Jay Flannagan gives thoughts on Kurt Angle signing with 'TNA Wrestling'
On Wednesday, September 27, 2006 at 5:04 PM EST Sorry this is going up 24 hours later than I had planned but I needed time to think about how I feel about Kurt Angle signing with TNA.
Obviously this was a huge surprise and Monday and part of yesterday was spent for all of us at WrestleView trying to figure out the details. When did he sign? What happens now? Etc.
Alot of people have posted their thoughts on the signing in recent days, alot of it is negative, and our own Ryan Droste has come out in defense of the deal. Me? I see positives and negatives for both Kurt Angle and TNA from the signing. I will break it down by Angle first and then TNA.
Kurt Angle
Positives : - Well the first positive I can think of for Angle is a shorter schedule. It is no big secret that he has been banged up for a long time now. TNA runs two television tapings a month and one monthly pay per view and the occasional Hermie Sadler promoted TNA house show. In WWE Kurt Angle was working 4-5 days a week, in TNA, Angle will be able to rest his body yet still do what he loves.
- The second positive for Angle is the fact that he will likely be the centerpiece of TNA television as he is undoubtedly right now their biggest acquisition and perhaps their biggest star. One of the complaints Kurt had about being in ECW was that WWE would not build the ECW brand around him. TNA can and probably will do just that.
- The third positive for Angle is he will still be working. He has been rumored to have repaired his relationship with his wife and a bored Angle could be a destructive one to himself. Kurt is the type of man who does not know how to say no to himself. He can’t just quit, it’s not in his nature. Wrestling is his passion and in TNA he can do it but not get as burnt out.
Negatives:
- The first, and most obvious, negative is Kurt's health. He has a well documented neck problem, in August he tore his groin, lately he has been getting hurt alot and he needs time to rest. That is one of the reasons WWE released him. Can Kurt coast for a while in TNA without killing himself? Will Kurt even allow himself to entertain that thought? Angle will want to prove himself in TNA which could mean more injury to himself.
- The second is his reported addiction to pain killers. Kurt needs to come off them and he won’t be able to do that if he is wrestling in TNA trying to be their star.
TNA
Positives : - Obviously there is huge positives for TNA here and the first being Kurt's name recognition. Kurt Angle is someone well known on the level of say Triple H from WWE and that is something TNA can market. TNA can now go to advertisers, to pay per view providers, to Spike TV, and to the media and say "See we have Kurt Angle in TNA". They can literally get more mainstream deals because of him.
- The second is this sends a signal to the industry that TNA is not going to die anytime soon and that Panda Energy wants to be competitive to WWE. Kurt Angle is a man who co main evented Wrestlemania just 6 months ago and now he is in TNA.
- Third is TNA showed they can pull off a surprise and get the world talking. No one, NO ONE, knew this was coming (save for a few select people) until Sunday evening 10 minutes before it happened. In this day and age of the internet and internet reporting, that is quite a feat.
Negatives:- The first negative is Kurt himself. The man does not know how to slow down and he has shown that he will do things that are a detriment to him. It is conceivable that Kurt could injure himself, or someone else, perhaps seriously, in a TNA ring. TNA knew this and instead went after him anyway. That could come back to bite them in the end.
- The second is TNA has cemented that they will go after any WWE cast off no matter why that person was released. Curt Henning, Mike Lockwood, Jeff Hardy, Kevin Nash, Rhino, Raven, are all people that TNA signed after WWE released them. In the case of Henning and Lockwood, sadly, they died because of drug issues. TNA is making it seem that they are the land of WWE castaways.
- Third is the image TNA is now sending to their locker room. Kurt Angle was fired from WWE because WWE felt that he had an addiction that he would not take care of. TNA signs him three weeks later. This sends an image to their locker room that TNA doesn’t care about their health, or what they do in their personal lives, so long as it benefits TNA. That is an image that could lead to tragedy.
In the end whether anything bad happens or good happens to TNA and Kurt Angle because of this deal remains to be seen. The eyes of the world are now on TNA...let’s see what happens.