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TNA. Impact Wrestling. GFW. Call it what you want. The infamous promotion has been a magnet for controversy for many years, in part due to its tendency for questionable booking decisions and backstage politics favouring former WWE stars as opposed to promoting its own homegrown talent.
But even those wrestlers that started and achieved their greatest successes in TNA were also prone to becoming victims of TNA’s dubious booking. Many wrestlers have gone through TNA’s system over the years. Wrestlers have been subject to bad decisions while working for or visiting TNA, and in some cases, those wrestlers experienced devastating and career-altering booking.
Here are five wrestlers whose careers were ruined by Impact Wrestling, either through bad booking or by simple affiliation with the controversial promotion.
#5 Robbie McAllister
While one-half of the Highlanders didn’t actually wrestle for TNA, his appearance at/for the company certainly did. Robbie was in attendance at a TNA event around the time of WrestleMania XXIV and was seen and recorded on TNA’s cameras as being in attendance.
As you can imagine, this didn’t sit too well with WWE, who were very much of the mind at the time that TNA didn’t even exist. So for one of their own wrestlers to actually appear at the event destroyed that perception, and this led to him being fired by WWE shortly thereafter.
He hasn’t been heard of in any major capacity since, indicating that his tenure in the wrestling business might’ve been cut short as a result of this decision.
#4 Aaron Rex
The man that was known as Damien Sandow in WWE came to TNA in the hopes of cashing in on the organic popularity he had cultivated during his final run in WWE. Unfortunately, TNA failed to capitalize on that and went in a completely different creative direction instead.
Though he did receive a decent initial push once he was renamed Aaron Rex (because, intellectual property laws), all of that changed at the beginning of 2017.
Aaron Rex debuted a new gimmick that was inspired by Liberace, featuring him looking completely different from before and his new catchphrase being, “#1 rule to being 'Rexcellent' is violence is not the answer”. This was a marketed difference from his former character, and the fans didn’t like it whatsoever.
Within three months, Aaron Rex/Damien Sandow left Impact Wrestling and hasn’t been seen in a wrestling capacity anywhere since.
#3 Kazuchika Okada*
The reason there’s an asterisk next to Okada’s name is that his stint in TNA ruined ANY chance Okada had working for an American promotion long-term. Now, everyone’s aware that Okada has become arguably the single-greatest wrestler on the planet, and is slated to become the ace of NJPW for years to come.
But there was a time when Okada wrestled for TNA for the purpose of learning about American wrestling and its fans.
Unfortunately, Okada’s experience in TNA was downright awful. Okada was portrayed as Samoa Joe’s comedy sidekick, much like Kato from the film The Green Hornet. In fact, TNA even changed his wrestling name to ‘Okato’ to really sell that comparison.
This move ruined Okada’s foreign excursion and embittered him towards working for any American promotion. He has since stated that he will ‘never’ leave NJPW, and the circumstances surrounding his time in TNA are one of the main reasons why that is.
#2 Awesome Kong
Awesome Kong was one of the biggest (no pun intended) stars in TNA’s Knockouts Division for many years. Her exceptional size and power made her one of the few people capable of pulling off the ‘monster’ character in a division that’s filled mostly with skinnier models and more svelte athletes.
After a disappointing stint in WWE, Kong returned to both the independent scene and to TNA and worked for the latter promotion between 2015 and 2016. Sadly, her time in TNA came to a sudden end following a backstage altercation with Reby Sky, the real-life wife of Matt Hardy.
Sources close to the situation suggested that Kong attacked Sky because she used the Knockouts’ dressing room when she hadn’t been doing so previously, which angered Kong. The situation was worsened when it surfaced that Reby & Matt’s infant son Maxel was nearby when Kong assaulted sky physically.
Kong hasn’t been seen in any major wrestling promotion since then, and her chances of returning there are slim, especially since this is the second time she assaulted someone backstage while working for TNA.
#1 Ric Flair
Ric Flair is widely considered the greatest wrestler of all time...period. He has enjoyed a stellar wrestling career, is praised routinely by both his fans and his peers, and received arguably the greatest send-off/retirement segment in WWE history. It was so emotional and historically-significant that the Undertaker even broke character and appeared after the cameras went off to thank his friend and former opponent.
Then Flair went to TNA.
Flair worked for TNA for two years, despite stating previously that he was loyal to WWE and the McMahons. But not only did Flair work for TNA as an on-screen character, he actually wrestled on a few occasions, including one horrendous match against an equally-geriatric Hulk Hogan. All of this destroyed the significance of his legendary retirement segment on RAW.
Flair’s legendary aura was damaged in a major way by going to TNA and wasting his time.
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