Kong vs. Angle?

Jayman

Super Moderator

Here is a copy of Lance Storm's latest commentary: (stormwrestling.com)

I was on Wrestling observer live this past Sunday night and Bryan Alvarez through out the idea of putting the TNA World Title on Awesome Kong. His view was that Kong and Tomko were the only two people in TNA that the booking committee hasn’t made a complete joke out of and that she has enough credibility that he would be completely fine with TNA putting the World Title on her. This got me thinking and while putting the World Title on Awesome Kong would not be my first choice of things to do, I think TNA could do a lot worse than building towards a “Battle of the Sexes” Kong vs. Angle World Title match.

I’m not suggesting that Kong win the TNA World Title, I’m just saying building towards this match and selling it on PPV could potentially generate a lot of publicity and in turn create enough interest to draw PPV buys and thus be considered a success. Kong has been booked very strong since her debut and has dominated and laid waste to every TNA knockout on the roster. She is actually bigger than most of the guys on the TNA roster, she is a very solid worker, and perhaps more importantly has been drawing higher quarter hour ratings than her male counterparts on Impact of late. There is a brief window of opportunity here to create a unique Main Event that has never been done before.

There will of course be people that compare it to Chyna wining the Intercontinental Title, but I think it is completely different. I think Kong is a far superior worker who currently stands out as a legit dominant force. Kong isn’t just a chick that is build like a dude, trying to compete with the men, she is a uniquely dominant force, which has enough credibility right now to allow us to be able to speculate about whether she could compete with the men or not. Challenging one time for a World Title shot is different than trying to just straight up compete in the men’s division. You promote this as a novelty concept and you do it now while she is still fresh, strong, and over. You build for the one match and sell the curiosity factor. You make this a one time only “Battle of the Sexes”.

The one obstacle I see in building this match is the “no guy on girl” violence policy in TNA. I know Spike TV has told TNA they don’t want guys hitting girls on Impact anymore, but I’m wondering if they might make a small exception considering it would actually be more girl hitting guys in the build up for this match. Last week on Impact they aired a clip of Kong power bombing the referee so there must be some flexibility. I think the key to booking this match is creating the justification for Kong getting a Title show without her just starting to wrestle guys and earning it. If she starts wrestling guys the novelty will be worn off before it gets to PPV and you run the risk of damaging roster credibility if you job a bunch of guys to a girl, even if it is Kong.

What I would do is have her destroy ODB on Impact to lay waste to the #1 Contender, leaving her without a viable challenger. I would have both Gail and ODB selling long-term injuries from the beating they took from Kong, and the other knockouts terrified to face her. I would then use the Petey Williams – Scott Steiner feud to get Kong her title shot via the “Feast or Fired” brief case. You could book a match between Williams and Steiner for the brief case as an Impact Main Event. When the match is first booked Williams is of course very worried and reluctant to put up his case. When he comes to the ring for the match he is very confident and sure of himself. When Steiner’s music hits, Scotty is nowhere do be found. Petey is laughing and demands they start the match. They could cut to the back and show Steiner laid out somehow (it will be revealed later that Petey jumped him backstage and knocked him out, or hit him with a car whatever). In ring Petey continues to demand they start the match, he can say it’s not his fault Steiner isn’t ready for the match, if Steiner was a real pro he’d be ready to fight anybody anytime just like Petey is right now. At this point you have Kong hit the ring jump Petey and they ring the bell. Pete after all just said he was ready to fight anyone, anytime, right now. You could have Cornette or Morgan at ringside to actually make this call officially to make it legit.

I would book this match extremely short for a couple of reasons. If you keep it short Pete can save face a little, by saying he got beat because he got jumped by surprise and if it’s short enough you can avoid the guy on girl violence issue on Spike. I’d have Kong club the hell out of Pete when she jumps him from behind and take his head of with the spinning back fist. She will be a fair bit bigger than Petey, which will really help her credibility. She can then send him off the ropes for a backdrop Pete stops and hooks her for the Canadian Destroyer. This should get a great reaction. When he goes for the Destroyer she blocks it and Alabama Slams the living hell out of him for the finish. Kong then grabs the Heavyweight Title shot brief case, and you go off the air.

With Kong in possession of the brief case the match is set for PPV, she doesn’t need to face any more guys to earn the Title shot. You hype the match with Video packages, and do face-to-face stuff to put over Kong’s size. You don’t need an angle to build the match at this point the whole sell is curiosity for the “Battle of the Sexes”; the first time ever the Women’s World Champ vs. The Men’s World Champ. You can even do tale of the tape to show that she is as big or even bigger than the Men’s World Champ.

You would then have to be very careful how you laid out and book the match on PPV, but Kurt is a fantastic worker and Kong is both big enough and strong enough to work a competitive enough match and still protect Kurt’s credibility. Kurt got pinned clean by Jay Lethal not that long ago, and no offense to Lethal, Kong has been booked stronger than he was at that point and likely has more credibility. They could work a competitive enough match that Kurt could go over clean and not lose much if any credibility. Kong would be even stronger and more over than before, she just held her own with the World Champ. Even if the match had to be kept a little short to avoid Kurt having to sell too much for Kong, the fact that a World Title match on PPV had a completely clean finish would more than make up for it.

