In an exclusive interview with Great Offshore Sportsbooks, Kurt Angle spoke about the upcoming Royal Rumble, Logan Paul’s WWE talent and reveals his wish for John Cena’s retirement tour.
On TNA
Q: Two organizations close to your heart in WWE and TNA announced a multi-year partnership last week. What was your immediate reaction to the news?
Kurt Angle: “I think it’s good for the business. TNA is a smaller company. They’re never going to be a threat to WWE, but they’re a solid company and they have a lot of talented kids. So you’re going to see athletes crossing over back and forth from NXT to TNA, TNA to NXT. So I think it’s a good partnership. I think they’ll benefit greatly. Both of them will. “
Q: How do you think it benefits both sides?
KA: “Just give them more exposure, especially for the TNA wrestlers to be on NXT and vice versa. You’re going to have a loyal following for TNA and then you’re going to have the, you know, the majority following for WWE, but some people are just TNA fans. Most people are fans of all companies, but some people are hardcore TNA fans. So they add value too.”
Q: Do you think you could see Jeff and Matt Hardy back in WWE now with the new partnership?
KA: “Yes, I believe that’s a possibility. I think as long as those guys keep their heads on straight, they’ll always have an opportunity to go back to WWE. They’re so talented. And I will say this. I will guarantee you that they will not retire in TNA. They will retire in WWE, so eventually they’ll end up back there again. “
Q: What was your greatest match in TNA?
KA: “I had so many great ones with AJ Styles and so many great ones with Samoa Joe. I also had great ones with Sting and Jeff Jarrett and a lot of other incredibly talented individuals like Bobby Roode and James Storm. My matches with AJ were very unique and he was such an incredible in-ring performer. His athletic ability is up and above anybody, he’s up way up in the charts as far as talent. He’s one of the most talented kids I’ve ever been in the ring with. It’s one of those things where you’re in the ring and you’re not doing much work. They’re doing all the work for you. They’re flying around. All you do is catch them. He reminds me a lot of Rey Mysterio, just a little bit bigger. “
On The Royal Rumble
Q: The Royal Rumble is coming up wondering what the best Royal Rumble you ever competed in?
KA: “Well I never won, so none of them were my favorites! But no, I will say 2003 Royal Rumble when I beat Chris Benoit for the world championship. I wasn’t in the Rumble, but I was the world champion, that match was my greatest match of my career. I take heavy pride in it. Chris Benoit, he matched my intensity. We also had a lot of submission trade offs, a lot of false finish trade offs. The match was really special. It was about pure wrestling. No chair shots. We didn’t even throw any punches. There were a few chops. That’s about it. But 99.9% of that match was pure wrestling. And that’s what I love about it. And I take pride in that match because for that to be an exciting match and just be pure wrestling. That tells you how good it was. “
Q: Could you feel how special it was in that moment? Or did you just feel like this is going really well then kind of look back at it.
KA: “I didn’t know it was that good. And when we got done, I celebrated with my team, Team Angle, and I walked to the back, and the fans gave Chris Benoit a standing ovation for 15 minutes. And this was a PPV. So time is money on PPVs. Vince allowed the fans to give him a standing ovation for 15 minutes, during a PPV, which is impossible. Nobody ever did that. And nobody ever will do that. That’s when I knew I was gonna have to watch this match back and see how good it was. And I did, and I was not disappointed. “
Q: You mentioned never winning it, was there any serious discussion of you coming out on top in the Royal Rumble?
KA: “No, but I took second once, I think third twice. I didn’t have to. To win the Royal Rumble is like to give a guy a push for that year to be the world champion. So he’s on his way by winning the Royal Rumble. I was already a champion in my rookie year before the Royal Rumble even started. So I was world champion already. So I didn’t have to do the Royal Rumble or win the Royal Rumble. Now, I could have later on in my career, but I only went to WWE for six years. And then I left and went somewhere else for 11. So if I would have stayed, I think I would have ended up winning the Royal Rumble. Because I believe they were going to give me the title multiple times. But because I left early due to my injuries and my painkiller problem. I left early and never found out if I would have gone on to win it.”
