Kurt Angle Talks About What's Wrong With TNA & More Report by TNAWrestlingNews.com Staff on 09/23/2008 at 11:23 AM
Source: TheSun.co.uk
Kurt Angle was interviewed this week by the UK Sun and spoke at length about what he feels is wrong with today's TNA product. You can read the entire interview at this link. The highlights:
TNA Gimmicks and Match Stipulations: "Being in TNA is exciting and frustrating at the same time. We’ve been doing a good job but what we need to do right now is to simplify things. We get a little bit too complicated with our gimmick matches and run-ins. I’ve spoken to the bookers, writers and owners of TNA and said: “Listen. Wrestling is very simple, keep it simple.”
TNA's "King of the Mountain" Match: "You have to put the belt on the hook, but before you do that you have to pin somebody. If you get pinned then you end up in the penalty box. When you get out the penalty box you’re still eligible to win as long as you pin somebody and then put that belt up on the hook. It’s like holy s***, it’s too f***ing confusing."
Why TNA Overindulges in Gimmicks: "TNA do it because we want to be different from WWE and innovative. But what happens is sometimes we are, but then sometimes we are too old school. Let’s face it, a tar and feather match today wouldn’t go over too well. But we’ve actually done that. That’s a 1960’s match, this is 2008. We’re in an MMA world. Fans want to see mano a mano. One on one. Let’s go at it. We call ourselves Total Nonstop Action Wrestling. We say: “TNA – we are wrestling.” No we’re not. We’re f***ing gimmick matches."
TNA Protecting Talent: "At the last PPV, No Surrender, we had a triple threat main event between me, Christian Cage and Samoa Joe. We had a great match, but Samoa Joe won because Jeff Jarrett came in and hit me with a guitar. I would have won if Jeff didn’t do that. I believe that Joe should have kicked my ass and Christian’s ass and won straight up and then afterwards Jeff could have come in or even waited until the next night on TV and attacked me. I’m trying to make our younger guys more popular. I let AJ beat me the last four times we wrestled for a reason. To make him a bigger star. I wanted Joe to beat me and Christian at the PPV to make him a bigger star. But what’s been happening is we have run-ins to create the wins, so I get protected. I don’t want to be protected and I don’t need to be protected. I’m having a real struggle with it. We need to back up and realize who we are and what we’re trying to get across. We have the best wrestlers in the world, WWE can’t compare. But how do we use them to our advantage? By simply wrestling, because that’s what they’re good at."
TOP STORY UPDATE: TNA's official website is teasing that Jeff Jarrett will address the comments that Kurt Angle made about TNA's creative direction in a UK Sun interview on next week's iMPACT!. The preview reads, "According to multiple sources, Jeff Jarrett is angry over the recent comments made by Kurt Angle about TNA in the UK Sun Newspaper. Rumor has it that Jarrett - as the founder of TNA - will publicly address these controversial comments on Thursday's broadcast on Spike."
