If TNA is
truly working with Angle to get him help, it's about darn time.
Angle, if some recall, left WWE in 2006 because WWE wanted him to go to rehab for substance abuse issues, specifically, an addiction to painkillers. Angle and WWE couldn't come to an agreement, and the two sides decided to part company. As big of a star as Angle was, and as much of a linchpin he was supposed to be for the WWECW brand, WWE made the right call. The 'rehab or you're gone' line-in-the-sand is the same one TNA should have taken with him a long time ago.
Four arrests in six years, for driving drunk? Can you imagine an athlete in a major sport getting away with nary a slap on the wrist, like Angle has? Couple this with the fact that Angle had a stretch in late 2009/early 2010 when he showed up glassy-eyed and high on painkillers for several shows and PPV's, and it's sad he hasn't gotten help much, much sooner. I believe it was just day before the 2009 Hard Justice PPV where he was arrested for a DUI, and still managed to leave the PPV as champion. Again, it's help he should have gotten some time ago.
If not for his wrestling career, I truly hope he follows through with getting help for his wife and especially his two young children. He has an 18 month year old daughter and an 8 month old daughter with his second wife, and along with the children he has with Karen Jarrett, he has 4 in all. While I've always been partial to Angle because he's from Pittsburgh, there are no more excuses to be made for the man.
And it sure would be nice for his kids to grow up with a father. Because at the rate he's headed, they may not get the chance.
I think Kurt does need some help, because he is a danger to himself and to others if it happens again.
Again? This is four times in six years, the ship sailed on him becoming a danger to himself and others some time ago. He's quite fortunate that he hasn't injured himself or someone else quite badly at this point.
However, I wouldn't call Angle a bad person for doing it, drinking makes you do stupid things and it can change a person. Kurt Angle will probably know that drink driving when drunk is stupid when he's sober, but when he's drunk he'll probably think he's "fine" when he's clearly not.
I'm not sure what it makes him, then. From what
we know, he's been arrested four times in the past six years for driving drunk. How much would you want to gander that he's gotten behind the wheel many more times then that, intoxicated, and simply hasn't gotten caught?
I don't see Angle as a bad person, either, just someone who makes incredible poor choices, ones that could threaten to destroy not only his own life, but everyone who's driving the same road as he while he's intoxicated.
To be honest, TNA should give him a babysitter when he's on the road to prevent this from happening.
What TNA should do at this point is suspend him until he completes a rehab program. He's been skating by with little consequence since 2006, and here we are, seven years later, and he's still driving drunk. If I were TNA, and Angle was my employee, I'd insist he both go to rehab and following that, take regular tests for both drugs and alcohol, with fines, suspensions, and even termination if he didn't test clean.
The time for hand holding is over.
What Jeff Hardy did at Victory Road was way worse (in that it was pretty much a direct 'fuck off' to TNA), and it only took about a year for him to get out of the doghouse.
No, it wasn't. Hardy's behavior and drug usage leading up to and in the main event of Victory Road may have been a 'screw off' to TNA and the fans who paid to see the event, but Angle's behavior is a 'screw off' to himself and the people who are on the roadways with him.
Hardy may have upset some people badly, including myself, that paid for the event. But he put noone's life in danger. Kurt Angle has, once again.
I'd rather lose out on $34.99 then see someone lose their life
any day of the week.
