This is the first article in a series where I’ll be talking about TNA Wrestling in a way I don’t believe anyone has before. My basis for this argument stems from a series of realizations I’ve had while on my self-imposed negligence of TNA Impact:
- TNA Wrestling creates a televised product that upsets many wrestling fans.
- There is no way TNA doesn’t know this.
- There is no way they are making these programming, writing, and producing decisions by accident. They are, in fact, on a daily basis, making these decisions.
- The people who make up the TNA writing staff are not stupid people. They are perhaps not communicating their true intentions to the public, but that doesn’t make them stupid. Dismissing them as such ignores the real problem: there is a disconnect between what viewers want out of TNA and what TNA delivers.
- We reject TNA Wrestling on a number of levels, but mostly on the level that TNA’s writing doesn’t make any sense. But they’ve been delivering on this level for years. There has never been a time when TNA writing has made sense to us. God knows if they felt they were doing something wrong, they would have changed something. But they haven’t. In fact, they’ve gone farther into the opposite direction than what fans appear to want.
- Perhaps we’re looking at it wrong.
I came to this conclusion through viewing three aspects of TNA: Kurt Angle’s deteriorated character, the trial and cancellation of Reaction, and Jeff Hardy’s creative decisions. This week, I’m going to focus on Kurt, because I feel his story is the strongest they’ve told, but probably the least obvious.
Come See the Broken Man: Kurt Angle—The noir hero of TNA Wrestling
Normally, a wrestling story is about overcoming adversity. The bad guy outmaneuvers the hero until the hero finally prospers. The general idea is that fans will support the hero through his plight and share the spoils of war. And while you can look at Angle’s current predicament and predict an eventual victory over Jeff Jarrett, I want to put to rest any idea that Kurt Angle can “win.” Angle may eventually “beat” Jarrett in some kind of contest, he may eventually reclaim a world title or two, and may appear to have overcome any adversity TNA has thrown at him, but Kurt Angle is now an unrepairable broken man, and there is no changing that without serious moves.
Kurt Angle’s trajectory over the last few years sounds like a sad, campy country song: he’s lost his wife, his kids, his grip on the TNA Title, most of his friends, and most of all his oeuvre.1He’s lost himself, his way, and perhaps most of all the cache of being the best professional wrestler in the world. Many wrestling fans had pegged Angle as a chosen one over the years; the one guy who couldn’t fall for the sad fate of a wrestling life.
Angle never fit in the WWE, not really, because the stage was too set. They did their best to accommodate Angle, but WWE is the home of cheaters, zany characters, and plots. Angle was a legitimately great performer, and though I’m sure they did their best to give him stories about legitimate competition, I don’t think he ever really felt properly utilized. The rigorous schedule also hurt him physically and mentally, and put a toll on his family life. When he finally left in 2006, we all hoped he would take some time off and rejuvenate.
Moving to TNA was, of course, the next best thing. TNA was not the bloated monster it was today. It barely had a full roster, and regularly borrowed performers from Mexico and Japan. The show was largely re-written to suit Angle, and the stories involving his character were interesting and showed us that TNA had a lot of faith in him as the marquee player. Kurt’s wife, Karen, was brought in as a featured player and immediately shined as an attractive villain. Few people can deny that TNA grew from 2006 to 2009 during Kurt’s tenure on top.
That’s not to say there weren’t problems. Most of them were personal, as Kurt divorced Karen and found himself in domestic trouble with new girlfriends. He was often rumoured to be taking painkillers and other drugs.2 But it wasn’t until 2010 that Kurt was put in a position where he couldn’t return to his former glory.
At Lockdown 2010, Kurt Angle defeated Ken Anderson with a backflip off the top of the steel cage. It was a reference to a cage match he had with Chris Benoit in 2001, when Angle was still certifying his legacy. After the match, Angle made a speech about needing some time off. That vacation only lasted a month, but I’d like to suggest that match at Lockdown was the last time we saw Kurt Angle. The guy who came back a month later was someone else entirely.3 It was the last time we saw the conquering, confident, and accomplished Kurt Angle, and the first time we saw the new Angle, a noir hero far more complicated.
Most people think noir stories are about detectives, but they’re really about losers.4 As Ray Banks explains, these characters fall based on some internal or external mistake:
This mistake needn’t be an action on the character’s part, either—it could be and often is an inherent personality flaw, hubris, or a failure of the spirit that leads to his eventual doom.
