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Pope is pimpin…And TNA fans love it.
Friday, February 5th, 2010
It has often been said that one mans garbage is another mans treasure. This saying has been played out a few times in the world of Pro Wrestling. Way back when, a very under-used Wrestler who went by the name of “Stunning” Steve Austin makes his exit from WCW; then shows up in ECW, before finally getting to the WWE. We all know what happened there. And even before that, there was the story of the AWA just not knowing how to market a guy by the name of Hulk Hogan. Now granted these are two of the biggest names ever, there are still examples of Wrestlers leaving a company and getting a shot at re-inventing themselves somewhere else. For what ever reason they had, the WWE released Elijah Burke. Here we have a person who is very athletic, and great on the mic. That alone is usually all the WWE looks for. That, and you should be huge. Perhaps that was the problem. Maybe Burke wasn’t tall enough? Either way, they let him go, and eventually he turns up in TNA. I have to admit that the first time I saw him with his Pope gimick, I laughed. I didn’t quite get it, and even to this day I wish he would lose the surgical mask. But then a strange thing happened. I started to like this character. Like a lot of people probably did, I assumed this whole “steet preacher” thing was a religious angle. But after hearing a few promo’s you get over that notion pretty quick. I also noticed a funny thing happening in the Impact Zone as well. The fans started to embrace The Pope . Now, hearing “Pope is pimpin” chants is a regular occurence. I do however think that there is room for improvement with Popes in ring work. But he really has improved greatly in a short amount of time. His matches with Desmond Wolfe have proved that he has the potential to be one of the best. I recently heard a comparison of Popes popularity to that of The Rocks, in his early days. I don’t think we will see somebody reach the heights that The Rock has achieved in Wrestling for quite some time. But I do think that the Pope, if used properly could be a very big star for TNA. I guess this one is a minor loss for WWE. Of course they did get back Ron “R-Truth” Killings. So I guess thats a fair trade.