Again let me state that I am not saying this would be my first choice of angles to book. I’m just saying I could think of a lot worse things to do, and I’d bet it would create interest and likely draw as well if not far better than what TNA has been doing on PPV of late.

Food for thought,
Lance Storm


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What do you guys think? Could an angle like this work for TNA?

Tyler Durden

I listened to Wrestling Observer Live from Sunday where Bryan Alvarez and Lance Storm were discussing this very matter. On the show Lance came off as being fine with it so long as Kong didn't win, but Alvarez went the whole hog as in "they've got nothing to lose....put the belt on her!"

I think, if they built this match right up over the course of a month or two, it would be quite, quite fantastic.

Unlike Chyna, who was ridiculous against guys since she was an incredibly poor worker, Angle (a very very good worker) and Kong (a very credible worker and a bit of a powerhouse for a woman) could make a truly excellent match up.

I wouldn't have Kong win, and I don't think it would hurt their belt at all if they had a one off big TV/PPV match up.

Jayman

Super Moderator

Agreed. My only concern is what will happen to the Women's division. Right now, it seems Kong dominates that division, and there are only a few competitors to fued against. Unlike a powerhouse like Khali, you can hide him in different brands and keep him away from the World Title picture.

If Kong comes off a world title program with Angle, even though she loses, how can she credibly lose the title to someone like Gail Kim, or ODB? She is such a threat, it almost seems laughable for her to lose to another woman, unless there was a lot of outside interference involved.

Tyler Durden

Looking ahead, that could quite possibly be something you'd have to be creative about in time to come.

Just thinking off the top of my head, you could have Kong injured to the ankle lock and have to vacate the title (or better yet defend it whilst injured against ODB or Gail) and lose the belt. Then her loss to another woman wouldn't harm her at all. It would then enable her to have a couple of months off and (kayfabe...recuperate!) come back a something like 10 weeks later gunning for whichever woman took her belt.

Then she's back in the Knockout Division, someone has gained a little kudos from beating her, she's ranting after them to get her belt back and we all move on.

It must be said that, for me, this could not happen right now. It should only happen when she's torn a whole right through everyone in the womens division and their options have narrowed in that area and need re-opening.

Blitzkrieg

Administrator

I don't like the idea. In the short term it'd be a success, I'm not denying that.. it could really work and I'd be intrigued to see it. However, looking ahead, it's not smart to book a woman in a title feud where she not only looks like a threat but wins the title itself. Like Jayman, I believe it would render the women's championship useless. I want women to find ways to beat Kong every now and then.. I don't want Kong being so dominate that when she doesn;t have the belt everyone still looks to her as being "the real champ" of the champion in waiting..

God

Super Moderator

When i seen this thread from the main page i thought it was going to be Karen. I was hoping it wasent going to be, but quite frankly, Karen would have been better.

Kong vs Kurt would do way too much damage to be worth the risk.

1. You make at least two (one potential Main eveter & one mid carder) wrestlers look poor by losing to Kong no matter how much she is built up before hand.

2. You damage Kong unless she comes close to beating Angle which would do a lot of damage to Angle.

3. You kill the only good Womens division in North America by having the champion go after a male's title, as if the Knockout's title isnt good enough. The World title should be of no intrest to any knockout, their goal should be the womens title, like Gail Kim.

Blitzkrieg

Administrator

to be fair, Gail Kim's goal should be to sleep with me.. Get that women's priorities straight.

Tyler Durden

Nobody is saying that Kong should win the belt. They are saying that this would cause interest in a company that has negligible PPV buy rates and a non-moving hardcore audience.

The bottom line is, the TV show is so wretched that those 1.1 people that watch it are not going away whatever they do on TV. So you clearly are not going to lose your audience with this.

What it would give is the the possibility of drawing some people in just to watch the sheer novelty of it, and, it could be a god damn awesome match too.

What you do with those people that tune in for this is hook them with the rest of the show. So for christ's sake trying and book more worthy stuff that week at least.

Being that it is clearly not losing it's current hardcore audience, this company has NOTHING to lose by booking this as a very short term feud and trying to gain some mainstream audience viewing.

The alternative is that we could have the same TV show we have every week with five sketches of Karen trying to seduce guys that are playing the role of "geeks", everybody (even the World Champion) being a mid-card comedy act and everybody shouting at everybody else back stage constantly whilst Don West and Mike Tenay describe everything as though this is a radio show!

Jayman

Super Moderator

To be honest, having Kong vs. Kurt would probably be the feud that would pull me into watching TNA. Right now, Tyler basically summed up in his last paragraph what I see when I occassionally flick to TNA for a few moments, only to turn away.

Although I also agree with Tyler that this feud needs to happen when Kong has completely run out of options in the women's division. Building slowly towards that match could be a good thing, and it would have to happen when Kurt didn't have anything major going on either, so as to not "overlook" Kong's match with him. Maybe have Kong start out by doing something to Karen (Kurt and Karen are still together in the storylines, right?) to make Kurt snap, and go from there.

Give Kurt a real reason to be pissed off, and drop this comedy nonsense. It was fine when he was a midcarder in WWE, but he is representing TNA now as the champ.

Blitzkrieg

Administrator

I agree with everything Tyler said except I like to have my share of Karen Angle segments. Good post.