Kurt Angle, MMA Debut Worries

The results of our latest poll show a mixture of opinions when referring to the Olympic Gold Medalist Kurt Angle and his possible Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) debut. One thing you must keep in mind is that Kurt Angle was indeed one of the best Amateur wrestlers in the world and those skills can easily be crossed over in to MMA. But, you must also keep in mind that Kurt Angle hasn't competed in a real bout of fighting in years and those skills may have been weakened with the damage aggravation caused by Pro Wrestling. He will undoubtedly be trained well for any MMA fight, but can his skills be backed up by his health?

In 1996 during his trails before the Olympic win he suffered a severe neck injury, fracturing two of his cervical vertebrae, herniating two discs and pulling four muscles. Kurt Angle has been in constant pain throughout his Pro Wrestling career because of this injury and has often aggravated it further. He has claimed himself that he has been addicted to various pain pills and many attribute his large skull size to the use of steroids. His release from WWE was shrouded in drug use accusations again questioning his overall health.

My question is how can a fighting organization take on a wrestler who was released from a "staged" form of entertainment due to health and drug issues and allow them to fight for real?

Angle himself never questions his health, and the closest you'll get to an admission of health problems would be an admission that he may have returned too soon in the past after injuries due to his love of the business.

Upon his TNA debut people were even worrying about his mental health. Here's a report we made a few months back "He dresses in the star locker room with Jarrett, Sting, Kevin Nash, and Christian, and when he does appear in front of the other wrestlers he is known to mumble to the point that he seems incoherent. Some TNA officials chalk it up to the fact that he uses chewing tobacco, but one wrestler predicted, Something is going to happen to Kurt Angle and this company is going to feel terrible that they didn't do anything."

The two main results from the poll are as follows:

Yes it would be great, he is an Olympic Gold Medalist after all: 26%
No, it will be an embarrassment & dangerous to his health: 24%

So it seems you agree that he has some shoot talent but his health could be a problem.

The rest of you are showing a loyalist approach to wrestling stating that Angle is a wrestler and should stay a wrestler and that UFC sucks and you don't care, each with around 20%

Only 9% of you liked the fact that it may bring more publicity to TNA.