I Got To Tell You Something 54: Angle! Amongst Other Things...
Submitted by Big Brother on Friday, September 29, 2006 at 3:23 AM EST





I Got To Tell You Something 54: Angle! Amongst Other Things...

Hello everyone and welcome back to my little place in the IWC. How was your week? I hope it was a good was as mine was pretty hard. I had to help with three of my friends moving and the stupid bimbo that got her promotion (assistant manager) based on her quality as a cock-sucker instead of her ability to actually WORK. I was talking the manager and even he called her a dumb bitch. Wow.

Anyway, either due to mental fatigue, laziness or just the way the news were lately, I’ll have to disappoint some of you. This isn’t the promised return of “The most crazy/creative mind on LOP” (both of which I’ve been called in the last two weeks). Although, most of you will be happy to know that this isn’t the return of “LOP’s asshole/Shitstorm-maker either” (both of which I’ve been called for a long time).

It’s really more a case of the news being so big that I feel like I have to talk about it. So I’ll just do that. I do have a creative column in the work I just didn’t want to miss on the opportunity to talk about Angle and friends. This may result in a shorter column than usual. We’ll see. Anyway, why not just start with the first section of the week…

Feedback corner

I didn’t get many hateful feedbacks last week (probably because my column couldn’t really harm anyone) but I feel like some of the feedback I received could be questions a lot of you are interested in. In some cases, the question was asked by more than one like in the following case. I took Gab’s email because the formulation was better but that’s about it.

Gabriel : Let me ask you a question, in your opinion, what does the dirty look Triple H gave John Cena last Monday means other than he remembers they're storyline history together?

The easy answer is: how the fuck should I know? If it was anyone other than HHH, I would say that for sure it meant that they would feud against each other soon. That’s how the WWE works all the time. But HHH is a different beast. He is one of the best actors in the WWE. By that I mean that he is always “in character” and have a level of concentration that is yet unrivalled I think. Some of you may remember a match a few years back where he was fighting against Stone Cold. I’m not quite sure but I think HHH was on top of Stone Cold (for a pin attempt?) when a glass of beer came flying from the crowd to the ring right in Austin’s face. Both of these guys were supposed drained of all energy but Stone Cold reacted strongly to the beer in the face and got up. HHH barely moved, making it look like his movements were actually caused by Austin getting up. He never broke character. So to come back to the question: Could it be just that HHH is acting like he should… like he remembers that they used to fight against each other? Yeah. It could. Will they still fight each other sooner or later? You bet your ass my friend.

The next feedback came from Maar3 who was sharing his impressions on a House Show in Mexico City. It’s not really a question he asked but a comment he made that got me to think…

Maar3: Edge had to battle the cheers for him, with a nice couple of course he got the crowd turn on him for a while.

And you know what, he has to do that on a consistent basis. Come to think of it, Edge does an incredible job at that. When they were in Montreal, the crowd was cheering for Edge and booing Cena until Edge made some comments about Montreal not being part of Canada and not being a real city like Toronto. He got the crowd to turn on him in two sentences. Cena then used it to insult him, but the meat of the work was done by Edge. It’s a complete different situation than when he came back two years ago. If you remember well in Toronto… he was booed. As a face. In his hometown. That’s how bad people thought he was doing. Since then, he has a hard time not getting cheered.

I won’t quote anyone on the next subject but I’ll explain the situation. I said last week that I would like the WWE to jumpstart their Tag Team division by reforming the World Greatest Tag Team (Benjamin/Hass), The Hardyz (Matt/Jeff) split up the Spirit Squad into two team (on heel and one face) and let those teams have great matches like the Tag Team division was providing a few years back.

I got a lot of responses from fans saying that they don’t see why we should demote Jeff and Shelton. And that, to me, is the biggest part of the problem. The thing is, it wasn’t always a “demotion” to be a tag team wrestler. The Dudleyz spent most of their career as a tag team. There was a time when being Tag Team champion meant as much, if not more, than being Intercontinental champ. And I don’t think it would be possible for the WWE to have a healthy Tag Team division without changing the opinion of the fans first. And to do that, you have to let these guys go wild. Can you imagine The Hardyz, WGTT and the Spirit squad in a TLC match? Hell, add Nitro and Carlito to the mix. My main point is, there are too much people on Raw right now chasing the IC title. Why not try to make the Tag Team division look as good. This way, you can showcase twice as many wrestlers. But for it to work, the WWE would have to LET THME GO WILD. I’m not quite sure they will.

