Kurt Angle Joins TNA Wrestling

In a shocking turn of events it was announced at the end of tonight's TNA PPV that Kurt Angle has now joined TNA. Although the possibilty had originally crossed my mind I am totally surprised by this announcement. Earlier in the week TNA president Dixie Carter announced that there would be a major surprise @ tonight's PPV. At that point the possibility of TNA bringing Angle in came to mind, but after assuming that he had signed a 90-day no compete clause I dismissed the possibility. Originally there were reports that the announcement was that VInce Russo was rejoining the company. Then there were reports that the resigning of Russo wasn't going to be the surprise and that the real surprise was going to be that Spike TV was going to be expanding TNA's timeslot to 2 hours instead of 1. Well, after the conclusion of TNA's PPV main event Jim Cornette came out and announced that TNA was getting the expanded timeslot as previously reported. He then played a video of Kurt Angle working out in a ring which I assume was TNA's 6-sided ring.

While I think that there is a 90-day no compete clause in place what I am assuming TNA is doing is what the WWE did when they resigned Jeff Jarrett after he left WCW. They are going to have him appear on TV, but just not compete. There is always the chance that the no compete clause also prohibited him from signing with a company in which case there is a chance that Kurt Angle didn't actually sign with TNA and has just agreed to sign with them. Even if the latter scenario is true I expect a lawsuit by WWE. There is no way that the WWE would release him with the chance of him signing with another company so soon. Normally when the WWE releases someone (especially a big star like Angle) and the WWE doesn't want them to work for another company the WWE invokes a no compete clause which is normally for 90 days, but I have heard of them being longer. When the WWE does that they have to keep paying the wrestler until the no compete clause expires. In the event that a wrestler's contract runs out the wrestler can sign with whomever he/she wants the minute that the contract expires (i.e. Lex Luger jumping to WCW for the first Nitro, Haku signing with WWE a few years back, and Christian signing with TNA).

Perhaps TNA is looking for a lawsuit to help raise their profile, but I don't know how likely that is.

I fully expect TNA to ruin Angle's career. I am confident that he will start wrestling before his body is ready and he will injure himself. I hope he doesn't, but I'm sure he will. TNA is a much lighter schedule, so that works in his favor, but that's about it. I am sure that the WWE will replace Angle in that 'Power is Back' video that plays before every WWE TV event. I am hoping that the announcers from all brands don't trash Angle and that they just ignore it, but Vince rarely ignores stuff like this. They treated him in a respectful was when they released him and allowed him to leave with dignity and should continue doing that even though he just joined their major competition.

One last thing. During the Angle video he said what I am assuming will be his new catchphrase. Since 'It's True' is surely copyrighted by WWE he will now be saying 'It's Real'.

wrestleblogger@yahoo.com