The Reality of Wrestling: Joe/Angle
By Phil Clark & J.D. Speich
It has come and it has gone. This past Sunday, the match that had the wrestling world at full attention for the last month finally happened; Kurt Angle and Samoa Joe faced each other in the main-event of TNA’s Genesis PPV. This match was merely the product of many wrestling fans’ (Internet fans mostly) dreams at the beginning of the year, but amazingly has happened. And while Angle did get the win snapping Joe’s 17 month unbeaten streak in TNA, the match was well received by pretty much all who saw it. Despite that, everyone is in agreement that it didn’t live up to the hype. High standards can be very difficult to appease these days huh?
J.D. Says: Joe/Angle didn’t live up to the hype and was overrated
I’M BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACK! Okay, well to start things off lets just say that I thought the TNA Genesis pay-per-view was a disappointment. While there were some positives to the show; Sting looking like he has a pair, Christian and A.J. Styles having the best match of the night, in my opinion, and Abyss winning the title; the overall standard of the pay-per-view didn’t live up to what I think TNA can bring to the table. Also, there were too many cheap finishes in each match, thank you Vince Russo.
But now lets get down to the topic of the Joe/Angle match. The match itself I thought was decent for the amount of time it got but I definitely do not believe that a match under 15 minutes can get a four star rating no matter whom the participants are. Which brings me to my first point, how could a match that has so much hype and possibility get only 14 minutes? When you put possibly the two best wrestlers on your brand in a match and the match itself has match of the year possibilities how can TNA give it so little time? The pay-per-view was already ahead of schedule as it was so why not tell Angle and Joe to prolong the match? And don’t give me that, “oh well, they needed time for the aftermatch.” No they didn’t, the pay-per-view ended at about 9:48 p.m., so they had plenty of time to get in the aftermatch of the match and still let Angle/Joe go to 20 minutes. But I digress.
The next problem I had with the Joe/Angle match was that, except for the finish, it wasn’t inventive enough. Both Joe and Kurt are no question two of the best diverse wrestlers in the business, Kurt can work the technical part of the match as well do a couple of high flying spots and Joe can be a brawler as well as a technical wrestler. So why would they have Kurt and Joe basically just go through their normal movesets when they know full well that the match would have been better if they just let Joe and Kurt go out their and have the whole match be improve? The question I guess will never be answered.
Aside from the fact that the match itself was too short, I also had a problem with the placement of it. Don’t get me wrong, Joe/Angle should definitely have been the main event hands down, but not if it’s not going to be the longest match on the show. Sting and Abyss I believe got more time than Joe and Angle did, which is a real shame because if that was their original plan they might as well have put the NWA Title match as the main event and let Joe/Angle be the pre-main event. In my opinion there is no way a match between an over-the-hill wrestler and a slow, but decent in his own right wrestler should have gotten more time than a match between two of the greatest wrestlers in the industry today.
But now it is time for the biggest reason as to why Joe and Angle’s match was a disappointment. That reason being that the match was overrated. Four stars is definitely an overstatement when this match comes to mind, I’d give it three and a half at best. The reason why the match got such a high rating is probably the same reason that all of Hogan’s matches in the past few years, minus his match with Orton, got such a high rating, and that reason being is the nostalgia of the match itself. When Angle signed with TNA everyone was salivating over the possibility of Joe/Angle and they wanted to see it right away, which makes it only common sense that, even if Joe and Angle put on a worst year of the match candidate, it would have probably still have gotten a three star rating.
Besides the fact that the match was overrated because of the nostalgia of the match, Joe/Angle was also overrated because when I think of all of the matches Joe has had since he’s been in TNA and all of the matches Kurt had before he left WWE, they all added up to equal better ratings than this match deserved. I mean Kurt and the Undertaker put on a respective four star rating ten months ago and that match got over thirty minutes, see what happens when you have more time on your hands! Also, when I think back to the Wrestlemania 22 match between Angle/Orton and Mysterio, which was only nine minutes long, I feel that the overall quality of that match was definitely better than what Joe and Angle put on this past Sunday. I mean Joe and Angles match doesn’t even come into comparison with both of Angle’s matches against Shawn Michaels, and neither one of those matches got a five star rating, so how can you give Joe and Angle a four star rating? On the side of Joe, every match Joe has been involved in with TNA, except for Joe/Jarrett, has had better quality than this match did and the matches have been more exciting.
All in all I think that it’s safe to say that Joe and Angle did have a good match, but it definitely wasn’t four-star quality. But on the bright side of things TNA has already set up Joe/Angle 2, which is hopefully going to be a redemption match and will probably see Joe winning so that we get another rubber match somewhere down the line. So here’s to hoping that Joe and Angle can either capitalize on their fist match or Vince Russo gets fired before the next pay-per-view so that way someone else is doing the booking.
P.C. Says: Joe/Angle is part of TNA’s problems right now
Well it’s only been one month and already Russo doesn’t seem to be a good fit as TNA’s head writer. As if that #1 contender’s tournament was bad enough, but we’ve also been getting X Division title changes almost every week, the James Gang going after Vince McMahon, and a PPV full of inconclusive and at times incredibly stupid finishes. I mean having Abyss win the world title via DQ? LAX getting stripped of their belts because of “¦what was the reasoning there again? It’s things like this that make me remember why I didn’t mind when Russo left the biz in 2004 and why giving him the benefit of the doubt may have been a wrong move on my part. No wonder Angle/Joe only got 14 minutes.
