another editorial extract, from a different writer:
If you don't know, TNA announced earlier this week an announcement
that would change the course of pro wrestling history would be made
at their PPV on Sunday. Last night at their No Surrender PPV, they
revealed one part of their announcement to be the arrival of Kurt
Angle, one of the greatest wrestlers of this age if not, perhaps,
of all time. And seconds following the PPV's conclusion, I
literally felt a part of me die.
Now, let's back up and look at Kurt Angle. We all know Kurt Angle
is someone who pushes himself beyond any limit. He won the Gold
Medal with a broken neck, he wrestled WrestleMania XIX with one, he
took the easy way out with surgery to come back as soon as possible
forcing him to miss more of 2004, and recently he injured himself
three times in one match, by his own admission, & refused to
enter rehab. Does that sound like a sane man to you? Does that
sound like a man who is in his right mind whatsoever? Even more, if
you look at the interview he did with WWE, he claims that he needed
time to "reheal and rehab [his] body." Now, that was less than a
month ago and I'm all for quick recoveries, but no way in hell did
Kurt Angle repair all the damage done to his mind and body in less
than a month. Yes, there is such a thing as passion in this
business and it's quite obvious that Kurt Angle once had it, but
this goes past passion and obsession into pure insanity. Refusing
to enter rehab and wanting to continue to wrestle after suffering
three concurrent injures (two of which came about because he didn't
know when to stop) is complete insanity that we finally see
truthfully and there is no way to look around that.
Do not get me wrong. I am a big Kurt Angle fan and I am not trying
to insult him. Just the other day I was re-watching WrestleMania
X-Seven and I couldn't wait to get to his classic with Chris Benoit
that blew my mind when I first saw it. Hell, I'll probably watch it
again after this column. Last year saw him cement his legacy along
with Shawn Michaels and when he first entered ECW this year, I was
ecstatic to see a completely different Kurt Angle within the ring.
This transcends being a Kurt Angle fan though. This transcends
being a Kurt Angle hater as well. This is about caring about a
man's personal health, if not life, and while that may sound
horrendously extreme, it is definitely warranted no matter how you
look at it.
Last year, Eddie Guerrero tragically passed away and WWE instituted
a drug testing policy. Interestingly enough, when the video of
Vince McMahon announcing the drug testing went up on WWE.com, it
was Kurt Angle who had the majority of the questions. Fast-forward
to January and WWE fans were treated to Kurt Angle sans at least
twenty pounds looking freakishly scary while holding the World
Heavyweight Championship. Reports poured in from fans who witnessed
Angle leaning on others for support while backstage or exiting the
arena. "Breaking News" posts were made every other day about a
possible new Angle injury. Interviews popped up from Angle himself
saying he would just not stop. Rumors emerged of wrestlers scared
of the well-being of one of the top stars in the promotion. Angle
next disappeared shortly after joining ECW due to a suspension for
not keeping the prescriptions for the little drugs he had left
(compared to the humongous number we know he had before the drug
testing went into effect) updated and came back in the same sorry
state he left. Then, after being in no state to wrestle for anyone,
he was told to enter rehab by WWE. Mind you, WWE pays those who
enter rehab so Kurt Angle could have been making money by doing
nothing except finally giving his body some practically mandatory
rest. I just mentioned Eddie Guerrero and it's well known the
company paid for Eddie to enter rehab. Why would Angle not go? Why
would he shove aside all that money and not recover? Again, I ask:
do these sound like the actions of a sane man to you?
