Was Abyss ever good?

[Welfare Willis]

Abyss is TNA's answer to Kane. Yet I only have really recall three things when thinking of Abyss.

1) Getting his teeth knocked out by RVD.

2) Judas Mesias vs Abyss (Judas being about as tall as Rhyno).

3) Tacks! Tacks! Tacks!


So was Abyss ever any good? I guess early Joseph Park stuff could count... but that became tiresome quickly.

[Emmet Russell]

Oh yeah, the guy was really good in the early days of TNA - a really talented big man that could - and would - bump his ass off for you and make you look like a million bucks.

2007 was really the first year where I thought he's looking a little tired. And then 2008 came and he became Asylum Abyss and started getting fat and that was the end of the road for his entertainment value until Joseph Parks.

[Mayonnaise]

I really liked his work until 2011-ish. There was a lot of bad booking for sure but he, James Mitchell, Sting, Jeff Hardy, Raven and Kid Kash busted their asses to make it bearable on TV. When his injuries finally took him down and he got saddled with that god forsaken Joseph Park crap, his career hit the skids and has yet to recover, if it can (and I'd wager it cannot)

I do wonder what would have happened if he had taken Dreamer's offer back in '03 though.

[Brood Lone Wolf Funker]

His early stuff with James Mitchell was good

[chazraps]

I'd say the entire first year of Joseph Park was outstanding and showed what range he had as a performer. From the reluctant outsider trying to make sense of the wrestling world while looking for his brother to a fan who had become inspired enough to try his hand at stepping into the ring, it was a really different, really refreshing take on a babyface underdog character.

If you want to question whether or not the man was talented, I'd like to point out that in 2012 he got a LAWYER character over as the most beloved sympathetic character in the company.

And then the way as wrestling Joseph Park where he would run the ropes in the best worst way and attempt to speak "kay-fab" lingo was the type of entertainment that was broad enough appeal to work at face value for the casual fan with the subtle nuances for the longtime "insider" viewers.

Yes, once he was teamed with Eric Young and they had nowhere for the characters, or the tag division as a whole, and clearly didn't know how to reintroduce Abyss it got tiresome, but those first 12-18 months of Joseph Park were some of the best intentional comedy and genuinely emotionally invested fun that TNA, or 2010's wrestling has produced.

[chrom]

He was at one point, perhaps the best big man on the planet. Watch his match with AJ at Lockdown, it's a classic.

[El Cokehead del Knife Fight]

He's been terrible in the ring for at least four years now.

[Mozenrath]

I loved back when the Blackhole Slam looked like death. TNA of course capitalized on this but booking him against men his size or who simply could not bump like that. They also saw fit to have him almost exclusively get wrecked by his foreign objects, to levels even Hacksaw Jim Duggan would question Abyss's sense in bringing them to the ring.

[SHAKEMASTER TV9 is Don Knotts]

I've never been an Abyss fan, but he wasn't bad once.

[One-Armed Drummer of Defrebel]

He was actually pretty great until they started to give him a nonsensical backstory and he responded by going on a quest to eat himself to death that's still going strong today.

[Chip Chipperson]

I used to love Abyss when he was with James Mitchell. When he started falling in love and pretending to be Hulk Hogan I lost interest in him.

[Deleted]

As hard as it is to imagine with how much he sucks now at one point there was a legit buzz about Abyss' ability.

[JTG Fan]

He was great until Russo got his hands on him and decided to give him every personality he trait he had already given to Kane, except even shittier.

[Deleted]

Feb 17, 2015 1:06:02 GMT -5 One-Armed Drummer of Defrebel said:

He was actually pretty great until they started to give him a nonsensical backstory and he responded by going on a quest to eat himself to death that's still going strong today.

He's cultivating mass to defeat Samoa Joe

[adamclark52]

I liked that time he brought a flower to the WWE stars.

[Sephiroth]

Feb 17, 2015 13:27:26 GMT -5 adamclark52 said:

I liked that time he brought a flower to the WWE stars.

It was balloons.

[Captain Stud Muffin (BLM)]

He was good early on as essentially a Kane-ish, Mankind-ish hybrid. In a sense that he had a little bit of Kane muscle and Mankind craziness about him. Then all of a sudden it's like he's fallen out of the sky and hit the ground hard. He's like Kane in my mind now where you should of kept him in the suit and only have him come out to squash people here n there to show he's not a joke. But alas neither has come true sadly.

[DASH 243✅]

His iwa stuff was pretty good

[giraffe4hire]

In 2005 Abyss was so awesome. Just watch his Lockdown 05 match with AJ Styles, his 2005 feuds with Jeff Hardy and Sabu.

His character died when he got the new mask and started speaking. Before that, Abyss was a monster that had a mystique to him. Once he started speaking, he basically became the baby bear from the Looney Tunes cartoon, and could no longer be taken seriously.

[Sephiroth]