Where is Christian Cage’s title shot? I’m not exactly a mark for the guy, but he has had easily the best year of his career match-wise this year. He’s helped Monty Brown to the best match of his career, had two good title matches with Abyss, the Rhino feud went over WAY better than I expected it would and his match with A.J. was easily the best of his career and may have pulled A.J. out of his singles match funk. Not only that, but Cage is the #1 heel in TNA with Jarrett off of TV and turning face. It would seem to me to be a perfect fit that this guy would be at least in the world title picture, but in that case he’s nowhere to be seen. Cage lost the belt in June in what is basically a ladder match and has not received a shot. Five months is a long time and has served to push him back down to the mid-card where he shouldn’t be. Cage, as of now, is serving as another example of one of my pet peeves with TNA: they shill out money (sometimes big money) to rejects of the Big Two, give them one run at the top and then they use them as card filler because they can’t think of anything else to do with them. If Russo is as creative as he’s said he is over the years, he’ll find a way to get Cage back to the main-event. Trust me, it shouldn’t be that hard.
Next, what is Russo’s fixation with shock title changes? First off Vinnie Roo, they’re not shock title changes if nobody is shocked by them. Remember Rock and Foley swapping World Title reigns for a good month and a half? I guarantee once Styles beat Sabin in Sabin’s first title defense following his title win at Bound for Glory that was the first thing that a lot of wrestling fans remember. You know why I say that? Because just about everyone I watch wrestling with mentioned that in regards to the current X Division situation. As of now, I think Chris Sabin would be the guy to have the belt. Daniels & Styles are now painfully above everyone else in the X Division and should be jettisoned to the heavyweight division for good. Sabin would be good because he’s the only X Division guy with a good character, a descent storyline to work with, or doesn’t have Kevin Nash as a manager. Plus, Petey may be getting ready for a feud with LAX (I smell Petey/Low-Ki or Petey/Homicide at an upcoming PPV!) and should stick with that as it has a better chance of benefiting him than another X Division title run. This is not rocket science; long title reigns=more prestige and legitimacy for a title, changes every week=a loss of value for that title, not an “anything can happen atmosphere.” Sabin should have a nice run with the belt as that would be literally his last chance to make something of himself as a singles wrestler. Plus, if Jerry Lynn were to come out of retirement, that would make his title reign right there.
I could go on forever talking about all of the things that Russo is putting into motion (The James Gang “waging war” with Vince and DX, The Flock part whatever returning, LAX burning the flag (is it 2002?)) that aren’t working, but I’m going to look at a couple of things that came out of Genesis that could benefit TNA in the coming months. If Petey’s part in his feud with LAX goes well, he could get a fresh new push in the X Division. A Jerry Lynn/Chris Sabin matchup is seeming more and more likely to happen and anyone who has any idea about what I like in wrestling knows that I’m loving the prospect of Jerry coming back again. Plus, there was Angle/Joe. Did I enjoy the match? Hell yeah. Did it have the “big fight atmosphere”? Yes. Did it live up to the hype? Kind of. Did I like the finish? Sort of. I was a tad confused because I figured (and still do) that Joe beating Angle clean would benefit Joe more than just hanging with Angle, but coming up with the loss. But I guess that’s what rematches were created for.
The Reality is”¦Angle/Joe II is happening. I’m sure most of those who are reading this column have checked out TNA’s taping spoilers and saw that Angle/Joe will main-event TNA’s Turning Point PPV in December. This refuels my anticipation for Angle/Joe because of the fact that it is the second match between the two and it is at Turning Point. Turning Point has a nice distinction for TNA as being the only monthly PPV for TNA that has had at least one classic each of the two years it’s taken place; in 2004 there was the classic AMW/XXX cage match and last year we had Joe/Styles. Can Angle/Joe II keep the trend going? Will TNA need another match to supply the yearly Turning Point classic? Styles seems to be out of his funk and helped Christian to the best singles match of his career, maybe he can recreate the same magic for Rhino. Maybe Sabin and Daniels can turn up the volume a little more this time around. I do believe that Angle/Joe II has the best shot at being this year’s classic match at Turning Point simply because it’s the second match of a possibly trilogy and it involves Joe. What I’m referring to is Joe/Punk II from Ring of Honor in 2004. Many people remember that this is the feud that really got Joe’s name out there in the wrestling world. The first match between the two was a one-hour draw that got people talking, but was thought of as just another great match (not a new thing at this time from the two). Their second match however was another one-hour draw that won Dave Meltzer’s match of the year award for 2004 while receiving ***** and being the only Indy match to my knowledge that Meltzer has rated so highly. Turning Point providing at least one classic each year, Joe and Angle having the second of what will likely be a trilogy (especially if TNA is doing a non-Impact Zone PPV in February), it’s quite creepy if you think about it. It also could be really f*cking good.
