick fashion after Shaw lost to his former friend and pro wrestler, Gunner in a match.

That was the last time fans saw Brittany on Impact as her contract would expire in December of that year.

8. Brandi Rhodes

Although she's best known as one of the minds behind All Elite Wrestling's Women's Division and the wife of Cody Rhodes, many may forget that she signed with Impact Wrestling for a short time.

Announced in 2016 as the newest member of the roster by TMZ and Impact themselves, Brandi Rhodes was being built up by the company as a break out star looking to make green.

Unfortunately for Impact, the only green Brandi Rhodes produced was her in-ring skills (or lack there of) and her difficult to watch matches on Impact and Xplosion.

Thankfully her husband debuted with the company soon after and Brandi spent the rest of that time in mix tag matches with Cody (possibly to cover up her short comings in the ring).

In 2017, Brandi Rhodes parted ways with Impact over the company's alleged demand of wanting some of the percentage she made over a non wrestling appearance, she refused and 2 years later AEW would be born with her at the helm of the woman's division alongside with names like Dr. Brit Baker and former Knockout Awesome Kong.

7. Hania the Huntress

Hania the Huntress is probably best known nowadays for her departure from Impact Wrestling rather than her wrestling matches.

Hania debuted for Impact on November 10, 2017 following a match between Rosemary and KC Spinelli. Hania hopped over the guardrail and attacked the former knockouts champion leaving her knocked out.

Aside from a few matches with Spinelli and Amber Nova, Hania's time with the company was cut short due to numerous reports of backstage issues involving the young star ranging from refusing to work with talents like Su Yung and Taya Valkyrie to missing a flight and no showing an episode of Impact and getting into trouble with other wrestlers particularly Gail Kim (aka the woman who just so happens to be running the knockouts division behind the scenes!).

Unsurprisingly, Impact management fired Hania just as soon as she arrived but not before she ended up jobbing out to Rosemary in a series of matches during the early 2018 tapings.

6. Pacman Jones

The first of two athletes who went from the sports world to the squared circle to appear on this list, Adam "Pacman" Jones has become well known to many wrestling fans for his time with the company former known as TNA, but seeing how his included on this list, you can imagine it didn't turn out so well it.

The former cornerback was looking to wrestle for TNA in 2007 following a violation of the NFL's player conduct policy, this of course garnered a lot of media attention to the company as well as legal problems as the coach for the Tennessee Titans, Jeff Fisher didn't want Jones to take part in any kind of physical role and that his football contract prevented him from wrestling.

In typical wrestling fashion, Jones somehow got signed despite promises of him taking a non wrestling role but of course, in TNA/Impact wrestling fashion they found a way around this.

Pacman Jones' time as a wrestler who see him predominantly in tag team matches alongside partner Ron "The Truth" Killings (aka R-Truth in WWE) where Truth would do much of the heavy lifting but when it came time for Jones to wrestle, the cameras would turn away and focus on other things going on like crowd reactions or brawls that were taking place in the midst of the match.

Notable these tricks were used at No Surrender 2007 when Jones and Truth somehow managed to not only defeat Kurt Angle and Sting but win the tag team titles in the process.

Both Jones and Truth would hold onto the tag team titles until Bound For Glory later that year which saw AJ Styles and Tomko defeat Truth and Rasheed Creed aka Consequnces Creed (aka Xavier Woods) as a replacement for Jones.

Although he briefly returned in 2013 to bodyslam former tag team champions Frankie Kazarian and Christopher Daniels on an episode of Impact, many look back at Pacman Jones' time with the company as nothing more but Impact attempting to recreate the magic of Mike Tyson in the WWF only with a lot more restrictions on what he could. While Jones never caused any problems backstage and felt happy to be there, alas it was his football contract that put a real damper on what he could of done.

5. Scarlett Bordeaux

The most recent entity on this list, Scarlett Bordeaux's time in Impact is a text book example of a company overhyping a brand new star, only for said star to disappoint and fail to live up to those expectations.

While she could wrestle, it's easy to look back and she why Scarlett belongs on this list.

