My wife hates wrestling, so whenever I put it on (usually just TNA these days), she suddenly gets sleepy and goes to bed. This Thursday, however, she was still up, and heard me keep saying "This is so weird. It seems like a shoot." When she asked me what I was talking about, I explained the real life backstory between the Angles and Jarrett. I found it compelling, but the reasonably fake beat down by Jeff was wasted. If anything, Karen smirking while her children's father gets beat up on TV (perhaps in front of their kids watching back home?) may be a thread later. I think Jeff smirking in the background while the Angles hashed it out would have been a good route to go, as well. We'll see. I was intrigued anyway.

Yea, you have to be careful crossing the real/fake line in wrestling. For example, I thought it was fine for the Matt Hardy/ Lita/ Edge story, but the Angle Jarrett one is a little too real. Matt and Lite weren't married but the Angle's were and had children.

Not to sound like Tipper Gore or anything, but how old are the Angle-Jarrett kids? I can't imagine this is healthy for them.

Th funniest part for me in the show was when Bully Ray was coming to the ring and Brian Kendrick nailed him from behind and threw him into the ring....IN HIS DRAWERS!!! HAHAHA

I thought this was a decent show. They do need to let some of the matches go longer though.

Funny thing with Bully Ray; they were promoting non-bullying on their show through wrestling advertisements of stoping the hate, yet have a bully on the roster. They should make this a storyline in my opinion.

I was kind of dissappointed that they didn't show footage from their maryland shows. At Upper Marlboro, they said they were taping stuff for Thursday show. Maybe they will show it later.

RESPONSE FROM KE: They said the same thing at the Hagerstown show.

The only part of Angle's opening was the "play my music" part. If only because one of the "suspensions of disbelief" I have NEVER been able to shake in the modern era is when a wrestler enters the ring as a surprise but somehow their music is queued up as if it was triggered by some computer chip implanted in their skull. They tell them to play their music, although one would still wonder why a wrestler would want his music tipping off his presence during a surprise attack, but thats a question for another time.

Also on that TNA is the WORST with the delayed reactions from the in-ring talent when music hits.

I, too, was expecting a little more out of the Angle-Jarretts confrontation after Karen built it up last week. The run-ins with both Angle and Morgan serve no purpose for me. If there needs to be a run-in then make it one or two guys at the most, 5 or 6 guys doesn't serve to make the baby-face strong, it is just stupid. The Knockouts match lasted 6 minutes. With 4 combatants and Tara outside of the ring, each with issues with one from the other side, you would think that they would need more than 6 minutes to tell the story. At least I do. I wish that Ric Flair would remember how JJ Dillon "managed" the Four Horsemen and then would act the same way. Unfortunately, that wish will never come true.

kurt angles theme song shud be the last thing on his mind...nice observation.
Brian kendrick was really in pain after he was shoved! Wasnt he? Or maybe bully ray really sold it well.
How is 'EV 2.0 forever' sign funny?

You're a bit harsh on Kurt Angle, I think he's doing good on the mic, with his raw emotions he always reminds me of mickey rourke in "the wrestler" (btw i would be interested to know you're feeling on that movie).

RESPONSE FROM KE: Here are my thoughts on "The Wrestler."

http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/sports/wrestling/blog/2009/01/thoughts_on_the_wrestler.html

@Eric: According to wikipedia, the children are 4 and 8 years old.

I agree with a comment above...the angle between Angle and Jarrett has to be handled with kid gloves. While we all want to see it, I'm sure the real wounds are still fresh and then bringing Karen in literally throws salt in those wounds. Personally, I thought simply bringing Karen in was intriguing enough. She still didn't get to tell her side of the story which still keeps us all wondering.

I think TNA is seriously pushing the envelope with these three and while I absolutely love it and feel it is the best angle going in wrestling right now simply because it is real, they have to be careful and not allow something break out for real which would end the story immediately.

Seeing how TNA works each week and seeing how they do like to see how far they can go, I think they will slowly take this all the way to the line. Even though their motto is "Crossing the Line," crossing this line may be too much.

Just because Kurt Angle and Jeff Jarrett's history is presented correctly, it doesn't make the storyline real unless they have the feelings behind the words.

If Kurt and the Jarretts get along well enough that there isn't any true dissention between them, then presenting this story as something it is not would be more fake than creating the same storyline between two other guys.

It sounds like they are just spouting off fake emotions, which (you are correct) is no different than any other wrestling angle.