So in the end, there was no love affair with Dixie Carter, complex love triangle with Stephanie and Triple H or even some nefarious plot by those two to blackmail Kurt Angle in order to retake power on RAW. In the end, the big reveal was that Jason Jordan, one half of the former NXT tag team champions American Alpha, was Kurt Angle’s son from an old girlfriend of Angle’s college days. This was almost anti-climactic, the least surprising, and quintessential American….ANGLE (no pun intended, but I will capitalise this word every time being used in this piece) that the WWE could have gone with.
There were early indications during Angle’s promo that this wasn’t going to be about Triple H or Stephanie. In his speech, Angle mentioned how both his family and WWE gave their unequivocal support to him, thus negating any notion that the Authority would get involved. If you say that the company is supporting you, then it makes little sense that the most well known WWE ‘power couple’ would swoop in and try to blackmail Angle out of his position as RAW General Manager. The other consideration is WWE is now a PG show; those story-lines involving a love triangle or a secret love affair may border on being inappropriate for a ‘family-oriented’ television program, not to mention being frowned upon by various sponsors. So it’s no wonder they went with a heartwarming reunion ANGLE between a father and son.
I think WWE managed to hit this one out of the ballpark. The timely release of Angle’s WWE 24 documentary about his return to the WWE undoubtedly fit well into the developments of this storyline. Considering they revealed Kurt’s troubled family history, a history of alcohol and drug abuse, it was pretty much laid bare that Angle’s gone through some major problems in his life. The revelation that he bore a child out of wedlock, considering all we heard about Angle’s life in the WWE 24 episode, seemed rather minor to say the least. Overall, it left the fans with a positive feeling from the show, instead of something that would shock people too emotionally.
That said, there are some unanswered questions moving forward:
Who sent those texts?
For the past several weeks before the revelations, Kurt Angle and Corey Graves were the recipients of texts that centred on using this ‘secret’ as a way of ruining Kurt Angle’s career in the WWE as well as his life. Even though the revelation has now made the blackmail attempt irrelevant, people might still wonder who it was that was texting in the first place? Was it Stephanie or Triple H, someone else in the RAW roster, or someone completely unexpected?
Could it possibly be Corey Graves himself? Graves went out of his way on RAW to mention a few times that he and Jason Jordan are close friends dating all the way back to their days on NXT, so why would it be Graves who was sending those threatening texts to Angle? Perhaps that can be revealed in the coming weeks and months, but Graves always played the natural heel so perhaps there’s some deep seeds of resentment based on some past events that could be drudged up as justification of why Graves would be the mystery blackmailer.
Would this involve Graves getting back in the ring to face Jordan at some point? Considering his in ring career was cut short by multiple concussions, it is highly doubtful. But Graves has shown he is a consummate talker; such skills would translate well into a managerial role and so that means he could sweet talk someone to doing his dirty work…like say Big Cass? Or perhaps Chad Gable gets lured to RAW too as a heel against Jordan for abandoning American Alpha? Speaking of which…
The status of American Alpha
With Jordan being drafted to RAW, his (now) former tag team partner Gable is now left on his own on Smackdown Live. Is the intention of the WWE to keep Gable and Jordan on the separate brands in order to develop each of their singles careers? Gable showed he can hang with the likes of Kevin Owens and AJ Styles while being in the United States Championship title picture a few weeks ago, while Jordan really has a lot of potential now that he’s struck out on his own.
It’s not like the team was on fire on Smackdown Live as of late. After losing the Smackdown tag team titles to the Usos back in March, American Alpha essentially disappeared from TV or even backstage segments. The first time we really saw the team was a few weeks ago when Chad Gable came out to accept the US Open Challenge. Jordan was seen giving his partner a thumbs up before heading backstage, which is bizarre because if you’re a tag team and one of you is in a singles match, the partner would usually be at ringside cheering you on. Doing this keeps alive in the fans minds that you’re still a tag team. By not doing so, the WWE creative team themselves were already putting the seeds in fans’ minds that a split was soon due for American Alpha.
While fans may be unhappy with the breakup of the popular tag team, I doubt they would have preferred both Jordan and Gable sitting around backstage doing nothing at all, or worse some cheesy commercial for one of WWE’s sponsors. The tag team scene on Smackdown was getting a bit more crowded with the New Day returning, the Usos, Breezango and the Hype Bros being back together. It was time they tried something different with two talented young wrestlers at the top of their game.
However, with Chad Gable there may be another tag team option. This one is a bit out of the ballpark, yet somehow still has ties to Kurt Angle.
Shelton Benjamin
The former Intercontinental Champion, WWE Tag Team Champion and self described “Gold Standard” has been out of WWE for seven years, but recently was rumoured to be signing a new deal to go to Smackdown. Unfortunately an injury before he signed a new contract sidelined him for the next several months after the WWE draft took place last year. As of this writing, Benjamin has commitments on the independent circuit so it is not likely he’ll be coming to the WWE anytime soon.
But let’s say Shelton Benjamin was indeed returning to WWE. Could he be a possible partner for Chad Gable in a rechristened American Alpha? It would be a somewhat different because whereas Jordan and Gable were equals, the immediate thought of Gable and Benjamin would be one is the veteran and the other is the rookie. But the potential dynamic could be something to watch and a good addition to the tag team division on Smackdown. During his last run with the WWE, Benjamin was a disciple of sorts under Angle’s tutelage as “The World’s Greatest Tag Team” with Charlie Haas, so there’s the Kurt Angle connection and Benjamin is familiar with the Smackdown brand.
The Kurt Angle-Jason Jordan storyline has certainly opened up the doors to many other developments. Do you think there are additional ANGLES that will emerge as a result of Kurt Angle’s revelations?
An average professional doing the 9-5 grind who really loves wrestling across all platforms. Here's hoping wrestlers finally get some basic workers rights in 2021.
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