Pro Wrestling: Ric recaps Angle press conference

I was listening to the audio, and was about 24 minutes in and thinking of recapping it but really Ric's is just so good I'll post his anyway.

I do have some comments of my own:


I think what you have here is Kurt Angle doing the following things:

• Saying a few things that are actually true.
  There were some things in there that I think Angle had a good point about. This isn't the best example, but I think that in terms of athleticism there is more talent in TNA than WWE bu the problem is that raw athleticism doesn't sell tickets if so WCW would've won the Monday night wars because for a very long time they had far superior athletes on the roster. Personalities and characters you can invest in are what sell tickets. The ability to go in the ring doesn't hurt but Hulk Hogan's not even close to the greatest athlete that has been in the ring but he sold damn near more tickets than anyone. It is a rare thing to find an athlete that people will pay to see just because of how good an athlete he is and there ain't a Michael Jordan in TNA. Probably not a Michael "Jacksong" either but that's a different issue. I will also admit that saying that TNA has better athletes regardless of if it means anything is still highly arguable and is not necessarily a position I will defend to the death.
  
  
• He's saying things that he's trying to convince himself are true.
  I think things like this are when he talks about being misused in WWE and the success of his neck surgery. I get the sense that he's hoping that if he says these things enough he will convince himself of them. How is it nobody on that conference call asked him about that open letter to Vince McMahon on his website? If your treatment is so bad, you wouldn't write that letter.
  I think his whole leaving WWE was a shock to his system. So I think now that he's found another opportunity, he is trying to make what has happened now fit a scenario that will allow him to save face with himself. Its like how when an NFL General Manager gets canned by the owner but the owner allows him to tender a resignation anyway.
• Actually, an even better example is the guy who's in love with the girl, really happy in his relationship with the girl and then she breaks up with him. He immediately looks for ways to convince himself he wasn't really happy in the first place and who knows he goes out and finds a girl he's not into quite so much (I've heard this called a rebound relationship but have no personal experience with this one *ahem* yeah right) and tries to tell all his friends that the new girl who's not nearly as fun, looks like her face had an encounter or 10 with Anderson Silva's knee and who makes significantly less money sitting on her couch than the prior girl did at the law firm is actually an upgrade.
• I admit that I wasn't in the room with Kurt Angle and Vince McMahon so I don't know what happened. However, there is part of the Angle scenario that just doesn't jive with me at all.
  If what Angle says is true, what was Vince McMahon's motivation? I mean Vince has granted people their release before but it usually has a 90 day no-compete clause. I can't believe that Vince McMahon would just say to Angle here you go, and you don't have to sit out for 90 days as a bonus. Especially if what Angle said about Vince wanting him to stay were true. Not even Vince Russo or as Angle called him "the greatest wrestling writer in the world" (I've never officially written a wrestling show but I take offense to this as I am better than Russo) couldn't come up with a nonsensical enough reason for this to make sense. I haven't heard all the call so I won't yet blast anyone for not asking Angle to explain these things but if WWE owned Angle like he said that they did he sure did have his owner by the balls. Hell, Ginny (my dog) doesn't have me trained nearly half as well.
  
  
• Angle was being a good company man.
  He said a lot of things about TNA that were positive. Yeah, its also true that in this case we can't let the truth get in the way of a good story, but realistically I expected this. TNA is growing, I'm impressed by the athletes, I can have a 5 star match with anyone on this roster (my first choices for this challenge are Kevin Nash, A-1 and Kip James), TNA has momentum, TNA is moving forward, I've been watching this for a year now and wanted to be apart of this. I believe none of these things, and don't even get me started on the no politics in TNA thing. In a sense that's true, because you have Jeff Jarrett and everyone else, there is no politics in a dictatorship either. But he has to say these things, and he may be doing it to try and convince himself that its true (tying it together with the point above) but it just doesn't come off well to say: "TNA had momentum but it has stalled, the creative process is broken, hiring Vince Russo instead of Casey Trowbridge was the biggest mistake in the history of mistakes, the shows involve 60 people doing about 40,000 different things and none of them matter. All of that is closer to the truth but to say it would be like if coke were to make a commercial that says Pepsi is better buy that, or if Pepsi said, you know Coke is the top soft drink on the market for a reason we're just a less cool imitation. The reality is that Angle settled for TNA and they were desperate enough to be fine with this arrangement but you can't really say that because it makes everyone look like a loser. Sure, anyone with a brain, a long with myself knows its full of crap, but the hope is that they can fool the stupid in the world in to thinking that what he says is true and there have been a long list of companies that have made money because the world has an abundance of idiots. That star registry service immediately thrusts itself to mind but there are a lot of better examples. Hell, someone managed to convince a lot of people that soccer is something worth paying to see. TNA should've forgotten about Angle and Russo and went after whomever pulled off that feet.
  
  
• Saying things other people want to hear.
  He says he's never going to work for Vince McMahon again and that's what his wife wanted to hear. He says he's healthy and in good physical shape, this is what a lot of concerned wrestling fans who were down on this move initially want to hear. However, in this case we all know better. Him being impressed with the TNA roster could also fit in this category, because I'm still having trouble believing that he could have picked AJ Styles out of a line-up of 1 before last week's TV taping. Maybe he has watched a lot of TNA, maybe he has been impressed with the roster (though aside from Joe whom did he name that he wanted to work with?) and maybe he got impressed at the tapings (although I'm sure if he were sane he wasn't impressed by the set-up and execution of the stupidest main event angle I've seen all year) but I have a hard time believing that he was able to watch TNA if he was on the road as much as he says WWE made him.

I only have one other comment aside from saying that you need to read what Ric wrote because he touched on some things that I didn't and I pretty much agree with everything he wrote. Ric's a smart guy and there's a reason I link to him every day. Its not just because he sucks up to me at every possible opportunity, that is why I link to him several times a day not the reason I originally link to him.

Anyway, I clearly have too much Sheik in my blood because when Kurt said his priorities were God and Family I thought that Jesus and Mr. McMahon were absent from the list and wondered why?