Kurt’s Angle

Kurt Angle gave an interview to The Sun recently and had a lot to say about TNA and how they have been booking matches in the recent past.  Make no mistake about it, Angle is one of the biggest, if not the biggest, star in TNA right now and he let his opinions fly on things such as gimmick matches, confusing stipulations and the future of TNA.

The interview is a must read for any TNA fan as what Angle says is pretty much right on the money.  I will go over some of the key points he brought up during the interview and put in my own thoughts on them as well.

Gimmick Matches
Angle said that he has confronted the bookers and asked them to take a more simple approach to wrestling matches.  He specifically brings up the King of the Mountain match and how the Hard Justice pay-per-view featured nothing but gimmick matches.  Trying to be innovative, he says, is one of the causes of these problems, but what TNA should be focusing on is wrestling.  To quote Angle, he said “We’re in an MMA world. Fans want to see mano a mano. One on one.”

You can’t paint a more accurate portrait than what Angle said about TNA’s gratuitous use of gimmick matches.  I will give TNA credit, however, as the Ultimate X match is one gimmick match that is fun to watch.  But for every Ultimate X match, fans have to endure several blindfold matches, brawl n’ chain matches, Steel Asylum matches, strap matches, reverse battle royal matches, Elevation X matches, and yes, even the King of the Mountain match itself.

Angle offers his thoughts on how to simplify the King of the Mountain match by cutting out the pin falls and the penalty box and make it the first to hang the title up wins.  I would be willing to take it a step further and say just make it a regular ladder match with five people vying for the title.  It’s not very innovative, but it isn’t confusing and bogged down with a bunch of rules, hence a more simplified approach.

As far as the MMA comment is concerned, it is rising in popularity but I would still like it to stay clear from the wrestling ring.  TNA has already tried MMA-style bouts twice in the past six months and both of them were horrible.  I guess MMA matches can be added to the ever growing list of bad gimmick matches that TNA has tried to pass off on the fans.  I am all for more one-on-one matches, though.

Endless Run-ins
Angle brings up his latest match at No Surrender where he was taking on Samoa Joe and Christian Cage in a triple threat match for the TNA World Championship.  As everyone knows, Jeff Jarrett played a role in the outcome of the match when he came out and smashed a guitar over Angle’s head, thus allowing Joe to pick up the pin fall and win the match.  Angle said that TNA booked the finish this way to protect him from looking weak and he goes on to say that he doesn’t need to be protected and should be used to elevate younger stars.

Does Kurt Angle speak the truth or what?  The run-in has run rampant in TNA to the effect that it no longer means anything.  Often times I find myself guessing as to who will come out as a match unfolds before my eyes.  If by some strange means a match doesn’t end with some type of run-in or interference, it usually means that the loser will extract their revenge after they have lost the match.  Run-in’s are supposed to have that shock and surprise factor to them, but I usually only end up with that feeling if I see a match that has one clear cut winner who makes it out of the ring without being beaten down.

Future Outlook
Angle thinks that TNA has the best wrestling roster in the world and making their product simpler will attract a larger fan base.  He went on to say that TNA is in the process of making changes to their product, and their television ratings will triple by just letting their younger stars go out to the ring and wrestle.

As much as I would like to believe Angle about TNA’s willingness to change, I am going to have to take a wait-and-see approach to it.  TNA’s old tagline was “We Are Wrestling,” and I would love to see that come into play again.  Angle is spot on about their talent, but it is hard to showcase that talent and their wrestling ability when the gimmicks and the stipulations take center stage.

Also, I think that Angle is a little optimistic about a ratings increase if these changes come into play.  Tripling the television ratings would mean that Impact would score higher than WWE’s Raw, which is the highest rated wrestling program in the U.S.  I highly doubt that would happen, however, WCW Nitro once took over the WWE’s flagship broadcast for over a year.

Making some changes can’t hurt TNA, though, as their ratings have pretty much leveled off at the 1.0 to 1.1 range, which is lower than the WWE’s c-show, ECW.  I know I can’t speak for all of the fans, but I would much rather see a tag team match of Christian Cage & AJ Styles against the Motorcity Machine Guns than seeing Mike Knox take on Chase Stevens in one-on-one action.  The ratings, however, don’t reflect that thought.

Looking at the television ratings history, one can assume that TNA’s regular fan base will tune in each and every week to catch their shows.  This may be a good sign for them as fans aren’t leaving just yet, but that also means that their fan base isn’t growing at all.   Having the talent they have compared to the weekly ratings they pull in should be a sign that something needs to be done, and until that happens, I am willing to bet that their television ratings will never break the 1.2 high-water mark they set earlier in the year.