The Rise & Fall Of TNA | Wrestling Timelines

24. September 21, 2006 | Swerve

It is announced publicly that Vince Russo is back. With Jeff Jarrett and Dutch Mantel working underneath him, he replaces the three-man booking committee of Mike Tenay, Scott D’Amore, and Jeremy Borash. 

Carter makes the change in a state of panic; Impact ratings are poor for a mere three-week stretch between August 31 and September 14. LOLTNA returns, because by the time the decision is made and the deal is signed, the rating rebounds to an acceptable level on September 21: the date of the return announcement. 

What’s particularly baffling about the decision to bring Russo back is that, on September 24, 2006, at the very end of the No Surrender pay-per-view, TNA announces that it has secretly signed one of the biggest free agents in wrestling history: Kurt Angle. This is both a coup and not, at the same time, since while Angle is one of the best wrestlers in modern history and a big, big name, his body is thrashed. The most alarming reports suggest that Angle, in constant agony and addicted to prescription pain medication, is close to becoming yet another premature death in an era defined by it. Will Angle live up to his name, or will his life fall apart completely?

(Both outcomes happen. Angle builds an outrageously great match catalogue in TNA and peaks very high at the box office, but is a public relations headache and a danger to himself and others. Across 2007, 2009, twice in 2011, and in 2013, Angle is arrested five separate times for driving while intoxicated (he is also charged with harassment in the 2009 incident). Grimly, Angle is too valuable for TNA to suspend and hold to account.)

TNA does not even hand Angle the chance to lead a promotion unburdened by the worst booker in the game.