I still believe that the best thing I’ve written this year was Come see the Broken Man, one of the first essays I wrote for Fair to Flair. With the conclusion of Angle and Jarrett, I thought I should modernize it a little. Enjoy. 

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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 Angle has finally beaten Jeff Jarrett, I want to put to rest any idea that Kurt Angle ever “won.” Angle “beat” Jarrett, and 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 only a certain kind of conclusion can save him. 

Kurt Angle’s trajectory over the last few years sounds like a sad, campy country song: he lost his wife, his kids, his grip on the TNA Title, and most of his friends. He lost himself, his way, and perhaps most of all the cache of being thought of as 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, to some, 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 mostly interesting and showed us that TNA were happy to make him the marquee attraction. 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. 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 after performing a backflip off a 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. 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. 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. 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 title was vacated and his narrative derailed. Angle was frustrated with this alteration but vowed to win a 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 aftermath of this match 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. Jeff Jarrett destroyed that. 

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. In October, the TNA title was redesigned as a cursed item, management was corrupt, and the quality of wrestling in TNA was the lowest in its history. This was 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? 

At Slammiversary, Kurt Angle finally defeated Jeff Jarrett. It was as satisfying and complete and end to a story that TNA has ever written. Eight months of torment and loss had apparently been overcome, and Angle was once again free. But a victory in this story doesn’t mean “winning” like most wrestling stories. Kurt Angle has defeated Jarrett, but Jarrett is still married to Angle’s ex-wife, and they still have his kids (in real life and in the narrative). Kurt Angle is the number one contender, but to what? The TNA title? Only mad men fight for that thing.  

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. 

On the episode of Impact following Slammiversary, they appeared to be dabbling a little in the second idea, with Angle tearing Jarrett apart in a parking lot. It was the sort of fight that would be embarrassing for a pedigree athlete like Angle, but after everything he’s been through, nobody even blinked. Two months ago, he attacked Jarrett and Karen with an axe, after all. 

But for the most part I believe we’re about to see far less of the man. Earlier in the episode, he announced his interest in training for the 2012 Olympic Games. It’s a logical move for Angle. He wants to return to a better time, and he wants to become a better man. It’s the hope of all broken men. 

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 Aggressive Art.

Edited by TH and Jason Mann.