With a number of vignettes promoting her debut, Scarlett made her debut on the July 26 episode of Impact where she demonstrated her charisma on the microphone against then backstage interviewer Alicia Atout, calling herself "The Smokeshow" telling Alicia "Shut up five, a ten is talking". and ending with Bordeaux's promise to "make wrestling sexy again." and before licking the microphone in a very sexual manner.

If anyone was hoping to see Miss Bordeaux wrestle soon after her debut, would be disappointed as she spend the rest of 2018 to early 2019 in backstage segments with names like Fallah Bahh, KM, Grado and the Desi Hit Squad on her pseudo backstage talk show creativity called "The Smoke Show".

On the March 29th edition of Impact, Bordeaux finally had her in-ring debut against former WCW superstar, Disco Inferno aka Glenn Gilbertti in a winning effort.

Scarlett then took part in an over the top rope knockouts battle royale before officially partnering up with Fallah Bahh in tag team matches.

Bordeaux would wrestle in her first and only PPV match for Impact at the Rebellion PPV where she took on Desi Hit Squad member Rohit Raju, this following a heated kayfabe discussion between the two on Twitter a few days before that almost led to Rohit being fired by Anthem's Executive Vice President Ed Nordholm.

Weeks afterwards Scarlett would be released from the company following financial disputes with Impact in June.

While Scarlett certainly got the fans attention whether she was backstage or in the ring, the company's hype for 'The Smokeshow', ironically went up in smoke before fans or mainstream audiences had a chance to see what see could really do.

4. Aron Rex

Some wrestlers who jump ship from WWE to Impact do very well for themselves like Gail Kim, EC3, Bobby Lashley, Jeff Hardy just to name a few; while others end up being a waste of a signing, such is the case with Aron Rex.

After cashing in and failing to win the world title from a one armed John Cena to being relegated to The Miz's stunt double to being a Hulk Hogan cosplayer, the writing was on the wall that Rex's time with the WWE was going nowhere and thus he needed a change in scenery.

After being released from the WWE in 2016, Aron Rex would join Impact Wrestling three months later and cut promo in which the former intellectual savior of the masses said he would be "doing things his way".

Rex wrestled in matches against names like Drew Galloway, Trevor Lee and Eli Drake before making it to the finals of a tournament to crown the very first Impact Grand Champion at Bound For Glory, Rex ended up winning the title in match against Eddie Edwards who was substituting for Galloway (who was injured).

After working a feud surrounding the Grand Championship with Jessie Godderz and eventually losing it Moose in a matter of seconds, Rex would return to TV as a hybrid of Ric Flair, Liberace and Gorgeous George complete with a man servant in the form of former X Division champion, Rockstar Spud.

The gimmick change didn't help as Rex would depart Impact and the wrestling scene for a time in April of 2017.

Whatever Rex meant by "doing things his way". clearly didn't work as his seen as one of the worst WWE to Impact signings in recent memory.

3. Alberto El Patron

Speaking of names who did terribly after jumping from WWE to Impact Wrestling, the former Alberto Del Rio in WWE was fired after an altercation regarding a WWE employee who used racial slurs backstage.

Del Rio would return in 2015 winning the United States championship from John Cena and doing nothing of interest on-screen; during his second time with the company, Del Rio ended up in a relationship with former WWE divas champion Paige before eventually leaving for the second time.

In March of 2017, Del Rio now known as El Patron would debut for Impact Wrestling facing Bobby Lashley for the world heavyweight championship later that night and ended up winning the title all be it in controversial fashion, only to relinquished the title over said controversy and eventually winning it back in a unification title match to be the last TNA World Heavyweight champion and the new GFW World Heavyweight champion in the main event against Lashley at Slammiversary 2017.

However, Patron's title victory and public image would be tarnished as one month later, Alberto would get stripped of the championship and suspended over a domestic violence charge involving himself and his finance, Paige.

Things only got worse following Patron's comments on Twitter telling his former colleagues from WWE to come to his bar so, he could kick their asses and then buy them a drink afterwards to posting videos while drunkenly ranting and cursing out C.O.O, Triple H.