And last but not least, I also got this piece of feedback from my good friend, and former LOP forums columnists Mike

Mike: I also wanted to say that your review of the Supershow was wicked. I went as well and it was unlike anything I had ever seen. You described us perfectly, I'm sure everyone who reads it will thinking twice before dissing us again!

Dream on buddy. Next time the WWE comes to Montreal, we’ll hear the same thing. But you know what, I don’t give a crap. Because next time they come here, it will be for the 10th anniversary of the Montreal Screwjob and you know what? I’ll be there, with great tickets and I’m gonna have the time of my life. Wanna come?

Questions I shouldn’t even think about

- Is Eric Bishoff coming back? Cause Vince has yet to name a Raw GM. And is there anyone who would do a better job than him? He’s so easy to hate!

- If Jonathan Coachman and Vince McMahon wanted to get rid of DX in a gauntlet match, didn’t they have anyone better to face them than the Highlanders, Charlie Haas & Viscera and Lance Cade & Trevor Murdoch? Seriously!

- On a more personal note, I was going to activate a phone to that little cute girl with that awesome pair of boobs the other day but asking her to see ID cards, I realize that she was 15 years old. I’m 11 years older than her. She’s 11 years older than my son. Why didn’t 15 year old girls look like that when I was in high school?

- Lillian Garcia got to kiss the Stanley Cup last week. Man how I would love to be a big round piece of cold metal…

Angle leaving for TNA...

Okay so this week, we got some pretty heavy news. Kurt Angle, after asking for his release, getting it, saying he hope to be back soon, was rumored to sign with UFC now announced that he signed with TNA. That was a good month. But it got me to think about Kurt Angle and what I think of him as a human being. Please remember that I do not know if any of my impressions are true. I don’t know him personally but I do know that his agent/public relation specialist is pretty polite when refusing an interview with an internet columnist. Hey, at least I got an email back. It’s more than I expected.

Anyway, from what I know of Kurt, he is a competitor. He loves competition and showing that he is the best in what he does. It is a trait of personality shared by many top athletes like he was. You don’t win a Gold Medal without that type of attitude, especially after a neck injury like he had, a mere five months before the Olympics. And even when he needed surgery on his neck, Kurt didn’t want to wait a year like most wrestlers did. He took a chance and went for a less conventional surgery which allowed him to be back in 3 months.

This guy doesn’t want to stay home and do nothing. He won’t stay home very long and he won’t back down from a challenge. He wants action and right now, in the WWE, he wasn’t getting what he wanted. He wanted to show to the world that he is the greatest wrestler alive. He wanted to have good matches like he had in the past with the likes of The Rock, Stone Cold Steve Austin, Chris Benoit, Brock Lesnar, Shawn Micheals… But Kurt is a broken man. He is fragile. And the WWE needs to protect him for the long run. Why?

There have been a handful of wrestlers that really pushed this company to the top. Men who really made a difference and made people want to watch the show. There was Hogan and Andre two decades ago but I’m talking about recent history. Wrestlers that helped turn the tide to WWE’s favor or helped eliminate all competition. I’m talking about 1996 to today. So who had really an impact to the point that a large group of people would tune in to see one person, to watch one match, to hear one promo? The Rock, Austin, Foley and Taker are a given as they were pretty much the most over wrestlers in the late 90’s. They are the ones that could work a crowd and the fans of the entertainment aspect were kept happy with these four men. You can easily follow that with Jericho, Angle, Benoit, Micheals and Eddie who, this past decade, were making fans of the wrestling aspect enjoy the shows and PPV. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that these men were good wrestlers but not as good on the mic or vice versa. These 10 athletes were pretty much as close as you can come to the complete package. They were good on the mic and entertained in the ring. They could play heel and face and were recognized as being at the top of their profession. They just had a “specialty” that made them a draw more specifically to a type of fan or another. But let’s take a closer look at the Top 10:

Stone Cold: Had multiple problems, both with management and health. Works the occasional segment, doesn’t wrestle anymore.

The Rock: Was so charismatic that he leaves the WWE for Hollywood. Want to drop using the name “The Rock”. May come back once every couple of years for a big time appearance (ex: Wrestlemania) but doesn’t wrestle anymore.

Mick Foley: Had to quit for family and health reasons. Is now writing a lot. Comes back every other year for a multiple month feud and usually gives his all. Doesn’t wrestle regularly anymore.

Undertaker: Not completely clear but it seems that the WWE is fine with him working a couple of months and taking a couple of months off. Isn’t the draw he was. Wrestle semi-regularly.

Eddie: God bless you.

Chris Jericho: Stopped wrestling to follow a musical career. Isn’t working out perfectly. Is said to be interested in coming back to wrestling in the short term. Isn’t wrestling right now.

