What’s the story?
The pro wrestling character formerly known as ‘Suicide’ and now as ‘Manik’ has been portrayed on TNA by several wrestlers including Frankie Kazarian, Christopher Daniels, TJ Perkins and Jonathan Gresham.
In fact, even Austin Aries once donned the ‘Suicide’ costume for a day and used that gimmick to win the TNA X-Division championship in June of 2013. After several reports emerged that Gresham was being used by Impact to wrestle as ‘Manik’ aka ‘Suicide’, the newest name thrown into this mix is Caleb Konley.
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The Suicide character was first introduced to pro-wrestling fans by the video game TNA Impact back in 2008 and was introduced to fans on television as a TNA competitor portrayed by Frankie Kazarian and later by the aforementioned Daniels.
Suicide was subsequently portrayed by Perkins who portrayed the character during its transitory phase when Suicide underwent a costume and entrance-music makeover and came to be known as Manik.
Perkins was released from TNA in 2016 after which Jonathan Gresham wrestled donning the Manik costume and most recently Caleb Konley has taken over the gimmick.
The heart of the matter:
The Suicide/Manik gimmick has been one of the USPs of Impact Wrestling, given the fact that the TNA Creative team has been subject to heavy criticism over the years due to its inability to develop and maintain long-running gimmicks that are exclusive to the company.
Konley (real name- Mason Burnett) who’s best known for his time in ROH (Ring Of Honor) and EVOLVE, most recently competed under the TNA banner on the Jan 26th Genesis edition as himself, in a losing effort for the TNA X-Division title. Konley will now be portraying the Manik character.
What’s next?
With recent storylines such as Maria’s domination as a wicked heel on the Knockouts division and The Broken Hardys, the company’s Creative team seemed to be picking up, when TNA dropped the ball again by messing up their deals with Maria and the Hardy family.
With Maria and ‘The Miracle’ Mike Bennett on their way out coupled with TNA’s failed negotiations with the Hardys, the company is in desperate need of a gimmick that Impact Wrestling fans are familiar with.
That’s where Manik comes in. How the company’s creative team chooses to book the Manik character remains to be seen. Caleb Konley is more than capable of donning the Manik outfit and of carrying forward the legacy that comes with it.
Sportskeeda’s Take:
One can’t emphasise enough how much TNA messed up in the past few weeks or so, letting go of the Hardys and the Maria/’Miracle’ duo was a critical error on the company’s part.
Nevertheless, in Conley, TNA has a decent wrestler on their hands and the success of Manik depends on whether they choose to continue booking the character as a jobber or if they actually use it to its fullest potential.
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