Kurt Angle's Promo Skills

[D-Man]

On last night's Impact (02-18-09), Kurt Angle delivered an extremely impressive promo that seemed to be a mix of kayfabe and shoot. He mentioned incidents that occurred in his personal life, and well as a kayfabe attack on Mr. Anderson... and it was brilliant.

It makes me think back to the type of promos he cut when he first debuted in the WWE. He was a brash, over-the-top, try-tro-hard kind of babyface that just seemed to overact his role, but it was effective nonetheless. Over the years, he really seemed to grab a hold of his character, and while his in-ring skills were masterful from day one, he had a lot of trouble with the realism of his promos. The acting just wasn't quite there.

As we fast forward through his multiple babyface and heel turns in the WWE, we see how his heel turns seems to allow him to cut better promos than when he was a babyface. When he was a bad guy, he really knew how to turn up that evil persona. But as a good guy, he was still just a bad actor.

Not until last night did I realize how he has become fully well-rounded, since he is currently a babyface and truly utilized real emotions to manipulate his audience's emotions. It was really a great moment.

My questions for everyone are as follows:

1. Do you think Kurt Angle currently cuts better promos as a heel or a babyface?

2. When did you think that Kurt Angle 'came into his own' with cutting promos? (Your answer could be "never", but make sure you back up the reasons why with ANY answer you give.)

 

[axl626]

I love watching Angle do anything. The guy's amazing at what he does. He can cut promos either way and I think that really he's been able to since he debuted. His whole character back then was the "I'm better than you"-hypocrite character, but with a kind of upbeat attitude.

The one thing I noticed last night about his promo is that it seems like we won't see the funny Kurt again. To me, Angle is one of the funniest guys in the business. Serious Kurt is cool and all but I just miss when Kurt was a bit more comical, kind of like Jericho. Remember "Sexy Kurt?" He went from hilarious to insane in just a few seconds.

 

[frankiep]

1) Kurt Angle's promos heel or babyface are amazing, they always have been. He showed that right before he left WWE when he was fueding with Cena. First vs Cena he was a babyface, and he made fun of the chain gang. Secondly, right before he left WWE he shot some sick promos as a heel. But yeah, Last night's promo on Impact! was unbelievable.

2) As soon as Angle started fueded with Triple H when he was in love with Stephanie McMahon, that's when he came into his own. Sooo just about 10 years ago

 

[Dave]

A Kurt Angle promo is a fucking gift from God. Kurt Angle is one of the only people to grace a ring that can pull off anything that he wants. The Rock and Jericho are other examples of people who fit this mould and they are a dying breed in the wrestling business it seems. To my mind, I think that Kurt Angle is probably best when he is coming over as comedic. I think that he has a natural charm about those performances and it never seems too forced. He could work with anyone and make it a passable promo. However, that is not to say that I do not like the other ones. Ones where he is being condescending or furious are just as good and I think that it only reinforces my point that Kurt Angle is a very talented person, when it comes to promos.

That being said, I don't think he has really cemented one as being better than the other. Yes, I do think that some of the babyface promos are better but I also think that other might prefer the heel promos and that is the great strength of people like The Rock and Angle, they can do anything on the mic or in a promo and the people will love it.

 

[Via Armbar]

Heel by a good amount. What makes it so great though is he has a babyface way of going about his promos. He would talk in a similar way that Hogan would, about drinking his milk and the code he lives by and such. The era he debuted in though was completely different from when Hogan was at his prime. The overly nice kiss ass all American wasn't cool anymore, it was just annoying. That's what they pulled off. He also mixed a certain style of humor with his promos during this time too and I honestly think he's underated in that category.

His promos during his first face turn were not nearly as good. He still had the kinda goofy, goody goody white guy thing going on, but he tried really hard at it and he seemed both less credible and less of a threat. I've also heard he wasn't happy being a face during a large part of the invasion angle, so it could also have to do with his commitment to playing a face.

Then his character took a turn for the serious. His heel work with this persona was less goofy and a lot more dangerous. A good change for his character as it made his matches have a better feel to them, more of a big time vibe. He became about being the best, being intense and all about competition. This character made feuds a lot better then they would have been if he had still been the more comical technicial wrestler like he was for some time. A good example of that was his feuds with Shawn and Lesnar. The best part about it though was he transitioned from heel to face much better with this type of character. The fans could cheer him as the intensem, technical marvel just as easy as they could boo him under the same guise. He was a face going in to Wrestlemania 22 so you can use that as an example of how this worked well for him.

So his promos are really better as a heel, but depending on which kind of face he is playing those promos can be almost as good or not nearly as much so as is the case with his character in 2001. He definitely has some of the funniest face promos though, they just aren't always the best use of his strongest character I believe.

 

[GenMe]

First of all kurt is a fucking god of wrestling.

As i see it Kurt cuts his best promos when he is a heel.Why because even if we like him he makes us hate him,He always takes his time and he knows what to say when he has the mic on his hand.But dam yesterday,yesterday was one of his best promos during his whole wrestling career.I was all into his speech,The way he explain everything about his life and his family,I could hear that promo over and over an i will still be amuse by it.

I really think that when kurt angle came into his own with cutting promos was when he left the WWE.Because when he was in the E he use to cut some funny ass promos,But he still needed some work on them.Then when he made his debut on TNA and he made his first promo I was like dam I WWE let one of the best promo cutter go.Cause he had improve alot over the time that he was not wrestling.

 

[flocker]

Kurt has always been funny, and self deprecating. Especially when he's being a pompous ass. I've kind of always thought when he was being a dick head' he had a vision of some other athlete ass in his head who he was mocking. It might be funny to find out who.

I like his face promos. They are very good. But his heel promos are vicious. Let me give you an example:

I am from pitssburgh. His home town. That he brought a ton of prestige to by winning a gol medal and speaking highly of at every possible turn. There is no reasonable way for him to be a heel here. So he comes out as a heel and immediately starts trash talking... Mario lemieux. In the hockey arena. That lemeiux had just saved the team from bankruptcy and relocation. (He apparently called mario ahead of time and apologized).