Noir is also sometimes about trying to return to a place of happiness, or wholesomeness, a world without the imposed evil, regardless of whether that place ever existed.
Kurt Angle returned claiming to be no longer special.5 He surveyed the TNA roster and decided he was no longer the elite character, but instead just another guy. He was down on himself in a way we’d never seen, and he decided to try to get back to the top the old fashioned way, by climbing the ranks one by one. He was still a hero, but he talked about reinvention.
Angle only made it through six of the top 10 competitors before the TNA World Title was vacated and his story derailed. Angle was frustrated with this alteration,6 but vowed to win the newly established tournament. Oh, he also put his career on the line in every single match just to make sure the story reached a conclusion, just to add a nice touch of fatalism.
In the early autumn, Angle faced Jeff Hardy and Ken Anderson for the belt at the supposedly climatic Bound For Glory. Angle lost the match, but wasn’t pinned. But the aftermatch of this match, where Jeff Jarrett was reborn as the strongest villain he’s ever portrayed, is where Angle’s noir hero is truly revealed. Up until this point, you could see Angle’s challenges and setbacks, but you could also see a possible salvation off in the distance. Jarrett destroyed that.
Jeff Jarrett’s involvement accomplished two things: it incinerated Angle’s chances of ever returning to the same spot he once held, and it blurred the idea that that spot ever existed in the first place.
I’ll explain the second part first. Since Angle’s return, he’s wanted to reclaim his spot as the best in the world. Jarrett’s proclamations, Immortal’s rise, and the creative direction of TNA has all but eliminated that possibility. The TNA Title is now outwardly presented as a cursed item, management is corrupt, and the quality of wrestling in TNA is the lowest in its history. This is a case of external forces charring the ground around the hero, so no matter where he walks, he finds hell. Even if he won everything, what would he rule over, exactly?
But why are Kurt’s chances of personal redemption ruined? I realize I’m writing this mid-story, and the climax of Jarrett-Angle may prove satisfying. Kurt may get everything he wants. He could end up standing over a bloody and ruined Jeff Jarrett hold the proper World Title, with his ex-wife and kids returned to him. But even that wouldn’t be victory for Angle, because a) his wife and kids are actually gone, for good, and b) that victory will only lead to further conflict in TNA: another run-in, another cheap loss, another set of villainy and corruption for him to battle.
So what can Angle do? If we look at Angle as a noir hero, then we have to give him a proper noir ending, and that means one of two things. The first is, of course, death. We could kill Kurt Angle the character. Certainly this is done in wrestling—in retirement matches, loser-leaves-town stipulations, and other exit opportunities. My favourite exit TNA has done is the figurative burial of Christian Cage, which felt suitably large. Perhaps Angle’s end is one where he loses and disappears, a victim of his chosen world, the sum of his choices. The other option is for him to realize his fate as a broken man in a broken world.
As it stands, Kurt Angle has embarassingly lost to Jarrett twice (once involving the most amateur blading I’ve ever seen), been humiliated by his ex-wife and children, and appears to only have Scott Steiner as support. How does he “win” in any real way, except to finally breathe the air outside the toxic and corrupt Impact Zone?
As for the other option, I want to open up the idea that TNA writers have written this story in this way, and this is the correct interpretation of events. TNA Wrestling has been saying “come see the broken man” all year, and have no intention of giving us a happy ending, but instead would make Angle become another face in the sea of evil and corruption, another challenge for an optimistic fool in the future. Kurt Angle once stood for intelligence, integrity, and intensity.7 Perhaps the story TNA is telling is how the great hero sadly loses all three.
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1 I can say with relative certainty there will never be a collection of Angle’s matches and career highlights that ever comes close to being correct or definitive.
2 I’m not verifying or denying anything.
3 Yes, obviously I know it’s the same person, but I’m suggesting here a character shift, one that’s deeper than just the character he plays. It’s convoluted, but most of noir is pretty convoluted, if you ask me.
4 http://www.mulhollandbooks.com/2010/09/30/noir-is-for-losers/
5 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJeyCI8aaKo
6 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WthXiofjuwE, about 10:30 into the video.
7 Remember the Kurt Angle who was disgusted at ECW’s blasphemy, or the Kurt Angle who drank milk, or, god forbid, the Kurt Angle who won Olympic Gold with a broken freakin’ neck?
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K Sawyer Paul is an author and publisher living in Toronto. He tweets and tumbls. In the wrestling world he is known for This is Sports Entertainment and The Footnotes of Wrestling.
Edited by Jason Mann.
