Kurt Angle shoots with Dave Meltzer

[{''({o..o})''}]

"About 50 wrestlers, currently, are better."

 

Great, are we going to get a version of DVDVR's Micheals thread now?

[World's Worst Man]

No, I was just answering the question.

[Hawk 34]

No, but even in WWE, Kurt Angle was always behind someone and even if you want to be technical about "WWE", Angle wasn't in 1/4 of those top ten match matches much less all of them.

 

This doesn't really bother me as most main event names who put so much on their wrestling skills such as Hart, Angle and Flair will over value themselves.

 

Angle isn't at Bret levels quite yet but he's getting there with his ego and constant need to slam Vince.

 

Bret cooled off and matured to an extent, while Angle seems like he will actually fall apart in his drive to "stick it" to Vince.

[luke-o]

Yeah, most of the "old school" wrestlers would say that they were in "the top 10 matches" in wrestling history.

[Hawk 34]

Yeah, most of the "old school" wrestlers would say that they were in "the top 10 matches" in wrestling history.

 

Not even that. There's a difference in Ricky Steamboat thinking his match with Savage at WM was an all-time great and he's gone many times publically saying that but he won't claim that he is involved in every great match.

 

It takes a special kind of arrogance and ego to think you are the greatest in a business where there are stats to prove anything and is all subjective. That sort of ego is reserved for the Hart, Flair, Angle, and Michaels of the world.

[luke-o]

That sort of ego is reserved for the Hart, Flair, Angle, and Michaels of the world.

 

Thats sort of who i meant, i didnt mean Ricky.

[Guest Hotbutter Spoontoaster]

"About 50 wrestlers, currently, are better."

 

Great, are we going to get a version of DVDVR's Micheals thread now?

There are 50 better wrestlers.

[Dobbs 3K]

I think people are taking Angle a little bit too literally.

[Obi Chris Kenobi]

nice type up, thanks.

 

Interesting to see how many times he contradicts himself in this interview.

[10 Pounds]

So, regardless of how many bridges he burned with Vince, saying that he lost respect and love for his job two or three years ago, that he wouldn't go back because he wants to "make" TNA and work there for 30 years, he would still do the Hall of Fame ?

 

Bret did it, but that was because of the "Screwed" DVD threat and he wanted to protect his legacy. Would Angle still want to do the HoF even with a"Rise and fall of Kurt Angle" compilation where everyone badmouth him ?

[Dobbs 3K]

I don't know how bad a "Rise and Fall of Kurt Angle" DVD could really be. I mean, any "bad" Angle moment in WWF/WWE would clearly be an intentional comedy moment. Warrior had lots of just over the top ridiculous moments in WWF, but Angle, I don't think so much. The worst they could do would be to have various interview segments with people talking about Angle being "dangerous to work with" or something, but viewers can usually see through that crap.

[BorneAgain]

Said that Raw was well written, though.

Now I know he's nuts.

[Frosty]

I want to see people start naming off the 50 that are better then him. I'd be willing to bet there are people better, but I'd hardly say there are 50 better.

[Hawk 34]

I want to see people start naming off the 50 that are better then him. I'd be willing to bet there are people better, but I'd hardly say there are 50 better.

 

Since you asked (no order) and this is counting from the peak of Kurt's career (2002 to now)

 

Bryan Danielson

Samoa Joe

CM Punk

Kenta Kobashi

KENTA

Mysterio

Eddie Guerrero

Naomichi Marufuji

Jun Akiyama

Mitsuharu Misawa

 

Chris Benoit

Nigel McGuinness

Brock Lesnar

Christopher Daniels

Austin Aries

Minoru Fujita

Roderick Strong

Low Ki

Akria Taue

Doug Williams

 

Yoshinobu Kanemaru

Takeshi Morishima

Homicide

Paul London

Hiroshi Tanahashi

 

 

I dont follow Mexico and Europe enough to include them. 50 might be stretching it but to say Kurt is even remotely sniffing the top spot is ludicrous.

 

There's at least 15 easily better then Kurt Angle and the rest can be shifted around.

 

 

*edit: Knocked it down to 25 and added/deleted a couple names after reviewing the list

[Guest Coffey]

...and that list is really fuckin' stretching it as it is. There's...nine on there that I'd have Angle above...in his current state.

[DrVenkman PhD]

"Brock Lesnar" is just uncalled for, Hawkman.

 

Edit: Never mind, reread and noted it's not a current list (I only quickly glanced and saw Lesnar). Even prime vs. prime, I find that highly debatable, but I don't care much for online debates so I won't bother.

[The Ghost of bps21]

Angle is a great worker. Certainly worthy of all of the praise that he gets.

 

I believe that Joe is better. I believe that Danielson is better. And I believe that Benoit is better.

 

In the US (since that is what I know) that's it.

 

...maybe Finlay. He's awesome.

 

Point is...Angle (unlike ANY OF THOSE PEOPLE) is seen as better.

 

Why is his going to TNA a big deal?

 

Not because he's near death or a shell of his former self or any of that...

 

It's because he's KURT ANGLE.