After all of this, rumors arose of Angle joining MMA while every
other promotion (wrestling and MMA) under the sun marveled at the
chance of getting Kurt Angle in their ring. Angle's manager, Dave
Hawk, even claimed that Angle was retired from pro wrestling and
would fight in MMA in 2007 and to be honest, that's probably the
safest thing for him. I don't even follow MMA and I know that for a
fact. Everyone is required to take drug test to fight so that right
there narrows it down to a fifty-fifty chance that Angle would even
step into the ring, because God knows Angle probably needs a full
bottle of assorted pain killers and other pills before being able
to walk let alone train let alone fight. From there, you just need
to look at the rules of any MMA promotion out there from UFC to
PRIDE and you can put your mind at ease. First off, you know the
ref is going to already be overly concerned for the well-being of
someone that has a tentative appointment with the Grim Reaper down
the line according to scuttlebutt. Second off, do you really expect
Kurt Angle to spend eternity locked in a neck crank and the ref not
call for the bell? This is just common sense here, folks, and after
that, you just have to ask yourself which is more damaging to the
body: taking a few high left kicks from someone like Mirko Cro Crop
in a five minute round or going thirty minutes with someone like
Samoa Joe who will dish out stiff blow after stiff blow that Angle
can't even attempt to counter or block in most cases. That's not
even factoring in the insane bumps that Angle would be taking or
would probably even demand to take in the matches. God forbid you
get him in an Ultimate X match which you know either Vince Russo or
Angle himself will be lobbying for.
But did Angle enter MMA? No, Kurt Angle decided to forfeit the
money he has left on his WWE contract (voiding the non-compete
clause) and shack up with TNA as I already mentioned. In one fell
swoop, the roles of the major players in American professional
wrestling instantly changed. WWE was once, and probably still is,
regarded as the evil, callous promotion devoid of a heart and a
soul. After all, they milked Eddie's death for all it was worth and
let people like Jackie Gayda and Dawn Marie go after getting
married and getting pregnant respectively. TNA was believed to be
the alternative. TNA was supposed to be the promotion with the
heart of the sport, giving the fans what they wanted and giving the
talented workers shunned by WWE a place to go. Now? Now, TNA has
signed the wrestler WWE deemed too crippled to wrestle for them.
They let go someone who could be a major coup for any promotion and
I guarantee you they didn't do it because Angle looked at Vince the
wrong way in the hallway. Do you think for one second that Vince
McMahon would let Kurt Angle go unless he literally feared for his
life? For those who still want to play the "blame WWE" game, do you
think for one second that Vince McMahon would let Kurt Angle go
unless he literally anticipated Angle's death and the subsequent
lawsuits, hateful editorials, & bad press that would
follow?
Now, you can say how this is a business all you want and you're
right: it is a business, but isn't that what WWE has been saying
for years to people, only to get criticized more. That aside, even
the shrewdest businessman would tell you that this is a humongous
mistake. On one hand, you're losing the appeal you attracted fans
with. You grabbed wrestling fans burnt out from the Invasion mess
with the promise of no bullshit WWE practices, a promotion with a
heart; and now you're hiring someone even McMahon, the one
notorious for milking those for all their worth, deemed nowhere
near stable enough (physically and mentally it seems) to go near
his ring. And what for? Ratings and a profit; those are great
things to risk someone's well-being for. On the other hand, what is
going to happen if (and according to many, when) Kurt Angle becomes
paralyzed or even dies in the ring? What kind of public image is
that going to give to the product? What kind of message is that
going to send to your fans? Right now, TNA can claim ignorance or
the fact that they are handing out a "second chance," but what
happens when something like that happens (and I guarantee you that
one of those two things will happen)? Looking at it even more, what
if it turns out to be like the "Hail Mary" save Sting made for TNA
earlier this year in that it spiked buyrates and ratings at first,
only for things to slowly dwindle down to the current state TNA is
in now necessitating such an acquisition? Where would the rationale
be then? "Hey, kids; Kurt Angle is in a wheelchair for the rest of
his life, but he helped us get some extra cash for a bit that we
then spent on another WCW star who did nothing for the
product."
I put the blame fully and 100% on Total Non-Stop Action truthfully
(and the argument would be the same if another promotion like NOAH
or ROH had beat them to it). I've said it above and I'll say it
again: all this does not sound like the actions of a sane man and
Kurt Angle is nowhere near sane by the look of things. A sane man
does not get three injuries in the span of five minutes, continue
wrestling, and then object to being taken off the road. A sane man
does not leave a humongous paycheck behind for refusing to go to
rehab that will make it so he can walk his daughter Kyra in a
beautiful gown down the isle one day. Kurt Angle is not sane. In
America, you can get acquitted for murdering someone with a plea of
"insanity," but what if someone sane put the knife into the hand of
a man nowhere near his right mind and pointed him in the direction
of eternal damnation? Whose fault is it then? In my opinion, it's
that sane person's fault and this is exactly the position TNA is in
right now. They know full well everything going on with Kurt Angle.