Q: Are you going to go to this year’s one?
KA: “I don’t know. I am going there for an appearance. I might stay and watch it. It’d be kind of nice to do so, but I have a family. I have a bunch of kids and I have an obligation at home. So we’ll see if I can stick around for an extra day.”
Q: Who do you think wins this year’s Royal Rumble?
KA: “Oh gosh, I don’t know. I want to pick a dark horse. I know who I’d like to see win it is Gunther. I think that kid is really talented. I love his style. I would have loved to work with him when I was in the business. He’s really talented, and I love his European style of wrestling.”
Q: With it being on Netflix, do you think it could be the highest rating ever?
KA: “Yeah, I think so. I think it will be the highest rating. Obviously no more PPV buys, but it will be the highest rating in history, of course, because it’s on Netflix and that reaches out to the whole entire world. So I think it will be the most tuned in Royal Rumble of all time, which is incredible. But the WWE, they did business and they did it well and they got signed with Netflix, which is incredible. “
On John Cena’s Career
Q: Looking at John Cena had plenty to do with him during your career. How do you think his retirement tour will go?
KA: “I’m hoping that he not only gets a retirement tour, but I’m hoping that he gets a title run. John, what he’s been able to do for the business and for the WWE is nothing short of amazing. He was able to endure 20 something years of wrestling and hardly ever injured.
“Working full time for 20 plus years, winning 16 World Heavyweight Championships in WWE, which nobody has ever done. Ric Flair has 16, but he has it in NWA, WCW and WWE. John has proved himself to be the greatest WWE superstar of all time. And I think he deserves a title run to make sure that he gets that number 17. So he could be the first one in history to be 17 time world champion. I think he deserves that.”
Q: Did you want to wrestle him in your last match? Would that have been what happened?
KA: “When I came back to the WWE in 2017, I was in really good shape. I was ready to wrestle. I trained for a year, where I took time off and I did some independent shows and kept myself in shape. And when I went to the WWE, they wanted to induct me into Hall of Fame first. And I said, listen, I’m not done wrestling. Why don’t we do the induction after I’m done wrestling? They said, let’s do it first. And then we’ll have you wrestle after that. So I get inducted into Hall of Fame. And then that night, Vince McMahon comes to me and says, hey, I want you to be the GM of RAW. And I was like, Vince, I want to wrestle. He said, ‘we’ll get to that. Don’t worry about it.’ I think the reason they did this is because they thought I was a liability. Because of my painkiller problem before. So, I understand why they brought me in safely. But by the time they had me wrestle, I was general manager for nine months. And I wasn’t training anymore in the ring. So when I got in the ring after nine months, I looked like an old man wrestling. I saw a big difference. I didn’t want people to remember me like this. So I told Vince that I wanted to retire at the upcoming WrestleMania. He asked me what I was thinking. I wanted to have John Cena in my final match since I was his first match. And he said, ‘well, you have a program with Baron Corbin. You got to stick with it. Do you want Cena? You have to wait a year’ and I didn’t want to wait another year because I knew my body was just not reacting the right way. So I said, ‘okay, I’ll take Baron Corbin and I’ll retire.’ So that was my retirement match. I didn’t mind it was Baron. He’s a great athlete, great wrestler, and a good guy. I love him. But, I did want John Cena to be my last match. And unfortunately it wasn’t. “
Q: Do you think he was trying to maybe find a middle road when saying if you wait another year you can have Cena?
KA: “I believe so. Vince is a good guy. And if he likes you, he’s going to do whatever he can for you. And we liked each other a lot. We were really tight back before I left WWE. We were able to get tight again when I came back. So he was always a father figure to me and more like a brother to be honest with you. He was one of those people that I looked up to and I respected.”
