By Wade Keller, PWTorch editor

Maybe the most counter-productive, selfish, outrageous thing said by a wrestler on TV in the last week was flippant and not meant to harm anyone, but was quite revealing of the prevailing attitude toward a certain division in wrestling that keeps getting underutilized and never comes close to reaching its potential.

Last Thursday on Impact Wrestling, Kurt Angle told Sting he could use a tune-up match before wrestling James Storm at Genesis, so he suggested "two X Division guys."

Yep, Angle thought an easy way to warm up would be fight not one, but two X Division guys. In other words, one X Division guy wouldn't be enough of a challenge. It's bad enough one X Division guy would be seen as a nice little warm-up for him, but even fighting two at once wasn't enough to cause Angle any concern.

The fact that Angle said it is disapppointing. The fact that no one else in TNA saw fit to call him out on that is a problem. Someone should have said, "Cut... retake. Kurt, don't say that about a division of guys we're trying to turn into ratings draws and rebuild."

At the next TV tapings, whomever TNA is booking as the lead babyface in the X Division (hard to tell with the Zema Ion vs. Austin Aries match coming up at Genesis) should turn Angle's flippant comment into a productive angle. If TNA plans to turn Aries babyface, this would be a good way to do it. Or have Jesse Sorensen in this role. In any case, have an X Division wrestler step up and tell Angle he was offended by his portrayal of X Division wrestlers as push-overs and easy warm-up opponents. That X Division wrestler should say you don't get two of us, you get me. I'll "warm you up."

And then Angle smugly accepts the challenge, but says he can't be responsible for what happens to him because he's not going to hold back.

Then do the match on TV. At first Angle is cocky and doesn't take things seriously. But quickly he realizes he has to step up and work harder. And despite trying to shift into a higher gear, the X Division wrestler dazzles him with a barrage of offense that has Angle tripping over his boot laces and pins him.

The next chapter is not to have Angle then get a rematch and win "once he takes these little guys seriously." That is the final chapter. Angle moves on, with a comment about how he's not cut out for that style and he wants no part of X Division wrestlers again. He can take a dig at how he only wants to take on opponents who "wrestle" him, not those who do all of these high-flying moves. Then an announcer fires back that Angle is complaining about his opponents using moves that are legal within the TNA structure and if he only wants to amateur wrestle, go back to college or the Olympics.

Then move on. The point is made. Angle can go on feuding with fellow heavyweights, while the X Division has earned the respect of viewers because Angle, after speaking of them like they're "just jobber scrubs," was shown that the smaller wrestlers have a style that can beat a world class heavyweight like himself. Then the next time an X Division match is on PPV, fans won't see those wrestlers as jobbers who do some flippy-flop exciting moves but can't really beat anyone. They'll see them as being every bit as tough as Angle, and maybe the seed will be planted that the weight limit is there to protect heavyweights from the lighter weights, not vice-versa.

To reverse decades of cruiserweights and junior heavyweights and light heavyweights and X Division wrestlers being treated as opening match novelty acts or jobbers to heavyweights, a concerted, consistent effort has to be made to redefine how a generation of fans perceive them. UFC spent most of the first 15 years of its existence with a weak heavyweight division, but stars such as Chuck Liddell, Tito Ortiz, Georges St. Pierre, B.J. Penn, Matt Hughes, Rich Franklin, Royce Gracie, and Ken Shamrock - non-heavyweights - teaching viewers that some of the baddest men on the planet aren't above 220 pounds. It worked. (Not to mention in Pride, Kazushi Sakuraba and Wanderlei Silva tore things up in the 2000s and drew huge money Japan, often as giant-killers.)

Meanwhile, a whole generation of pro wrestling's power brokers have completely missed this. They've been hunkered down protecting their turf or trying to relive 1997, not realizing the world has changed and a whole generation of actual and potential pro wrestling fans are 100 percent ready and willing to embrace smaller wrestlers in main event positions. It's up to promoters to give them what they're fully willing to pay for.

TNA took a positive step forward by featuring the Knockouts Title match last Thursday in the main event spot on TV. When was the last time women headlined a TV show in a match that was taken serioiusly, lasted longer than ten minutes, and felt like it belonged? TNA is onto something there, but it could take several years of doing that once every month or two for it to really reach its potential.

The same can be said for the X Division. TNA should build up a top babyface and a top heel to the point where they feel comfortable putting that match on last at a PPV. There have been plenty of UFC shows over the years where the heavyweight title was defended before a lighter weight title belt. TNA should aim to accomplish the same thing in 2012. The very act of putting an X Division Title match in the main event of a PPV (and put top contender matches in the main event slot on TV every month or two, also) will send the message to viewers that this division isn't just a mid-card filler division. It's every bit as a relevant as the heavyweights.

Perception can be reality. TNA helped create the perception by putting Gail Kim vs. Mickie James at the end of last week's show that the Knockouts Division isn't models pretend-wrestling for 90 seconds like the WWE Divas division.

Comments like Kurt Angle's last Thursday do great harm to efforts TNA has made in recent months to build the X Division up as something different than it's been most of the last six or seven years in TNA. Yes, it's in the best interest of heavyweight wrestlers to keep the lion's share of the available funds for wrestler pay amonst themselves and their heavyweight brethren. It's up to management to make sure that the heavyweight "Main Event Mafia" don't destroy their attempts to create a wider array of draws worthy of big salaries, including X Division and Women wrestlers.

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Wade Keller launched Pro Wrestling Torch as a print newsletter in 1987. The newsletter is still published every week. It's distributed to thousands of wrestling fans internationally via postal mail and digital PDF's online at the VIP website. He has interviewed some of pro wrestling's biggest power brokers over the years in their longest insider interviews ever done, including Steve Austin, The Rock, Hulk Hogan, Jesse Ventura, Eric Bischoff, Kevin Nash, Scott Hall, Goldberg, Paul Heyman, Jim Cornette, Mick Foley, Vince Russo, Lou Thesz, Verne Gagne, Jerry Lawler, and many many others. He writes every week for the PWTorch Newsletter and also blogs on PWTorch.com. He is also the supervising editor of MMATorch, records the Keller Hotline every day for VIP members reviewing and analyzing the news of the day, and hosts the PWTorch Livecast twice a week. Contact Keller: kellerwade@gmail.com.

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