Even if they have not read his own statements, the statements of
others, the backstage rumors, the press releases, et cetera; all
you have to do is look at the poor man and realize that he should
be nowhere near a professional wrestling ring for the remainder of
his life. TNA has shown in one announcement what is most important.
Instead of valuing the health of their wrestlers and the very life
in this case, TNA is just looking for a quick fix and this time,
they are committing assisted suicide for the sake of a five hundred
thousand more viewers.
Go ahead and bust out the demanding schedule of WWE and compare it
to TNA's breezy work schedule. What you're forgetting is that Kurt
Angle has been told by many doctors that he risks paralysis and
even death every time he steps into the ring. Every time, people.
Every time Angle comes out and does his spin in the middle of the
ring, he is playing Russian Roulette with his life. Let me tell you
something: it doesn't matter if you're working one day a week or
five. If you're gambling with your life, it's eventually going to
catch up to you. You don't expect a drug addict coming off a five
year binge to just shoot heroin once a week or once every two weeks
and be all right. May seem a little extreme, but they do call it
"the drug of choice" and looking at the match where Angle pulled
his groin, tore the abdominal muscle off his pelvis, and blew out
his hamstring, one match is all it takes. It's a risk no matter how
many times you're working and to point out something TNA fans loves
to boast, TNA is a completely different style than WWE. It is way
more physical and while Angle did wrestle many a match with Chris
Benoit, that was in 2003 and I guarantee you that Angle has not
gotten younger or let his body rest much in those three and a half
years. Meanwhile, there are wrestlers in TNA like Samoa Joe and AJ
Styles who are building their reputations based on insanely stiff
matches (for American standards). One match with Samoa Joe may be
the equivalent of twenty with someone the likes of John Cena
nowadays. Try telling yourself again that the lighter TNA schedule
will do Angle some good.
This goes further beyond TNA and Kurt Angle as well. What is going
to happen in the eventual dream match between Kurt Angle and AJ
Styles if Angle goes to give Styles an Angle Slam, blows out his
hamstring (again), and spikes AJ Styles straight on his head,
injuring the young star immensely and damaging his future? Again, I
ask: where is the justification? TNA has brought in some
questionable stars like Jeff Hardy and Scott Hall (and I've been
very vocal about those two) in the past, but none have ever posed
such a risk to themselves and to their partners in the ring by just
getting into the ring as Kurt Angle. We didn't watch Jeff Hardy
square off against AJ Styles on the Second Anniversary show and
pray Jeff Hardy would make it out alive & be able to walk and
not drag down AJ Styles with him. We didn't watch Scott Hall get
into the ring with Styles at Turning Point 2004 and cringe every
time he lifted up Styles or took a bump. At least the biggest risk
with Hardy & Hall was that they'd pass out, miss their flight,
and TNA would be out a match on the PPV. If I was AJ Styles, I'd be
begging Kurt Angle to no-show a PPV no matter how great a match the
two could have.
I started out this column disgusted and I still am, but more and
more, I am scared down to my very being. What scares me right now
is that it seems WWE is the promotion with some set of morals for a
change. What scares me right now is that we aren't even over the
tragedy of Eddie Guerrero and we are already preparing ourselves
for another one. What scares me right now is that in a year, people
might look at the plight of Kurt Angle & Dynamite Kid and
lament how Dynamite Kid got off easy in comparison. Overall, what
scares me the most is the justification everyone right now is
giving to a promotion for hiring a crippled man who casually admits
he has little to no feeling in his left arm, can not compete
without a myriad of pills, and was turned away by an infamous
company finally doing the right thing, just so the fans can get a
dream match they want.
Right now as I type, thousands of TNA fans are going to bed
dreaming about their Olympic Hero going one-on-one with their
favorite TNA wrestler: AJ Styles, Samoa Joe, Christopher Daniels,
et cetera. Right now, thousands of Angle fans are dreaming about
seeing their favorite wrestler ever return to primetime. Me? I'm
trying my hardest to stay awake because I know the nightmares that
awake me when I drift away. We already lived through these
nightmares last November. We shouldn't have to again, TNA, and that
disgusts me.
