In an interview with Digital Spy to promote the upcoming TNA Wrestling tour of the United Kingdom, Kurt Angle discussed his decision to finish up with the company after the tour, a potential return to the WWE, wanting to wrestle Daniel Bryan and more.
Highlights of the interview are below:
On whether this will be his last tour: “Yeah, this is my final tour for TNA Wrestling, is it my retirement match? For TNA, yes, I don’t know what I’m going to do after. I’m going to take a year off after that and see what I want to do, it’s cool because if I were going to retire anywhere, it’s here. The crowd, the fans, every time we come here we pack the house. We’re having a bit of difficulty doing that in the United States, so to come here and be able to have my last few matches is phenomenal, it’s a great way to go out.”
On whether he will return to the ring after he takes a year off: “Am I finished wrestling for good? No, I don’t plan on doing a lot of it, whether I do decide to wrestle for myself or TNA or WWE, it would be very, very part time, very limited, but I’ve had a wonderful 9 years in TNA, it’s been a lot of fun. This company has been through so many ups and downs and being along and enjoying the ride was really cool. For a small company like TNA, the things we were able to do were nothing short of phenomenal, the wrestlers we had, Sting, myself, AJ Styles, Samoa Joe, Bobby Roode, it was a lot of fun.”
On seeing Sting and Samoa Joe doing good in the WWE: “I’m not surprised, or the Dudley Boyz or James Storm, there is so much talent in TNA that could be on the main roster in WWE, the problem with TNA is not talent. Whether we’ve had the budget the last couple of years, we spent a lot of money and that hit the company pretty hard, we made some good decisions, we made some bad decisions, but overall, TNA survived and they tried to make that comeback again to where they were in 2009.”
On the reports that he could be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame soon: “I’ll believe the hype when I decide to talk to WWE, I haven’t, we were going to have some type of meeting last year, but unfortunately it got cancelled, we really haven’t spoken, I don’t expect them to speak to me until my contract is up and I haven’t really gone after them to talk to them. Somewhere along the line it’ll happen, I just don’t know when. Would it be an honor to be in the WWE Hall of Fame? Yeah, it’s an incredible honor. Would it kill me if I wasn’t? No, it wouldn’t, the most important thing to me is being in the National Wrestling Hall of Fame, which is Olympic Wrestling, that’s where my legacy truly is, it would be nice to be in the WWE Hall of Fame, it’ll happen, I just don’t know when.”
On whether there is a chance of him rejoining WWE: “We’ll see. Would it be a possibility? Yeah, I’m not ruling out anything. I know that next year, I will take off and then we’ll see where it goes. I have spoken to TNA about possibly coming back someday, that’s still on the table. The way TNA has treated me the last 9 years, I can’t throw them away. Whether it’s TNA or WWE, or I could end up doing something myself. I have a match in March with Rey Mysterio, it’ll be kind of nice just to promote myself and wrestle guys like Rey.”
On Daniel Bryan and whether he thinks Bryan will wrestle again: “Daniel Bryan is my pick, he always will be, I really believe he’ll be back. Right now, pound for pound, he’s the best wrestler on the planet, he reminds me a lot of AJ Styles, there’s a kid who doesn’t get credit either, he’s one of the top three right now in wrestling. Daniel Bryan, I’ve had my eye on him for years, it was like when I was in WWE, I’m happy, I’m having all these wonderful matches, but that young kid over in TNA, that AJ Styles, I’d love to get my hands on him, eventually I did, that’s how I feel about Daniel Bryan. It’s going to happen, whether it’s in WWE or TNA or independently, we’ll book it and make it happen somehow.”
The interview is available in full at this link.