On Vince McMahon
Q: Are there any stories with Vince that stand out and wrestling fans would want to listen to?
KA: “There was a time, I’ve told this story many times, but we’re on a flight home from overseas and Vince was getting, feeling a little frisky cause he was drinking some wine. He would have somebody come to me where I was sitting and say, ‘Hey, uh, whoever wants to go up there, they want you to go up in the front. And they want to talk to you right now.’ And I got up and I walked down the aisle to go to the front. And Vince McMahon would jump out of an aisle and tackle me and try to wrestle me. And I would reverse him and get him down and pin him. I’d say, ‘do you give up?’ And he’d say, ‘yeah, yeah, I give up.’ So he went back to his seat, and I went back and I fell asleep. And then someone else came and got me and said, hey, somebody wants to talk to you. Did it again, and Vince jumped on me again. And at one point in time we’re wrestling, and we’re right next to the door where the latch is, where you can open the door. We keep banging into it, and the flight attendant said, ‘hey, you guys need to settle down or the pilot’s gonna land this plane right now.’ And Vince says, ‘tell the pilot to go fuck himself. I’ll buy the fucking plane.’ So it was a crazy night and Vince was just Vince McMahon and he was having fun. So he learned what it felt like to wrestle an Olympic gold medalist. And then, you know what? I’ll tell you this one thing about Vince, one thing he likes. He likes to feel what it feels like to be something big, like he would say to Mike Tyson, ‘knock me out. I want to feel it’. ‘Kurt jump on me, wrestle me, beat the shit out of me. I want to feel it.’ He likes to experience stuff that a lot of people will never experience in their lives. And that’s what I love about him.”
Speaking On Wrestlemania
Q: I wanted to look at Wrestlemania a little bit down the road, but just looking back, what was your favorite match at Wrestlemania?
KA: “I had a few good ones, but my match was Shawn Michaels, WrestleMania 21. It’s my favorite match of WrestleMania. And I’m gonna stick my neck out here a little bit, but I’m gonna say it could perhaps be the greatest WrestleMania match of all time. That’s just my opinion. I know a lot of people will disagree, but if you watch that match, it doesn’t get much better than Kurt Angle versus Shawn Michaels, WrestleMania 21.”
Q: And Wrestlemania 21 overall, do you think that’s up there as the best one?
KA: “Yeah, and you know why? Because our expectations and the fans’ expectations were high because it was in LA and when you’re out there with all the entertainers, they’re all coming to see you, the actors and athletes and it’s a really cool experience. So you have, you have to have your best game.”
Q: If The Rock and Roman Reigns were to face off at Wrestlemania 41, how do you think that will go?
KA: “Oh gosh, well I would hope that The Rock would do a favor for his nephew. I think The Rock’s smart enough and professional enough to know that he’s at the end of his career and this kid’s still in the middle of his career. I think Rock handing the belt, or not the belt, but the the family name off to his nephew Roman Reigns. I think that’s a good way for them to end their storyline. “
On Penta’s WWE Future
Q: Ex-AEW star Penta has made an unbeaten start in WWE so far. Just wondering how far you think he can go?
KA: “He reminds me a lot of Rey Mysterio. He’s a little bigger, but I think he’s incredible. I watched the match with him versus Chad Gable. I was a little surprised that Penta actually out submissived Chad, I mean Penta nearly broke Chad Gable’s arm. And Chad Gable was a shooter. It didn’t make much sense and that was the only thing in the match that I didn’t really get, Chad should have been applying the ankle lock on him and almost making him tap out, but instead. Penta had an armbar on Chad Gable and almost made Chad tap out. So, I just thought that the shooters should have the submission holds. And the Lucha guy should do the Lucha Libre kind of match, flying around the ring and winning by high flying. So that story was a little confusing, but the match, technical wise, was incredible. I actually loved it.”
On Ankle Lock
Q: Why did you decide to add the ankle lock as one of your finishing moves?
