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Kurt Angle to be inducted into the hall of freaking fame


wordsfromlee

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He had so many great matches against talent like Styles, Joe, Roode, Jarrett and Sting.

 

Plus a couple of absolute belters against the latest addition to WWE's announce team, Nigel McGuinness. That feud made me watch TNA and I kept watching for several months, through to when the Hogoff buzz died down.

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Yeah, forgot about how good those two matched up.

 

To highlight how incredible Angle was during his TNA run, he even managed to drag great matches out of bloody Matt Morgan and Ken "please fuck off" Anderson. Genuinely the Matt Morgan match at BFG may be the greatest carry job of all time.

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The post I made last night was a reflection of my grumpy mood and doesn’t really do justice to how I reacted to this news, so I’ll try and do a better job of it here.

 

Kurt Angle is one of my favorite wrestlers ever; he did such a good job of bringing intensity and legitimacy to every show he appeared on and his chemistry with basically everyone he faced was off the charts.

 

When I first started watching wrestling in 2000 it was clear that Kurt was being primed for big things, he was in the middle of his rise to the top having just won KOTR and was in that excellent love triangle story line that sadly finished with a damp squib, but no bother as he won the title a month later. I watched and enjoyed basically everything he did after that, whether he was the heel patriot with no self-awareness, the genuinely funny comedic foil in the Austin feud, in a tag team with You Know Who or the cracking and underrated feud with John Cena, all the way up to his last WWE appearances as a Wrestling Machine.

 

I think the beauty of his career is that whatever role he was playing you always thought – ‘he can still wrestle his arse off can’t he?’ – so you couldn’t take him either too lightly or too seriously, and wherever he was on the card or whatever show he appeared on, he was always tremendously entertaining. 

 

I mentioned his chemistry with others previously, and seriously, how versatile was he? Feuds that worked with serious opponents based on athletic ability like Chris Benoit and Shawn Michaels, comedy with Rey Mysterio and Eugene that always elicited a laugh and being able to selflessly elevate younger talent like John Cena and Brock Lesnar. 

 

In hindsight, as an Olympic champion and a workaholic supreme, his ability to produce a great body of work should never have been in doubt, but the speed at which he became an all-round star was frighteningly impressive. Even Lesnar, who was in many ways his parallel, didn’t master promos or the same level of charisma as Angle until he’d been in the business for at least 2 years.

 

I was never worried if a usually scornful parent or friend would find me watching a Kurt Angle match (‘he’s a real Olympic gold medalist you know’) as he was diametrically opposite to the shitarses who made me ashamed to like wrestling. To paraphrase a famous quote; I could never believe pro wrestling was real, but I damn sure could believe Kurt Angle was. 

 

The biggest personal memory of him I have is that I had a poster on my bedroom wall of his face with blood dripping down his forehead that was published in a Power Slam issue from 2006. The poster remained on my wall until I left for university in 2010 despite me having fallen out of wrestling a couple of years before that, he stayed there as he was somehow acceptable to show off to my mates and girlfriend due to his "realness".

 

Of course, this "realness" made him pay a huge price, with several physical and mental injuries over the course of his amateur and pro careers. He’s had some horrible personal tragedies to endure too including his father dying when Kurt was a child, substance issues, his sister passing away at a young age, his brother killing his wife as well as a host of marital problems. The risks he took with his body and lack of care he seemed to take with regards to recovery time really led me to believe we were seeing a slow descent into another “wrestling tragedy". At this point nothing can be more important than him escaping the business with some semblance of health and his dignity intact, and I hope this Hall of Fame induction is a milestone in that respect. It would be both inspirational and remarkable if it is.  

 

I wasn’t going to go to the HOF ceremony this year but I’m seriously considering it now, as it fills me with happiness that we could be celebrating the beginning of a happy ending for him. Kurt Angle was a special wrestler and deserves his new status in the company without any question. 

 

If I decide on it, I’m going to get the best ticket possible to see him inducted with my own eyes on March 31st and if I see an Ankle Lock or Angle Slam two nights afterwards, my heart might actually explode with joy.

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Delighted for Kurt. Great to have him back associated with WWE. Hopefully he might be fit for a Mania payday or two. If not, GM wouldn't be a bad shout if they see sense and sack Foley off.

 

I'd have Taker induct him. But only if he wears those manky snakeskin tights from their match at Survivor Series 2000.

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When they grow sick of Foley I could see Kurt making a good GM on Raw. I'm really pleased to hear he's being inducted and that he seems to be in a good place mentally. Like others have said, I can't wait to hear his music and the speech on the night.

Kurt was great as Smackdown GM during his feud with Eddie.

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Yeah he was really good at it on Smackdown, so I think he could make another go of it again and do really well. Especially as the face to Stephanie's heel boss role. Hopefully he would still be able to carry it off, Foley has been a disaster this time around and he was great when he was commissioner the previous time.

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It would be a massive shame for WWE to just erase his TNA run from history but I wouldn't be too surprised. As much as i enjoyed his WWE run I never truly became a fan until he'd been in TNA for a bit, seeing him pretty much carry that company on his back year after year for nearly a decade really won me over. He could have quite easily "just turned up for the paycheck" but instead quite literally destroyed himself for ... well, I'm not 100% sure why exactly... the fans, Dixie Carter, to win over Vince, his own ego ? Whatever the reason, it was bloody marvelous!

 

Really happy for Kurt, he really deserves this.

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