Chris Benoit: Have multiple injuries and often need a long period of recovering. Wrestle when his body allows him which is on a semi-basis.

Shawn Micheals: Even at his age seems to be in great shape. Could continue for a good period of time if he doesn’t injure himself. Wrestle full time.

HHH: Isn’t going anywhere. Wrestles full time.

Kurt Angle (a month back): Have multiple injuries. Is rumored to be addicted to painkillers. Is a workaholic. Needs some time off. Doesn’t seem to want to. The WWE fired him so that he can get medical and/or mental attention.

That, to me, is really strange. You got a workaholic and you fire him? And you think he won’t go anywhere else? Come on WWE, you ain’t the only show in town anymore. What? You didn’t think Kurt would betray you? You thought Kurt would stay home, rest and come back in a couple of months? After all, you did everything you could for him, right?

Back at Wrestlemania 19, Kurt Angle was already a workaholic. He wanted to work. He wanted to do what was best and he sure as hell wanted to give a hell of a show. Even with his neck in such bad condition, he worked a great match with Brock Lesnar before heading to surgery. Since then, the WWE learned. They learned that they invested a lot of money and time in the last ten years to elevate stars, to sell tickets and T-Shirt. To be the cornerstones of the company. But since then, one died, one can’t wrestle anymore (or may have one last match against Hogan or God), one has way more success outside, one hope to get success outside. Four wrestlers who aren’t connected to wrestling by more than mentions in my columns or rare appearances. You add three more who wrestle on a semi-regular basis (at different levels) with Taker, Foley and Benoit. That leaves three men who can do the job. Two of them are healthy but one isn’t. Kurt.

But Kurt won’t rest. He’s a fighter. He doesn’t want to stop and rest home. He wants to be in the ring and prove he’s the best. The WWE tried to “protect” his investment by spacing his real matches with short ones thus bringing the now infamous Kurt Angle Invitational. They gave him some good matches with HBK but they used the Invitational to keep him active while taking as little risk as possible allowing him to recuperate a little more than if he had a real complete match. He then was traded to Raw for a short period of time to elevate Cena and sent back to SD! to win the championship. He then feuded with Mark Henry, The Undertaker, Orton and Rey Misterio. He was champion… but I don’t think he was happy. He wasn’t at the top anymore. Or at least, he wasn’t competing with the top guys. Now instead of having great matches like he had with Chris Benoit at the Royal Rumble, he was trying to get as good of a match as Mark Henry could pull out. And then, he was asked to work in the new ECW to help the new show start up. Again, he was stuck in a position where he couldn’t fully show that he was the best.

He felt held back by the WWE. All that time they took to protect their investment they made him unhappy. All along, they did what they thought was best for the future of their company. They thought that if Kurt could slow down a little to add another 3 to 6 years to his career, it would be a good thing for them. But at the same time they were holding Kurt from doing what he loves the most: be at the top. Not a champion, I don’t think Kurt ambitions are to have an amount of title victories. I think the most important thing for him is to give a great match. Like he had with The Rock and HBK and Austin.

I’m not going the “conspiracy theorist” way and say that Kurt wanted to do that all along and planned to get his release from the WWE. I’m saying that when the WWE asked him to take time off and recuperate, he had more time to think. And when TNA called asking him if he was interested in signing with them, he may have realized that this is where he could have the chance to start again.

He’ll have fresh competition in matches that could be absolutely fantastic with the likes of Samoa Joe and A.J. Styles. He could help that promotion build up to a point where it can compete with the WWE. I don’t think he can do it alone, but he certainly can help them. I’ve said a while back that if TNA could sign, at the same time, Benoit, Jericho and Goldberg, it could make a huge BANG and make people notice. That was back when Benoit’s contract was up. But the other two are still free agents.

Back to Kurt, the point is that now, he’ll have a chance to shine. If he and his agents are smart, they asked for some guarantees. That’s he’ll have the chance to compete with the best. That’s he’ll have the chance to showcase his talent. Hell, that he’ll have a shot at the X-Division title.

In the end, it was all WWE’s fault. They made him unhappy. They didn’t treat him like he wanted to be treated and then they fired him so that he could get better.

Looks like he will.







Of course, as usual, if you want to leave feedback, I’d love to hear it. You can send me an email here or you if you are a member of LOP you can simply got to my feedback thread. I’ll answer to everyone, that’s a guarantee, as long as Hotmail doesn’t fuck it up again. At least this week it was okay!!!

Take care guys…

See you later.










*NEW GALLERY* BRAND NEW Pregnancy Photos of a BIG Stephanie McMahon!

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