KA: “Ken Shamrock used to use it before I started in WWE and I love Ken and I was a big fan of his and he was a shooter. When you’re a shooter in the business, you should have some kind of Submission hold and the ankle lock I thought was a cool submission to have considering that it is a real submission hold. And Ken Shamrock actually would apply it on his opponent. I knew if I was going to have a submission hold, it would be the ankle lock. I would copy Ken and you know what? I absolutely loved it. I really learned how to transition it in and out of different submissions, trading back and forth into false finishes. And I was able to really get real technical with it. I would say I got very creative with my ankle locks.”
Speaking On Current WWE
Q: Looking back at current WWE, what you think of Big E and New Day splitting up and having Xavier and Kofi kind of making their heel turn and what do you think of them as heels?
KA: “Well, I think they’re going to do really well. I mean those guys had an incredible run. I mean, it had to be what, maybe 12 years. So their faction was highly successful and it was entertaining. It was fun. I think this heel run is going to do a lot for all of them. Especially the two heels. So I think the fans are going to accept them as heels. They won’t for a little bit, but eventually they will. This will bring on even bigger and better stories for them.”
Q: You were able to do that. Was it more challenging to portray one side or the other?
KA: “I like being a heel because you didn’t have to be accepted by the fans. You had to get the fans to hate, hate you. And it wasn’t that hard. So it was just easier for me, if I were to start out as a baby face, it wouldn’t have worked. I’ll give you a couple of examples when The Rock was a baby face at first, the fans were chanting, ‘die, rocky, die.’ He wasn’t a baby face. Roman Reigns, when they first started him, they used him as a baby face, but he wasn’t ready yet. And fans crapped on him too, for a little bit, but he eventually proved himself and he became a world champion for four years. And now he’s one of the top wrestlers in the world. He actually is doing an incredible job right now. So starting out as a baby face is a really difficult thing to do, even as an Olympic gold medalist myself. So it’s a lot easier to be a heel and the fans will accept you a lot quicker as a human.”
Q: What have you made of WWE doing more overseas premium events and that expansion in general?
KA: “Well, I think it’s more money for the company. It also gives them exposure overseas. I know they were limited on doing PPVs over there, but you know what? Now it’s a worldwide business. You have to go throughout the world. You have to do PPVs all over the world. You have to expand as a company and for WWE, they only would do one or two pay per views a year overseas. Now they’re doing five or six, maybe seven. So I think it’s a great avenue for the company and it’s going to open up a lot more opportunities because there are countries that the WWE is still not in or has never gone to and they’re going to end up eventually going to those countries too.”
On Logan Paul
Q: Can you see Logan Paul as a future WWE Champion?
KA: “Yes. Yeah, That kid is incredibly talented. I’m a big fan of his. I’ll be honest with you. When he was a boxer, I hated his guts. But I get it now. I know what he was doing. He wanted me to hate him. But I love this kid. This kid is so talented. He has picked up on the business quicker than anybody in the history of the business. Including myself. I have a lot of respect for that kid. It’s amazing how he’s been able to pick up on everything that he’s accomplished, you know as a fighter, as a boxer, as a pro wrestler, as a businessman, this guy is nothing but gold and I have a lot of respect for him and I’m a big fan of his.”
Q: He’s in some talks to possibly fight Conor McGregor in a boxing match. Do you think he should do that or just focus like you said the WWE is going so well focus and just stay on the WWE or just kind of dip his toe in both?
KA: “I think you should dip his toe on both. I’m not against it. I would love to see Logan Paul versus Conor McGregor and Connor is a great standup fighter. He’s a good boxer, but Logan Paul is a pretty exceptional boxer too. But if this is just boxing, Logan has a chance. If it was MMA, I understand, but Logan is incredibly talented. He has continued to prove people wrong about him and the same with his brother too. So these two guys are tearing it up and making a big lump sum of money. I’m very happy for both of them. And doing it overseas, I believe it’s going to be in India. That’s a great thing to do.
