How Good Was Kurt Angle Actually?

Drawing Power

Kurt Angle was a main event star throughout a pro wrestling boom period, but he wasn’t the star. He headlined pay-per-views and eventually racked up six World titles in WWE, if you include the post-buyout version of the WCW title. Clearly, he was treated and depended upon as a fairly major deal. He carried his maiden WWF title for 126 days in 2000 - and this was a time before business cratered, and when the belt was swapped around at a blistering frequency. His was the longest reign that began that year. No small feat at all when the landscape was teeming with star power and competition.

This looks good for his case, but it’s complicated by the number he drew for No Mercy: the site of his first World title win. The number of pay-per-view buys was 550,000 - down from Unforgiven (605,000) the month prior. What’s worse, Unforgiven was headlined by a stopgap Fatal 4-Way match, not the easier sell of a big-time one-on-one meeting with the Rock. But this in itself is complicated by Triple H and Stephanie McMahon. Triple H had pinned Angle at Unforgiven in a sad, flat ending to a well-received storyline. Angle was hardly built as an ultra-credible challenger - and the reign coincided with Stephanie heading up (and failing dismally at) creative.

This isn’t a flattering way to put it, but it’s not inaccurate, either: the absence and abysmal booking of the Rock and Steve Austin respectively destroyed business in the second quarter of 2001. The booking was almost impressively self-destructive throughout this time, but Angle’s big babyface run didn’t reverse the decline.

In essence, having Angle on the Attitude Era roster was a luxury, and he was a big star - but the fate and success of the enterprise was never dependent on him. He was on top a lot throughout the Ruthless Aggression days, and didn’t much move the needle.

His TNA arrival in 2006 was a massive deal for the distant U.S. #2. This might be a more fair measurement of his drawing power than a comparison to the Rock and Steve Austin, who essentially transcended what it meant to be a traditional pro wrestling attraction. They were megastars. Angle’s first PPV match against Samoa Joe, at Genesis, set what remains TNA’s all-time record on pay-per-view with 60,000 buys. Perhaps more impressive is the fact that Angle drew in the region of 55,000 two years later, when the novelty of his shock jump had long faded, for a Steel Cage match against Joe again at Lockdown 2008.

Angle could not boast longevity as a draw otherwise - but that’s on Vince Russo, really. TNA itself was too much of a joke to get people to consistently pay for it.