This week's Friday Five is all about the 1996 Gold Medal Olympian, former WWE Champion and current TNA anchor, Kurt Angle.
1. Did you watch his debut against Sean Stasiak at Survivor Series 1999? If you did, did you ever think that dorky-looking guy would become one of the most important pro wrestlers in the next decade?
2. Buy or sell: current angle in TNA where if he doesn't regain the TNA World Championship, he retires.
3. Did not blowing off the love triangle angle with Stephanie McMahon and Triple H hurt him or have no effect on him?
4. Better character - serious, amateur athlete competitor or goofy badass?
5. What was your favorite Angle match ever?
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1. No. I thought he'd be good, but not what he turned into.
ReplyDelete2. Sell. The build leans too obviously to him winning a match that I really think Ken Anderson should be winning. Had they not done the RVD injury angle based around him leaving, I would have been fine with Angle winning the belt then transitioning it.
3. Hurt him. He could have been HYOOGE, legitimately up there with Rock/Austin/Hunter/Taker if he pulled that heist off.
4. Goofy badass. He plays it so well it's sort of scary.
5. Angle/Shane O Mac. The closest thing to a Japanese style deathmatch you're going to see on American TV (and yes, this counts Foley and Abyss) Cringe-worthy moves, all out effort from both guys, and the debut of the Avalanche-Style Angle Slam. Greatness.
1. Did you watch his debut against Sean Stasiak at Survivor Series 1999? If you did, did you ever think that dorky-looking guy would become one of the most important pro wrestlers in the next decade?
ReplyDeleteI don't remember his match. I remember him feuding with Taz? Anyway, no, I never thought he'd be as good as he was when he was feuding with Austin and HHH. And once he peaked, I never thought he'd fall so far.
2. Buy or sell: current angle in TNA where if he doesn't regain the TNA World Championship, he retires.
Sell, sell, sell! It's stupid. First, you know he isn't going to permanently retire from this so it's as stupid as any other retirement angle has become. Second, it makes every match leading up to the championship match ridiculously predictable. Not to mention the rankings changing every other week or whatever. So once he beats a guy, you know that guy isn't going to move back up the rankings. And was Angle even ranked?? He beats guy after guy and never gets ranked. Then he only beat like 6 or 7 of the top 10 and is now getting his title match...worse still, he didn't beat Jeff Hardy in the tourney to get to this final match. TNA is fucking stupid.
3. Did not blowing off the love triangle angle with Stephanie McMahon and Triple H hurt him or have no effect on him?
What do you mean? I thought they did have a final match. /confused
4. Better character - serious, amateur athlete competitor or goofy badass?
I liked him as all of those, but my favorite memory is of him using the milk truck in the same way Austin used the beer truck.
5. What was your favorite Angle match ever?
I'll go with his WM match with Brock.
1. Did you watch his debut against Sean Stasiak at Survivor Series 1999? If you did, did you ever think that dorky-looking guy would become one of the most important pro wrestlers in the next decade?
ReplyDeleteI did and I actually figured that he would get over huge as a goody two shoes dork in an era of badasses like Stone Cold. At the time, Angle was the complete opposite of Austin and I figured it would work.
2. Buy or sell: current angle in TNA where if he doesn't regain the TNA World Championship, he retires.
Sell, TNA is retarded and will probably not even complete the angle one way or the other.
3. Did not blowing off the love triangle angle with Stephanie McMahon and Triple H hurt him or have no effect on him?
No effect, it would have been cool to see a resolution but Angle was so good at the time not even that era HHH could really do anything to him.
4. Better character - serious, amateur athlete competitor or goofy badass?
Goofy badass. The hat he wore when he was teaming up with Austin and McMahon was gold, but when he got in the ring, he was all business.
5. What was your favorite Angle match ever?
I don't remember what PPV it was, but Angle vs. Austin.. I remember Angle kicking out of around 300 stunners, and Austin finally getting so fed up that he got himself DQ'ed by hitting the ref. It was one of the only times that ending has ever worked for me, simply because of the awesome match they put on, and the story being told.
1. Yeah, it was pretty obvious from the start. His debut vignettes were telling.
ReplyDelete2. Sell. The mowing through the Top 10 angle was a very good idea. The retirement stip made it too predictable and then the title tourney made everything too convoluted. Too bad.
3. I think it hurt him a little, but he did get the title at the next ppv (No Mercy). September 2000 is pretty much when the WWF went downhill forever. Austin's return was very lame, the Rikishi unveiling, giving a lame ending to Triple H/Angle/Stephanie, and the move from USA to TNN. They blew a ton of big things and never really recovered.
4. Goofy badass, for sure, although his ECW persona had a lot of potential but it obviously ended abruptly.
5. Agreed with Dorian and that's SummerSlam 2001. The Shane match was wicked, too.
1. Knew he would be good from his first match. His mic work was fantastic.
ReplyDelete2. Don't watch TNA but it sounds like a dumb idea.
3. Hurt him at the time but he recovered nicely.
4. Goofy badass for sure.
5. Liked his WM with HBK but his match against Austin at Summerslam is my favorite