UFC have apparently dropped their interest in hiring Kurt Angle. Originally, they planned to bring him in for Ultimate Fighter 5, which starts filming in January, as a wrestling coach for one of the teams whilst learning more about fighting skills at the same time. Then he would have been built up for a PPV match with Daniel Puder in June or July. Dana White said “I want guys who want to be real fighters. We had a great meeting [when Angle was in Las Vegas, staying at the Red Rock, in negotiations with UFC] and I honestly thought we had him. He’s a nice guy, but I’m not going to blur the line [between pro-wrestling and MMA]. He told me that pro-wrestling ruined his life and the next thing you know, he tells me he’s going back to pro-wrestling.” White noted that Angle informed him of how much TNA had offered him and that UFC had topped it, but that it still wasn’t enough. “They have to be paying him a boatload of money.” There are still numerous other MMA groups interested in working with Angle. According to Tokyo Sports, Sadaharu Tanigawa of Hero’s made him an offer and is trying to arrange a fight with Brock Lesnar for next year, which Angle is thought unlikely to agree to because Lesnar has a full-time dedication to fight training. Angle’s people have also turned down a $500,000 offer to fight Roger Gracie in December, not just because the date was too soon but because they want a multi-fight deal with PPV percentage. Because of this their main goal was UFC, and an offer for a fight against Frank Shamrock in World Fighter 2007 is also unlikely to be accepted. One source said “We are still working on Angle, but no luck. They are protecting him good.”
Further to the above, Dixie Carter revealed that Spike TV had agreed to move Impact to primetime even before they were informed of the Kurt Angle deal. She is also confident of expanding the show to two hours shortly, saying “To me, there’s no doubt we are going to two hours, it’s just a matter of when.” Angle is currently booked to face Christian Cage at the big Arena Monterrey show, which could be crucial in terms of exposure, but they are not going to be booking him on indepedent shows. Originally they were thinking of charging $5,000 per date, with ROH interested in bringing him in and possibly doing an interview DVD as well, but that is unlikely to happen now. Also, Sting was let in on the Angle secret in advance. On the day that Angle was in Nashville to tape the vignette, Carter arranged a secret meeting for Sting, who ‘freaked out’ when he met Angle.
Interestingly, the first Impact after the big announcement at No Surrender fell to a very disappointing 0.73 rating, losing about 160,000 viewers, for the final quarter in which Angle’s role at Bound For Glory was revealed. However, this drop could be attributed to the involvement of old WCW stars Lex Luger and Buff Bagwell, or the fact that Angle himself wasn’t going to appear.
In other news:
– TNA is getting a lot of attention in Portugal at the moment, with Jarrett, Christian, A.J., Joe, Daniels, Team 3-D, Abyss, Jerry Lynn, Rhino, Runt, Gail Kim, Christy Hemme and the James Gang scheduled to appear on a 10/31 show in Lisbon at a 7,000 seat arena. Portugal is in the middle of a wrestling boom, with WWE’s two shows in December selling out 11,000 seats.
– According to a recent Dixie Carter interview with the Daily Star in the UK, TNA will run at least one show, possibly a tour, in the country in 2007.
– Christy Hemme has been working as a referee on recent house shows.
Credit: Wrestling Observer newsletter (click here for subscription information)
