LOOKING AT FRANK TRIGG IN TNA
By David Tees on 6/15/2008 11:08 AM
With the ever growing success of mixed martial arts, it wouldn’t be to long until the personalities from MMA would cross over into other mediums. This past March saw former UFC and PRIDE star, Frank Trigg, make his debut in Total Nonstop Action wrestling. Originally, Frank Trigg was brought in as a color analyst for the Kurt Angle/Samoa Joe TNA World Title Match at TNA Lockdown.
Now, before I get ahead of myself in this column, let me give you a little background on the MMA career of Frank Trigg. In his career, Frank Trigg has fought some of the best fighters in MMA like Dennis Hallman, Matt Hughes, Georges St. Pierre, Carlos Condit, Jason Miller, Robbie Lawler and Edwin Dewees. Besides the fighters, Frank Trigg has also fought in top promotions like the aforementioned UFC, PRIDE, Shooto, World Fighting Alliance, Rumble On The Rock, Icon Sport and HDNet Fights. Frank Trigg also co-hosts the PRIDE one hour show that airs daily on the Fox Sports Net channels across the globe.
Like I mentioned earlier, Frank Trigg was brought into TNA to analyze the MMA influenced match between Kurt Angle and Samoa Joe at TNA Lockdown. Frank Trigg called the match to the best of his limited abilities when it came to pro wrestling, but did the job well enough to be invited back by TNA to do more work in the company.
Frank Trigg quickly transitioned from guest color commentator to the close confidant of former TNA World Champion Kurt Angle. There has been a ton of backstage segments both on TNA Impact and TNA pay-per-view featuring Kurt Angle and Frank Trigg. One disturbing segment saw backstage interviewer Jeremy Borash ask Kurt Angle and Frank Trigg about the Karen Angle situation, while both Kurt Angle and Frank Trigg were urinating in the bathroom.
Even now as a guest color commentator, Frank Trigg has gone to the dark side per say, once the Kurt Angle separation from Karen Angle started. On the June 12th edition of TNA Impact!, Frank Trigg even defended Kurt Angle’s accusations of infidelity to Karen Angle, accusing her of having sexual relations with AJ Styles.
These situations are starting to lead many fans of TNA to think that it will be only a matter of time before Frank Trigg enters the six sided ring to compete in TNA. This would lead to some possible interesting match ups with Kurt Angle and Frank Trigg as a tag team and possibly Frank Trigg versus AJ Styles and/or Frank Trigg versus current TNA Champion Samoa Joe.
If Frank Trigg did ever compete inside the rings of pro wrestling, he would not be the first mixed martial arts competitor to do so. Previous MMA competitors like Ken Shamrock, Dan Severn, Ron Waterman, Marcus Davis, Tito Ortiz, Pete Sell and others have either wrestled or made appearances at pro wrestling events in the past. It works both ways in this situation because some pro wrestlers have entered MMA like Brock Lesnar, Bobby Lashley, Rodney Mack, Sean O’Haire and Kid Kash.
Thus far in his TNA run, Frank Trigg has been able to do two things very well since beginning his transition from MMA to pro wrestling. First, using his ability as a color commentator to get certain aspects of the matches over and second, using his natural charisma to become a heel in TNA. However Frank Triggs run in TNA progresses, thus far it has proven that fighters from the MMA world can transition into the much different world of pro wrestling.
You can contact David Tees at bigtees360@yahoo.com
