10 Big Mistakes TNA's New Owners Can't Afford To Make In 2017

10. Not Fixing The Commentary Situation

WWE’s commentary situation isn’t exactly great at the moment, but TNA’s booth of Josh Mathews and “The Pope” D’Angelo Dinero make Byron Saxton and David Otunga sound like prime King & JR. There simply isn’t a less cohesive announce team in mainstream professional wrestling, and they actively make Impact Wrestling a less enjoyable show.

Pope has never truly adapted to the role. He was always a very charismatic wrestler, even as WWE’s Elijah Burke, so it’s perhaps surprising that he hasn’t been apply to apply those skills to colour commentary. Unfortunately, he sounds lost in the booth: he regularly mispronounces simple wrestling terminology like “suplex,” trips over his own sentences, and makes a glut of embarrassingly basic mistakes.

On a recent Impact show, Pope referred to current TNA star “The Miracle” Mike Bennett as “Bennett ‘The Miracle’ Mike,” “Mike ‘Miracle’ The Bennett Guy,” and “‘Miracle’ The Mike Bennett,” and this is just the tip of the iceberg.

Mathews, meanwhile, is an unbearable play-by-play guy. He often spends more time completely ignoring the action going on in front of him, and will talk about a wrestler’s haircut or what’s going on on Twitter rather than selling the story. Mathews hasn’t really improved from his WWE days, and it’s hard to shake the idea that TNA is a lesser product with him and Pope on commentary.

As Impact’s host, they play a huge role in new fans’ first impressions on the show, and should be replaced for the audience to grow.