Do we care about Kurt Angle vs. Samoa Joe?

People say Angle's body is too broken down to perform at a high level, but he lways delivers in big matches. Sure, he guzzled enough painkillers to trainquilize an elephant before most of those big matches, but the results were there. I have no idea how close he is to disintigrating completely at this point, but the match will be great, I'm sure.

I don't think I'll "torrent" said match after all. From all reports, it sounds pretty disappointing and too short. And y'know, Christian vs. Styles was probably the better match.

Hey, Abyss is now the NWA Champion. VINNY RU'S CRASH BOOKING IS BACK!!1!! FUCK YOUZE ALL!!!11!!!

Also, why the fuck did Angle go over Joe?

World title changing hands on a DQ! Samoa Joe being jobbed out clean via tap out in ten minutes! Heel tag team champions being stripped of their titles for no reason!

lol russo amirite?

It's pretty hilarious that the guys who could really use a clean win to look strong (Abyss, Cage, most of the X-Division) have to rely on screwjobs to win their matches. OTOH, Angle + Joe don't need to be protected, so their match (which begged for 20 minutes + a run-in/screwjob to set up future rematches) ends with the babyface going over by submission in 13 minutes.

It also sounds like the crowd turned on Sting ... I will probably dl this show too, out of curiousity. It seems like it could have been a blowaway show if it had had decent booking, because the match quality on paper looked amazing.

I await Vince Russo vs. Samoa Joe on Long Island with baited breath. (With Vinny Ru going over!!1!!)

So now Angle has pinned Joe, though in an "All-Star" match with other wrestlers involved. It's pretty funny how Umaga is more well-protected than TNA's franchise player.

I mean, we all thought Vincent the Christian would fuck TNA up, but _never_ this spectacularly.

Who has seen their matches? I've seen the second, I have the third but haven't watched it yet ... I think all the submission-counter-submission sequences actually drag the match down a bit. I'd prefer if they went more strong style/suplex crazy and didn't focus so much on submissions. It's a good match, but not a great one, and Angle had probably 20 better matches with a variety of opponents in WWF/E.

Saw the first one and honestly, the Joe I enjoy watching is the stiff monster wrestler rather than someone portrayed as Angle's equal (and thus has to do the submission style instead of Ole kicking his head off). Joe/Daniels and Joe/Styles were more enjoyable matches.

Alex is right....

I dunno, TNA about four months ago had three things going for it:

Samoa Joe
Paparazzi Productions
Eric Young

Now they're down to just Paparazzi. Samoa Joe works best when he's bouncing fuckers around like they used to in the 80s. Kurt Angle's like Kidman, you have to wrestle *his* match, irrespective of what your strengths are. For "endless reversed powerbomb spots" read "500 submission reversals".

So we're all in agreement ... I just watched the Iron Man match, and where to start? There are a million things wrong with it, from Angle's endless restholds to Joe dropping three falls to Angle getting a concussion on one of the few high impact moves he allowed Joe to hit him with. If Angle had to go over, then he should have gone up 1-0 after about 27 minutes, and barely held on as Joe threw everything at him in the final three minutes.

They should have looked to the Angle-Benoit 30-minute submissions only Iron Man match as an example of why this style of match doesn't work.

Y'know, I was never a fan of countering a submission hold too frequently within a match, because it dilutes the danger of having it applied on you. Angle's always going on about snapping ankles, but shouldn't ONE hard twist do it, instead of a slow burn snap? That's why I hate people "hanging" on. You look at a Finley/Benoit match and Finley gets it: as soon as the Crippler Crossface is slapped on, he taps immediately. Submission counters should only be kept to special occasions and thus making them more dramatic.