 

And Angle vs. Joe is less than 2 weeks away. Anyone who reads that and isn't excited about it is only in this folder to be an asshole.

 

Period.

[luke-o]

Amen.

[Art Sandusky]

Homicide? I guess I haven't seen the right stuff of his yet.

[bob_barron]

And Angle vs. Joe is less than 2 weeks away. Anyone who reads that and isn't excited about it is only in this folder to be an asshole.

 

Not really. People could not be excited b/c they think TNA is rushing it and blowing their load too quickly. And there's also the matter that Angle shouldn't even be in the ring in the first place.

[Star Ocean 3]

And there's also the matter that Angle shouldn't even be in the ring in the first place.

 

only in this folder to be an asshole.

[Art Sandusky]

No, really, they're doing it too soon. Pop ratings before you pop buyrates. Have their numbers shown any substantial improvement or decrease in six months? At least it isn't actively bad to watch, but feels like it's been in stasis for months.

[USC Wuz Robbed!]

And Angle vs. Joe is less than 2 weeks away. Anyone who reads that and isn't excited about it is only in this folder to be an asshole.

 

Period.

 

Conversely, anyone who reads that and is overly excited (see Hail bps21) doesn't really understand the concept of logically building up the match to mean more than it currently does. Also yeah, they're rushing Angle too soon. Sorry if not everyone creams their pants at the mere mention of the match and would rather go "Wait a minute... already? Why?"

[Hunter's Torn Quad]

There are arguments that can be made in favor of Joe vs. Angle happening now or holding it off. The best argument I've heard for doing it now is that to leave it any longer only gives TNA a chance to fuck it up, and make no mistake about it, TNA would fuck up Joe vs. Angle if they held the match off for any real length of time.

[strummer]

Angle is a great worker. Certainly worthy of all of the praise that he gets.

 

I believe that Joe is better. I believe that Danielson is better. And I believe that Benoit is better.

 

In the US (since that is what I know) that's it.

 

...maybe Finlay. He's awesome.

 

Point is...Angle (unlike ANY OF THOSE PEOPLE) is seen as better.

 

Why is his going to TNA a big deal?

 

Not because he's near death or a shell of his former self or any of that...

 

It's because he's KURT ANGLE.

 

And Angle vs. Joe is less than 2 weeks away. Anyone who reads that and isn't excited about it is only in this folder to be an asshole.

 

Period.

 

 

You're looking at this from a purely content point of view when presentation is FAR more important in wrestling. So everyone is supposed to forget the sub par build because it's 2 great workers fighting in a couple weeks? That's not how wrestling works.

[Hunter's Torn Quad]

Let's assume that Samoa Joe and Kurt Angle are the two best workers on the planet and they will have a match at Genesis so great that it will require a sixth star added to the ***** rating system.

 

Who cares?

 

Almost nobody outside the internet wrestling fanbase knows it's taking place. Until this past week, TNA did almost nothing to let people know that the match was taking place, or even that TNA existed. When TNA were in Detroit for their so-called biggest PPV of the year, they were at the World Series game, and a bunch of the wrestlers got recognized but only for what they did in WCW. Nobody knew they were in TNA, nobody knew about TNA, and nobody knew there was a PPV going on in Detroit the next day.

 

Whether the match will be great or not isn't the point. The point is if TNA can get people outside their current fanbase excited enough about the match to pay to see it. It doesn't matter if the current fanbase have multiple orgasms over the match. They were going to watch anyway. It's the people who are not currently intending to watch it, but could if they knew about it, that TNA really need to care about.

[The Niggardly King]

Wow, Angle working people is sort of disturbing... as it's not even on a HBK, Nash, or Hogan level.

[Dobbs 3K]

Let's assume that Samoa Joe and Kurt Angle are the two best workers on the planet and they will have a match at Genesis so great that it will require a sixth star added to the ***** rating system.

 

Who cares?

 

Almost nobody outside the internet wrestling fanbase knows it's taking place. Until this past week, TNA did almost nothing to let people know that the match was taking place, or even that TNA existed. When TNA were in Detroit for their so-called biggest PPV of the year, they were at the World Series game, and a bunch of the wrestlers got recognized but only for what they did in WCW. Nobody knew they were in TNA, nobody knew about TNA, and nobody knew there was a PPV going on in Detroit the next day.

 

Whether the match will be great or not isn't the point. The point is if TNA can get people outside their current fanbase excited enough about the match to pay to see it. It doesn't matter if the current fanbase have multiple orgasms over the match. They were going to watch anyway. It's the people who are not currently intending to watch it, but could if they knew about it, that TNA really need to care about.

 

Dead on. The question is, does TNA realize this as well?

[Guest Coffey]

It's a slippery-slope though because some people would argue that trying to get *that* particular fan is what the downfall of WWE is.

 

I still don't think people will take TNA seriously enough with a six-sided ring, that commentary team and the company name of T-N-A. Maybe that's just me?

[Hawk 34]

No, of course not. They have the mindset that attracting the internet fanbase is all they need. That's great if they are looking for an ECW sized market but they have made it clear they wish to contest WWE and that's not going to happen.