The Pope's loss at Victory Road

[Sting's Bat]

So at Victory Road the Angle defeated The Pope to continue his Current Fight the top ten program.

However am I alone in feeling like the Pope regardless of how good of a match he had with Angle kinda got stepped on?

Also I really feel Kurt saying if i lose at any point i retire is lame since it pretty much is saying that he is gonna beat the entire top 10 which really detroys suspense for me at least great matchs or not.

Really i believe if Pope had won the match it could have lead to a pretty solid fued with Angle, especially if losing pushed Angle into heel territory again.
With a Full Heel Angle Vs and Full face Pope we could have been treated to a Truly epic fued.
Another positive would have been this fued furthur Delaying Kurts Juggernaut rise to the top, and also put Pope way over.

The truly disapointing thing I see is either TNA won't use the Pope for a month or they will rush a return Pope/Anderson fued.

Thoughts?

 

[It's Damn Real!]

No. The loss was pre-determined, in more than just the fact that Angle was obviously not going to retire. Pope needs to re-establish himself as that viable option for a main-event/upper-mid-carder, and he just so happened to have been seeded next to Angle (and his Top-10 Contenders angle) at a time when he was coming back from injury. Coincidence, really, which is why he didn't get squashed or lose the match by much.

Despite being beaten, he wrestled in a pretty long match with Angle, who made him look great repeatedly during it.

Had Pope won, Angle would have retired – it was part of the stipulation. Angle is already preoccupied with fulfilling this climbing of the ranks, anyway, so the Pope thing had to be a flyby, not a full-time feud.

 

[a0161613]

They couldn't put an 80-90% fit Pope over Kurt who is on the "everything he touches turns to gold" run of his lifetime at the moment.

Kurt is on his way to bigger and better things and this was a match that was going to make Pope look awesome and continued the storyline in an effective manner.

As it was face vs face the match was built as well as it could be and given the situation, while it was predictable, the match was good as it could be (I've heard)

 

[Schizophrenic]

I dont think it will effect Pope negetively at all. Angle showed him respect and was taken to the limit by the Pimpin' One therefore I think both come off good after their match.

 

[The 1-2-3 Killam]

His loss to Angle wasn't that big a deal, in my opinion. If it would have been anybody else like Samoa Joe, Kazarian, AJ Styles, or anybody else it might have been a bad loss to have. But being beaten by Kurt Angle in a decent match is not the worst thing that can happen to you.

Pope is still pimpin' in my opinion. I don't think he's going to be thrown right into the main event either way, but I just don't think his loss to Angle is going to hold him back.

 

[Joe's Gonna Kill You]

This in no way has made the Pope look bad he wrestled in a really good match with arguably the best wrestler in the world in Kurt Angle. I also have no problem with this because Pope wasn't at a 100%. I actually think Pope looked strong off this matchup Pope took him to the limit and Angle shook his hands afterwards. Now Pope can possibly continue his unfinished business with Mr Anderson.

 

[MB1025]

IMO there are certain wrestler you can lose to just about every week and never look bad by doing so. Kurt Angle is one of those wrestlers. He is that good in the ring. The Pope will be fine because he should move back into a program with Anderson which will be awesome mic work all the way.

 

[AllanC]

what exactly makes you think Angle is going to beat the entire top ten? He could possibly lose, its just added pressure, makes matches more intense for us, he never said he was going to retire, all he said was his first loss could be his last match, that could mean retirement, or last match on TNA.

 

[Dragonfirez]

Thank you for telling me the outcome before it airs here in UK

 

[TheBWO]

Who says that Pope has to mention ANYTHING tonight (or tomorrow) about losing to Angle? The match is over, .....and if they play their cards right, will hope that we forget that Pope lost and will have him to a run in on someome who is getting beat down, (RVD by Abyss) and then a new angle (no pun intended ) is created. I mean seriously.....there would be absolutely no sense in even continuing a Pope v. Angle feud, match, rematch, etc......the key here would be have Kurt focus on his next opponent, don't retread and go back to the Pope v. Anderson feud, and develop a new one tonight. Isn't that the key to SOME PPV'S....is ending the story and creating a new one? That way, Pope doesn't have his momentum killed, Angle is still going up the ladder, and all is well in TNA-land.

 

[Sting's Bat]

what exactly makes you think Angle is going to beat the entire top ten? He could possibly lose, its just added pressure, makes matches more intense for us, he never said he was going to retire, all he said was his first loss could be his last match, that could mean retirement, or last match on TNA.

Because its my belief that the ranking system was put in place just for this Program to take place.

Overall I'm lukewam about this program due to the fact that knowing that Kurt will succeed kills and tension and suspense of it.

sorry about the spoilers btw dragonfirez i forget that u guys in the UK get TNA late as hell.