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GUEST EDITORIAL
By Adam Riemer of New York, PWTorch.com Reader
Over the past month or so I have been a stout defender of TNA, something I never use to be. With WWE Raw being as bad as it has been lately with the guest host program and Smackdown being on a night that I usually am out and about, I have been tuning in Thursday nights to catch a really enjoyable wrestling program (lately) in TNA Impact. However, as much as I have been touting the praises of TNA over Raw, something happened last night that once again proved the point to me that TNA is a vastly inferior company compared to the WWE.
Kurt Angle should not be the TNA champion right now, no question about it; in fact, Kurt should not be on TV right now in general. Dixie Carter and the rest of TNA management showed a lack of discipline, follow-through, and intelligence that goes into running a successful wrestling organization. According to the police, Kurt was caught with HGH in a compromising situation that proved not only to be a violation of company policy, but seemed to indicate he is somewhat mentally unstable.
We have heard that Kurt claims to have a legal prescription for these drugs, something unfortunately that we always hear when someone is busted for a performance enhancer in any sport. Most of the time, someone is lying when they say that. Could Kurt be telling the truth? In theory, yes, but because history in a wide variety of sports so many times proves otherwise, it is hard to believe him on the substance charges. Even with a prescription, everything is suspect thanks to so many of these doctors being put on trial of illegally prescribing medications to athletes. In the wrestling world, we are still dealing with Chris Benoit's doctor and how he was just basically handing him drugs over the counter. Kurt doesn't have a lot of positives on his side for him in that defense
TNA also showed how, without Kurt Angle, they have no real plan, something that even the WWE has had to deal with many times. It wasn't long ago that William Regal was in the midst of a major angle on Raw. He was the GM, the King of the Ring, and was seemingly starting a program with then-champion Triple H. All it took was one violation and the WWE creative team had to scramble to completely write him off the show and rework everything. Mr. Kennedy was another recent incident where he was slated for the major push of being Mr. McMahon's son, but even that angle had to quickly be rewritten into the trainwreck with Hornswoggle due to Kennedy's violation. This isn't suppose to be a history lesson, but when you have a company that is willing to suspend and even in some cases part ways with the likes of Umaga, Randy Orton, Edge, Kennedy, and Jeff Hardy, all who are mostly considered to be the top wrestlers, then you know that the company takes their policies and standards seriously.
TNA is definitely in a hole if they lose Angle. He is a well-known and admired wrestler that was becoming the face of their organization in the attempt to build the brand and make it a true force in the wrestling world. However, TNA is also proving that they do not have a contingency plan and they don't trust one of their younger guys to step up and take the brass ring. They dug their own hole by letting Christian get away, burying Styles, fast-tracking guys like Morgan, turning Samoa Joe into a lackey, and forcing Kaz to wrestle under a mask while they still promote a video game that is now in the bargain bin in most retail stores.
TNA would be ill-advised to rely on Sting, who seems to be phoning it in, and Foley, who can barley move in a ring anymore. But because Kurt was the "end all, be all" with their entire plan, they now find themselves stuck. Let's face it, no one else in the Mafia really holds any drawing power either. The only one would be Nash and his time is long gone in that aspect.
Keeping Kurt Angle around is not going to help their cause; it is going to show that they have no backbone and cannot adhere to their supposed company policies for personal conduct, something the WWE has done time and time again. TNA is also showing that they have no plan to deal with the general well-being of their performers - a lesson that I thought the Benoit tragedy would at least have taught them. I am not saying the WWE is 100 percent innocent in those regards either, but TNA is certainly pushing it with currently turning a blind eye to Kurt's situation.
I always found Kurt enjoyable. Hands down, he is one of the best in-ring workers in the business and his mic skills have been right on par with that. It is a shame that all this is happening to such a talented performer and even more of a shame that it does hurt TNA significantly, especially at a time when the last thing they need is to lose Kurt Angle. However TNA needs to make the hard decisions now - something the WWE has done throughout history. If they think it is hard losing someone of that significance then they should look to even outside their spectrum.
In professional sports, the Los Angeles Dodgers, N.Y. Giants, and Cleveland Browns recently had to make the toughest decisions in regards to conduct of their players. They had to either suspend or let go all together guys that made and continued to make their team top contenders. Kurt is the latest to be implicated in some form of misconduct in the wrestling industry, and I am sure he won't be the last either. The time for TNA to step up and show that on a business standpoint, they are equal to WWE.
This Wild West attitude will get them nowhere. It will continue to be detrimental to their performers's career and health. (Ask Paul Heyman and many of the old ECW wrestlers.) For a company that is so quick to send their founder home do to misconduct, they sure are showing leniency to man who is accused of far worse things.
That all being said, as long as Kurt Angle appears on upcoming Impacts as their champion and face of the promotion, TNA will prove to be inferior to WWE in handling these issues. It's true; unfortunately it's damn true.
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