Kurt Angle as a heel after 2001

[DaNewGuy]

At the tail end of 2001 Kurt Angle was the biggest face on the roster. Fueding with Alliance-heel Austin, he drew a huge crowd reaction, before turning heel and remaining so for nearly two years.
The question is why was he a heel. Kurt may be great as a hell, but at that point in time the patriotic American face was in, and Olympic hero Kurt Angle is more American than Uncle Sam eating an apple pie. Hogan took up the Mr. America character, the un-Americans (La Resistance to a lesser extent) took the heel role to the pro-American faces (Booker T, Goldust, Kane [who were surely no more American than anyone else on the roster), Undertaker carried an American flag to victory at WM18. Surely Angle was tailor made for the Americana.
Take Unforgiven 2001. The first PPV after 9-11 (the start of the American kick). Angle wins the WWF Title in the main event for a tremendous pop after entering to a tremendous pop. In part that may be down to the event being in Angle's hometown, but surely the all-American flag wearing babyface aspect couldn't hurt.

So, should Kurt Angle have had a run as a pro-American face in 2002/onwards?

 

[avi01]

He was really over as a face, specially around 9-11...even won the title for a couple of weeks. But when you have the Rock, Austin and a returning Triple H in the same company, it is difficult to make place for another face.
I think Jericho was the top heel then and he only recently turned. Austin just had to be a face but then.So they needed villains and Angle knows how to get the crowd hate him. So I guess in a way, they did not have a lot of choices until the NWO came into the mix.

 

[SaveUsCMPunk]

No. Heel Kurt Angle was comedic gold in his early WWE/F years. With Triple H returning from injury in January 2002, Kurt was great as the guy who tried to take Triple H's spot at that year's Wrestlemania. Plus, Kurt had some good segments with other heels (at the time) on the roster. (Booker T, Lance Storm, Chris Jericho and William Regal.) I will say that I found the Raw after Survivor Series 2001 to be very interesting as both Kurt Angle and Vince McMahon were faces at the start of the show, but were heels by the end of the night. (Just like I found Stone Cold Steve Austin going from heel at Survivor Series 2001 to face by the next night on Raw to be rather interesting.)

 

[Swarles Barkley]

Undertaker carried an American flag to victory at WM18.

No he didn't. Taker was a heel at X-8 and didn't have an American flag anywhere near him when he took on Flair in Toronto.

As far as Angle staying a face, I was surprised they turned him so quickly after 9/11. I figured he would be the top face for a while, but I guess with Triple H coming back and his positioning as the top face upon his return, the only logical thing to do was turn Angle heel again.

 

[HBsam31]

I was also surprised they turned Angle heel so quick. he was really over as a face, but I always preferred him heel. He was comedic gold, and then could go out and dominate an opponent with his wrestling. I think with all of the other really big faces at the time Angle was better off as a heel.

 

[IT Factor]

I was always surprized at the time and even now, in retrospect, that Angle wasn't pushed heavily as the American patriot hero type after 9-11 onward. While I did like heel Angle, there were certain things Angle did naturally better as a face. Primarily, WWE showcased more of Kurt's in-ring ability when he was a face compared to Angle being a limited cowardly type of heel. With Angle's ability in ring and a massive face run, he could've been billed as the next Hulk Hogan type of American hero to that generation. Why WWE never capatilized on that is open to anyone's guess. Maybe they just didn't think of it and preferred things the way they were.