PARKS’S TAKE: While John Cena’s heel turn captured everyone’s attention, Nic Nemeth’s turn in TNA shook the foundation of that ecosystem

DolphZigglerGG — Dolph Ziggler (Art credit Grant Gould © PWTorch)

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John Cena’s heel turn wasn’t the only recent major turn of note: Last Friday, Nic Nemeth turned heel after the main event of TNA’s Sacrifice event. Okay, it might be an exaggeration to compare those two turns in scope, but in the TNA ecosystem, it’s a pretty big deal.

Nemeth, the former Dolph Ziggler, has been a main eventer since his arrival in TNA. His weaselly brother, Ryan, has gotten more TV time of late with Nic out due to a storyline suspension. Ryan, by the way, has turned into one of the more entertaining characters in wrestling these days, even if he sometimes cranks it up to 15 when a 10 will do.

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The turn itself was well done: The five-man babyface team was celebrating after their Steel Cage match victory. As the faces were leaving the ring, only Matt Hardy and Nic were left inside. With the announcers closing the show, the camera caught Ryan locking the door of the cage, though no attention was really paid to it. The result was a two-on-one beatdown of Matt, who previously made it clear he did not want Ryan on the team.

The rest of the team, by then having left the cage, could only look on in horror before eventually trying to scale the structure to make the save of Hardy. Tonight’s Impact will be the first since the turn, and while Nic’s explanation is pretty obvious (the mistreatment of his brother), hopefully his first interview as a heel is more satisfying than John Cena’s.

This also lines up a strong heel to oppose TNA Champion Joe Hendry. An argument could be made that TNA missed out on the high point of Hendry’s run, putting the title on him a tad too late. He could really use a strong heel to overcome, and Nemeth could be just what the doctor ordered.