Bafflingly, the company brought him back from suspicion just in time for that year's Bound For Glory event in which he turned heel in a backstage promo that went longer than it should of and went on to ruining the main event featuring Johnny Impact and Eli Drake for the GFW championship.

Alberto would be seen on Impact programming until April 7th 2018 when he no showed an event that would of seen him team up with then world champion, Austin Aries against Pentagon Jr. and Rey Fenix.

Like Hania the Huntress, Alberto was fired by the new Impact management of Scott D'Amore and Don Callis this led to Aries cutting a promo backstage in the locker room before changing the tag match into a triple threat match and eventually repeating the same feat again less than 48 hours later at the Redemption PPV which saw Fenix, Penta and Aries square off for the title in the main event.

2. Eric Bischoff and Hulk Hogan

Surprised to see Hogan and Bischoff as the runner-up's on this list instead of number one, well me let just say that although the Hulkster and Bischoff would rightly deserved the top spot, there is one more signing that was worse than them (shocking as that might be).

Hogan and Bischoff: two big names in professional wrestling, joined Impact in late 2009 and debut in January the next year, tired to remake "The Monday Night Wars" for a new generation and that failed, brought in old and rejected wrestlers from WWF/E's past and put them over the more establish talent like AJ Styles, Eric Young and Abyss, Gave Brooke Hogan a position of Kayfabe power and TV time on Impact, The Claire Lynch angle happened during their time with the company, they destroyed the creditability of TNA and left the company in ruins for years after departing the company and both have regretted there decisions in joining the company in the first place.

There's nothing more I can add on this subject that other people haven't already said.

However if your looking for things Hogan and Bischoff did right during their time in power, I've created an article called "Top Ten Best Things Under the Hogan/ Bischoff Regime" I'll leave a link down below.

1. King Mo

So you might be asking, why is Muhammad Lawal also known as King Mo ranked higher than Hogan and Bischoff or Alberto El Patron on this list?

Well that's because the names I just mentioned actually did some good or memorable things during their time with the company where as King Mo did nothing of importance during his near 4 and half years with Impact.

In may of 2012 Mo signed a deal with Impact Wrestling but at the same time signed a deal with Bellator Fighting Championship and looked to be the first wrestler to do MMA and Pro Wrestling at the same time.

This of course didn't happen as Impact would have to wait a few more years before Bobby Lashley managed to achieve that impressive feat.

On the October 4th 2012 edition of Impact, King Mo made his debut as it was revealed that he would be the special guest enforcer for the up-and-coming street fight between James Storm and Bobby Roode at Bound For Glory.

After this Mo wouldn't be seen on Impact TV again as he once mentioned that "if I have a fight coming up, I won't be doing any shows or tapings." (This should of been the first sign of things to come).

Mo would not be seen until July of 2014 where he was once again the enforcer, but this time for a heel Dixie Carter in which he did little of importance or interest.

In an 2016 interview with Wrestling Inc. Mo was asked about his time with the company and mentions that tries to keep up with what happens with TNA (now Impact) and mentions that former Bellator President Bjorn Rebney is to be blamed for Mo's small number of appearances on Impact.

Mo would be released from Impact in July of 2015, failing to make any kind of "impact" during his time with company and becoming one of Impact's biggest flops as the company wasted a lot to time, effort and mostly importantly money on a talent who couldn't appear due to his obligations in the sports world (just like Pacman Jones).

He would return in 2017 being the corner of pro wrestler and fellow Bellator fighter, Bobby Lashley and would take part in a storyline in which MMA personalities like Dan Lambert and Colby Covington would convince Lashley to leave Wrestling behind and be an MMA fighter full time.

This led to Mo teaming with Lashley against Moose and Stephen Bonnar in a tag team match at Bound For Glory (Mo's first and only Impact Wrestling match since his first appearance 4 and half years ago).

The angle was rushed to it's conclusion in early 2018 thus signaling the end of King Mo's time with the company.

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