Over the past few weeks both Scott D’Amore and Don Callis have been featured on several podcasts and interviewed in various papers. They speak about their vision for Impact, their history and many other things, but there must be one question that they are getting very tired of. The most recent departures. In an earlier editorial I spoke of who I would like to see in the Impact Zone, who would be a good fit and why. This isn’t one of those again. I started thinking to myself instead; Who has been the biggest loss for Impact?
Several podcasts ago, my broadcast partner and I discussed the most recent departures. We also talked abut how much it hurt the product that they showed wrestlers performing in the ring on TV when most people already knew they had left. That is another story though. We quickly came to the conclusion that, while EC3, Lashley and Storm were all great performers, they had been stuck in a sort of holding pattern, limbo one might say. Without being in the championship picture or having repetitive feuds. Then it did not feel like much of a loss. After the new year my tune is a bit different. I still do not miss Storm, but seeing Lashley back as a baby face and wrestling against Sami Callihan and oVe has made me appreciate him that much more. EC3 seems to have gotten some of his spark back with his pairing with Tyrus. It makes one a bit teary eyed is all.
So many wrestlers have passed through the revolving doors that have been Impact Wrestling. Some have slowly faded away like Elix Skipper, Raven or Test. Others have made a name for themselves in other similar promotions like Jay Lethal, Christopher Daniels and Low Ki, and the rest have gone to the big beast in New York, where they are underutilized, like Bobby Roode, Samoa Joe and AJ Styles. Sure they have been champions, but there is a case to be made for their status in the WWE vs the one they held in TNA. The first real departure that got to me was actually Christian Cage, I never was given the opportunity to watch Monty Brown wrestle. Ron ‘The Truth’ Killings left before him, but I never cared for his antics. Cage was familiar to me, having seen him with Edge in the nineties and his run in TNA was interesting and entertaining.
Sting was always my favorite wrestler, but when he left I can’t say that I was saddened. He was looking old and his last fight with Flair was nothing short of sad. His Joker-esque variation was fun, but that was it. He needed to leave room for younger talent. It was the same with AJ Styles, who had been booked into oblivion before he left. Leaving no one to grieve for him.
To me the biggest loss was Kurt Angle. I had ceased watching WWE long before Kurt Angle showed up on the scene. I had heard of him and seen clips here and there of what he did, but it was in TNA I truly got to appreciate him as a performer. Statistically he was in TNA longer than the E and he accomplished more. His run as multiple champion, holding all the titles at once, was fun, Main Even Mafia was unparalleled and his many feuds with the likes of James Storm, Sting, Bobby Roode, Mick Foley and AJ Styles will go to the books as some of the best. There seems to be nothing the man can’t do. He is the Cyborg through and through, a moniker given to him by Hulk Hogan.
I believe the landscape of Impact Wrestling would be very different if Kurt Angle had stuck around. If he had feuded with Lashley, Callihan, Edwards or gone over to Noah and fought fro the GHC title. What world to have been alive in.
Kurt. I miss you.
-C. Marry Hultman
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