| Date: 07/30 | 6:38 AM |
| Views: 1,894 | |
Early this morning Mike Johnson at PWI confirmed that TNA had signed Adam 'Pacman' Jones to a wrestling contract. Reportedly the Tennessee Titans organization has no problem with or objection to Jones wrestling while he's serving out his one year NFL suspension, and since that suspension was one year WITHOUT PAY the football star is clearly looking to make some bread in the meantime.
There are a few plus sides to this deal - albiet small ones. Many football players have successfully made the transition to pro wrestling, Jones is a charismatic person already used to handling large crowds, and he's definitely athletically gifted. All of this is outweighed by one HUGE negative - Jones was suspended for gross violations of the NFL's conduct policy, the most egregious of which coming on February 19th of this year in Las Vegas when his unruly behavior at a strip club led to a disruption where two people got shot. Ironically one of the two was Tommy Urbanski, a former professional wrestler, who as a result of the shooting is now paralzed from the waist down. Jones is charismatic, but he maybe TOO charismatic even for professional wrestling, as TNA could have a publicity nightmare on their hands if his bad behavior continues - and he had a LONG track record of problems leading up to February's incident.
The other problem is that if Jones is immediately pushed (which with his name value is almost a certainty) an already underpaid and underutilized lockerroom full of talent will only be that much more outraged, particularly now that TNA blocks them from working for organizations like PWG and ROH. Jones can make his outside money but they can't - that's sure to cause some immediate tension. TNA is taking a big risk with this move, one I hope they won't regret.
UPDATE - I just spoke to Supertalk 99.7 WTN about this. If you saw this before 9:00 AM CST or 10:00 EST I was on the air to comment on it - but only for about 10 seconds. Nonetheless we'll have a drop of it in our next podcast. Our thanks to Roxanne at WTN for giving us a call!