“I mean, they’re getting exposure, halfway across the world and they’re going to have a lot of Indian fans when they’re done. So, I think this is a great idea and a great concept and hopefully it does occur.”
On Angle’s Career
Q: Just looking kind of at your career, you were a part of some really memorable rivalries. which one stands out to you the most?
KA: “My rivalries with either Chris Benoit or Brock Lesnar, Stone Cold Steve Austin was a lot of fun, too. I had some short rivalries with Undertaker and The Rock, but I would have to say Brock Lesnar and Chris Benoit. Those two are my favorites, and I probably spent more time with those two than anybody else.”
Q: Was there ever a storyline throughout your career that you disagreed with or just didn’t think it was the right way to go?
KA: “Yeah! When Vince McMahon turned me into a pervert that was trying to take advantage of Booker T’s wife. Sometimes Vince would come up with these ideas and had people thinking what was going through his mind. It made me queasy. I even had to apologize to Booker and Sharmell (Booker’s wife) before and after I did my promos or whatever I did with them. So, it was a very uncomfortable situation.”
Q: How do you get word of that first? Does Vince just tell you how it’s going to happen or do you get somebody else?
KA: “Yeah, he brought us all into an office and told us what we were going to do. ‘Kurt’s going to hit on your wife and he’s going to try to have sex with her.’ And I know Booker T and Sharmell were thinking, ‘holy shit, this is crazy,’ you know? So I was too. I didn’t want to do it, but I did because Vince wanted me to. So that was the only thing I really regretted about the business was doing stuff like that.”
On Upcoming Angle Movie
Q: Wondering if there’s any updates about a potential cast for your movie, if, if being able to lock anybody in or how that’s kind of going?
KA: “We’re still picking the cast. I’m not supposed to say a lot about the movie right now because there’s gonna be a time when we’re gonna promote it. But, it’s going really well. We got the investment for the script. We have the script almost being almost written. We are picking the actors. We also have investors that invested, but we’re getting more. So it’s a process, but I’d say we’ll probably start shooting the movie by mid-late summer, maybe early fall at the latest, but it’s going to happen this year.”
Q: From a personal standpoint, how exciting is that to get that going?
KA: “Having a movie about my life is just a dream come true. Especially when you’re behind the scenes and you’re helping the directors. Putting together the best product you can. I can’t wait to show this movie to the world. And these directors are incredibly talented. Their names are Ian and Eshom Nelms and they’re brothers and they wrestled in high school and college.
“So they understand my sport, which is even better. They directed movies like Fatman starring Mel Gibson and Red Right Hand starring Orlando Bloom. A lot of other incredible films. My nephew John Bernthal, brought them to my attention. I loved heir ideas and concepts. We’ve started off with a great relationship and I’m really excited about this film.”
Q: And obviously there’s kind of the younger generation that wasn’t there to watch you as you did your thing in the ring and it’s funny because there’s like TikTok memes of you and these people know you from memes rather than a wrestler. What’s it like having a younger generation have a different point of view on all that?
KA: “Well, when I walk down the street or walk into a store, they refer to me as the meme guy. That blows the wind out of yourselves. You build this legacy all your life as an Olympic gold medalist and one of the greatest professional wrestlers of all time. And all they’re saying is, ‘Oh, there’s the meme guy.’ So it was pretty cool to have a meme that went viral, but I didn’t realize that people were going to start looking at me as that, other than Kurt Angle, the Olympic gold medalist. So it was a little weird.”
Q: What kind of movie will it be, what can we expect to see?
