P.O.L.I.T.I.K.O.
by Jeff Ty
In the past week, I was intrigued by numerous news and details about the "major announcement" which would be made at the end of No Surrender. It is funny that I even care, at least on a slightest note, about TNA. You know, before they moved to Universal Studios in Orlando, they were always confined in Nashville, Tennessee or at times; Huntsville, Alabama and other random places. Basically, they are not even a national wrestling promotion. However, similar to the 90's ECW, TNA has its own persona in the form of a six-sided ring (which makes for more action-packed wrestling), excellent and suave wrestlers in Samoa Joe, AJ Styles, Christopher Daniels, etc., and despite its regional nature, its television coverage is international. Hell, local channel ABC 5 and Star Sports televise TNA on a weekly basis. Wanna watch? I don't even have the slightest idea when to watch, and if I do, it is because I randomly turn to ABC or Star Sports.
What now, compare TNA to WWE? The pyrotechnics, entrance musics, arena set-up, and a god-like and invincible Chairman and owner are just enough reasons why TNA is always an afterthought when we talk of the World Wrestling Entertainment.
MAKING A STATEMENT: TNA is a complete waste of time, at least for me. Honestly said. A confession.
For the first time in my life, the once-"afterthought" Total Nonstop Action or TNA got my full attention. Hell, it got the whole worldwide wrestling community's attention.
And based on some Internet reports, TNA wrestlers and staff themselves didn't even know of the "major announcement". They were just reduced to ordinary wrestling fans, just like you and me. Why? Is this something not worth revealing until the last moments? After all, it is only TNA. If WWE has already a hard time surprising wrestling fans, what more if an "afterthought" like TNA decide to gamble and put its reputation at risk by relying on a "major announcement"?
As I and the rest of the wrestling community, wrestlers and fans alike, wait for that announcement, I could hear everyone say: "This better be good".
MAKING A STATEMENT: TNA is taking the next step to promotional success, through - KURT ANGLE.
KURT ANGLE.
KURT ANGLE.
A five-time WWE Champion, Intercontinental Champion, European Champion, Hardcore Champion, multiple-time Tag Team Champion, 2000 King of the Ring, and numerous PPV main-events, one of which is the classic Wrestlemania 19 match with Brock Lesnar. An Olympic gold medalist.
He can perfectly work as a face or a heel. He can even play a general manager. He is a suplex, submission mat wrestler with an attitude and charisma that combines the different worlds of amateur and professional wrestling. He symbolizes America. Most of all, he is one the rare wrestlers who gets the "ooh" crowd reaction everytime he makes his entrance to the ring because of his credibility and achievements. Others are Chris Benoit, Chris Jericho, Triple H, Shawn Michaels, Kane, and the Undertaker, to name a few.
Simply put, he puts "asses in seats". He is a "marketing gem". Many of the WWE T-shirts have been based on his character, tag lines such as "America Needs A Hero", "Freedom of Choice: Tap Out or Angle Slam", "From This Angle You Suck", etc. His entrance pyrotechnics is one of the most explosive in the WWE. We can only count on our fingers how many his eyesore matches in the WWE were. When he won his fifth WWE Championship (or World Heavyweight Championship), he earned the monicker "Wrestling Machine".
A "wrestling machine". A generic monicker, yet a magnified one when describing Kurt Angle.
Given these credentials, Kurt Angle still wasn't happy in WWE. His quick rise to the WWE pinnacle has a price after all. In his first year in WWE, he already won the three major WWE titles (WWE, IC, European C'ships). In the subsequent years, he was always mentioned in main-event or upper card circles. He was usually featured in big storylines, even without a title on the line. He seemingly got what he wanted, or he could always try to get what he wanted. But as we all know, injuries sometimes stall careers. In 2003, Angle suffered numerous injuries. Yet he still continued to wrestle despite his deteriorating health. Until this year, when his injuries were already very alarming, causing WWE to ship him to ECW, billing him as its "new face". At first, from my viewpoint, I thought that Angle had no problem with it because he would be an automatic main-event mainstay. On an Internet report, however, WWE wanted him there because of Angle's need to rest and nurse his injuries. After Vengeance, he missed a significant amount of ring time, but when he decided to come back, it was apparently against WWE management's will. As he was used to getting what he wanted, he stubbornly returned, only to miss his Summerslam appearance because of aggravated injuries. That was the last time I heard of Kurt Angle. Days later, he and WWE agreed to part ways. I could say that Angle decided to go because he had lost his footing and stroke in backstage politics. But Angle could always come back when he is finally physically and mentally 100 percent. I had expected him to return soon, a la Shawn Michaels who left for 4 years (1998-2002). Speaking of HBK, we all remmeber his match with Kurt Angle at Wrestlemania 21. Now, these two amazing superstars are going on different directions, one recollecting his glorious past and further solidifying his legacy, while the other is contemplating on his questionable future and is on the verge of making or unmaking his career.
Perhaps the "dream match-up" between Michaels and Angle was a foreshadowing of the return of D-Generation X and "the major announcement". I don't really know, only theorizing.
After Angle had been released, Internet wrestling columnists expressed their respect and admiration for Angle's legacy and contributions in wrestling. It could be said that they all expect Angle to make some sort of a major comeback in the near future. WWE made Kurt Angle as Kurt Angle that we know, so it is unthinkable for Angle to even think about going to other wrestling promotions. So bye bye Angle, at least until TNA's September PPV, No Surrender.
TNA's major announcement was its signing of Kurt Angle. I was stunned. Well, sort of. If he wasn't happy from his last days in WWE, he could consider TNA, right? That was the same pattern Christian Cage followed in his journey to TNA stardom. But Kurt Angle? How could he fit in the TNA locker room? Moreover, what would his TNA colleagues say? Why? I thought that Angle was always welcome in WWE.
What does he really want? I mean, he has nothing left to prove, doesn't he? Damn, Angle thought of TNA, while I "after-thought" it. What would he gain by joining TNA? As for TNA, does it think that it has accomplished a highway robbery? Angle would never be 100 percent anymore, and that is why WWE decided to let him go in the first place. Angle was in fact a liability rather than an asset for much of the last months, and TNA now grabbed him like a fish out of the water.
I only wish that Angle won't make the same mistake as Michael Jordan did, when His Airness "retired" from NBA, a major basketball league, to only end up playing in a minor league baseball team, in hopes of joining a major league baseball team. We know that his baseball career was a failure and he ended up winning another "three-peat" with the Chicago Bulls. Will WWE embrace Kurt Angle again should he decide to return, much like Chicago?
If Kurt Angle is making a statement, I hope that he got his message across everyone loud and clear.
MAKING A STATEMENT: I don't know what Kurt Angle is doing with his career, and life. And I don't wanna know, because it would only make me sick and utterly disappointed.
