10 Wrestling Shock Signings You NEVER Saw Coming
9. Kurt Angle To TNA
Kurt Angle's TNA signing was seen as an act of recklessness by Dixie Carter the audience were just about willing to overlook after the Olympian exited WWE under something of a cloud just months earlier.
Angle's increasing dependency on medication was frying his body and mind, with a mutually beneficial break agreed between the two sides before the recently-initiated Wellness Policy suspended him into public shame.
Then Angle jumped to TNA.
Shocking the wrestling world and briefly making the Orlando outfit again look like viable opposition to WWE, the reveal of his face at the end of September 2006's No Surrender drew a monster response from the (non-paying, and tiny) Impact Zone faithful. Perception, for a short while again, was reality.
The move was the talk of the industry, particularly as WWE entered one of their year's quiet periods. All eyes pointed towards Kurt's entry feud with Samoa Joe and an incredible series of encounters they'd have to instill the yearning for the gold medallist to make a return that wouldn't come for over a decade.
Only following Chris Benoit's June 2007 death did the narrative shift. As Angle's personal and professional life spiralled, so too did the opinion of TNA for facilitating his staggered descent after WWE refused to.