Falls Count Anywhere

08/18/2009

Now officially six-time Hugo loser...

Kurt Angle was arrested and there may be a new Scott Hall in town. Scott Hall spent the best part of a decade as the joke. He was the next to kick it, the next to have his hotel room door picked in and be found dead, the next to harass a stewardess or expose himself to a nun. It was always Scott. Now, it might be Kurt.

You see, Kurt Angle was released from the WWE for various reasons, the biggest being his long-term drug problems. There was word that he was only partly clean when he first came in to TNA, but he was doing somewhat better until he got arrested for DUI. They suspended his license and he got off with various slaps on the wrist. He broke up with Karen Angle (which, if you ask me, shows that he’s really nuts) and then she took up with Jeff Jarrett, which led to Jarrett being sent home by Dixie Carter and no longer booking. That certainly put Kurt in a bad state of mind, and it may have led to him breaking bad.

Apparently, Kurt has an ex who has taken out a protection order. WPXI.com has reported that Kurt was seen near a Starbuck’s where she was, which was prohibited by the protection order. She called the cops, who came and then searched Kurt’s car. They found that he had Human Growth Hormone in his car, which he said he had a prescription for, which he may well have had. Still, they arrested him and charged him with a number of charges, included prohibited acts, harassment, possession and a couple of others.

What does this all mean?

Kurt Angle just a month ago with our own Lon Lopez. Which one looks like the behavioral problem?

Now, the girlfriend who made the complaint is also a TNA woman wrestler. There’ve been a number of rumors about Kurt and Rhaka Khan, though there’s been no confirmation from anyone. I think that we’ll hear more about this, but it really worries me. One, it seems that when things get tough for Kurt, he doesn’t take it well. To put it mildly, he has poor stress reactions. This is just another example of Kurt not doing well.

Would TNA let Kurt go? It’s hard to say. They’ve put a lot into him as their top star (if you discount Sting). They downgraded Samoa Joe in favor of Kurt, they make the entire title picture the Kurt Angle show and they’ve got the titles on him right now. Would they let all that go? It would at least make them threaten him with rehab or suspend him, but they’ve got a PPV tomorrow. Kurt’s got some ‘splainin’ to do if nothing else as he’s been saying that he’s clean and, well, it’s obvious he’s not.

Still, Kurt is one of the all-time greats, still a magnificent worker, but he needs help, that’s for sure.

Carano vs. Cyborg
There’s a lot to say, the ultimate being ‘What’s Next?’

Gina Carano, the most marketable female MMA fighter there is, lost to Cris Cyborg in the last half-second of round one. It was a shame because I was so pulling for Gina. She’s a model who became a legit fighter who lost to the female equivalent of Brock Lesnar. She was the one who could realistically start a serious drive for female MMA because she combined looks and ability. Gina lost, though it was in a great fight.

There was hardly a second of the fight that didn’t feature action. Gina looked good fighting Cyborg and at one point had her in the mount, though she let it go. Gina looked good, but she tired after about the half-way point of the round. She was answering Cyborg’s shot, but eventually she just got put down and then she rained punches down on Gina and the ref stopped it with a half-second left in the round. Only one shot actually went through and the ref just jumped in. That was a shame as Gina might have been able to make it through to the next round.

The sad thing is that Gina winning would have led to huge money for every match that she had, and with the loss, there’s big money in a rematch, and with the way it ended there’s an obvious rematch happening. I’d say to put it on the card between two Fedor fights as a draw.

They brought in 13,000 people, which wasn’t as good as the Shamrock-Cung Le fight, but it was solid for the first ever Woman’s Main Event.

As far as the rest of the show, the fights were all exciting, Bobalu Sobral got beat by Mausasi, a Dutch-Iranian fighter who was making his Strikeforce debut. Knocked him cold in exactly a minute. Gilbert Melendez beat Ishida, avenging a loss that he’d suffered in Pride. Ishida is a great fighter and he got worked, but it was a good fight.

All in all, it should have been the CBS show instead of the Showtime show, but I bet that Fedor on CBS will draw. It will be interesting to see what goes where and if Cyborg can be the star that Gina could have been as champ.

Royal Rumble 1997
I rewatched the 1997 Royal Rumble. It was a better show than I remember it, though I’ve never heard a crowd as quiet as they were during the Lucha Libre match between Heavy Metal, Fuerza Guererra, and El Canek vs. Hector Garza, Latin Lover and someone else (Estrada?).

The Royal Rumble match was solid, with a lot of Mexican stars, including Mil Mascaras, Cibernetico, Pierroth and Latin Lover. Mil Mascaras eliminated himself with a Tope, which was odd. He’s now in his early 70s, I believe, so in this match, he was about 60. Austin was the big star, still riding his way up to the top of the card since he was not yet the top dog. He wouldn’t be the star until after he pinned Shawn Michaels at the Boston WrestleMania a few months later. There was an OK match which I liked between Vader and The Undertaker. Shawn Michaels got a good series of reactions in his match against Sycho Sid.

Really, this was probably the lowest the Royal Rumble would sink. The comeback of late 1997 and early 1998 led to a strong Royal Rumble, and by 1999, things were swimming. It was obvious that this was simply a show built around the Rumble and Shawn Michaels as the San Antonio hometown hero. This wasn’t a bad show, but ultimately, it was forgettable in the linage of Royal Rumbles.

I’ll be back with more!

Chris Garcia