KA: “Everything will be well explained. It’s going to start from when I was a little kid, it only goes up to the Olympics. It doesn’t talk about my pro wrestling career. That is something that we’re going to do down the line. But right now we want to tell my Olympic story and me breaking my neck before the Olympics and overcoming a broken neck and winning the Olympic gold medal. So that’s what the movie’s about. We’re really excited about this and everybody was on the same page. The problem was, we had so much content that if we were going to fit my whole life, the movie would have been five hours. You don’t do a five hour movie. So we decided just to do the Olympics. And then somewhere down the line, we’re going to do a second movie called Angle 2. And that will be my pro wrestling career. That’s the idea anyway.”
Q: You mentioned injuries and I know you recently revealed that Brock Lesnar broke your neck. Are there any other horror injuries from yourself or something that you witnessed that were just like very memorable, scary moments?
KA: “I got a concussion one time at a match at SummerSlam 2000. I was wrestling The Rock and Triple H. Triple H was supposed to give me a finishing move on top of an announcers table. And the table was rigged so it would break. But the table gave way too soon and my hands and arms were behind my back. Triple H had my head between his legs. He had my arms trapped. The table broke and I fell down five feet and hit my head on the concrete ground. And I was out cold. Triple H actually said I was snoring and he was trying to get me to come too. And eventually they had the wheels out. They had to bring out a gurney and put me on it and when we backstage, but the crazy thing is that’s what we were supposed to do anyway, except I wasn’t supposed to get injured for real. It’s supposed to be a fake injury, but I actually got a concussion for real. So backstage, they wanted me to go back out to the ring and I couldn’t remember anything. So they relayed the message to Rock and Triple H. “When he current gets out there, you have to call everything in the ring to him because he doesn’t know what he’s doing!’
“And I went back out there and I finished the match, but you know what? Because of that, Vincent McMahon looked at me in a different way. He was like, ‘man, this guy’s our franchise guy.’ I want to put the title on this guy because he has balls. So the next month he had me beat The Rock for the world championship, it came out of nowhere. It was almost like he was thanking me for showing my intestinal fortitude. So I thought that was really cool that, you know, Vince was rewarding me by showing that I would go out there and sacrifice my body for him.”
Q: Did you have any memory after going down then going back into the match?
KA: “No, I woke up in the hospital at 3am and I didn’t know what happened. I don’t even remember any of the match. Not even the beginning of it before I got a concussion. And the crazy thing is back then they didn’t sit you out. I went to TD the next day, and I wrestled, and I got thrown in my head, and I got a concussion again. I actually saw lights. I hit my head, and there were lights, and then it was a big blackout. And then I woke up and asked what happened. The doctor told me I got another concussion. So after that, they had to sit me out for a couple weeks. I wasn’t able to do anything after that. “
Q: Do you ever look back on close calls like those concussions and think how bad it could have been?
KA: “I’m very grateful. There are a lot of things I did pro wrestling that put my body on the line. I mean, I used to do moonsaults off the top of the cage and land in the ring on the wooden ring. So I took a lot of chances. Sometimes I look back and ask myself what was I thinking.
“I paid the price cause my body’s suffering now. I had knee replacements. I had my back surgery last year. I have to have shoulder replacements. I had five neck surgeries. And what happened with my neck is, I was going to have disc replacement surgery to replace my discs, but what happened to my neck is it naturally fused together. So it’s all bone. No more discs, just all bone. I have to deal with that pain and there’s nothing I can do to fix it. So I’m paying the price right now for what I did in my career. And you know, I tell a lot of people, I wish I would have retired 10 years earlier. I think that I would have felt much better physically.”
Q: Do you have any advice to the guys that are there in it now, obviously the money that comes in and the highs are very high, but just thinking about their future as well and trying to find that balance maybe.
KA: “You have to find a balance. You don’t have to take a bunch of chances. You can wrestle very safely and still have an incredible career. A lot of people don’t do a lot of stunts. Stone Cold Steve Austin never did anything crazy off the top rope. He was a great ground wrestler.
“He was a great, incredible entertainer and he was an incredible wrestler too. He didn’t have to do any of that crazy stuff and look at the success he’s had. “