https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L6lLR9VKLOo
Yesterday, ESPN UK’s Nicholas Atkin posted an article based on an interview he did with Kurt Angle on January 30th in London, England during TNA’s UK tour. As far as newsworthiness, there are two things to note:
The first addresses something that happened at the tapings: We noted at the time that there was fear that Angle suffered a concussion at TNA’s first taping of the UK tour on January 29th in Manchester, which happened to be the night before the interview. At the time, the reports were that Angle seemed better after about half an hour and was cleared to wrestle the next night inHowever, Atkin wrote that Angle told him that he did indeed suffer a concussion in Manchester, but the doctor still cleared him for London. Angle told Atkin that “I’m healthy, I don’t have any problems. You have injuries, you’re gonna have injuries in wrestling. Everybody does,” but it’s not 100% clear if he was speaking generally or referring to the concussion.
At the time, it was classified as Angle having a “concussion scare” but turning out to be OK. Clearly, that wasn’t actually the case. Obviously, we don’t have the whole story, like who exactly the doctor was and if (s)he was affiliated with TNA, but for a doctor to clear someone the night after suffering a concussion is a terrible look, to say the least. With WWE fighting off lawsuits alleging that they acted improperly with regards to handling concussions, it’s mind-boggling that something like this could happen in TNA, even if you’re someone who has a low opinion of the company. Angle’s TNA farewell matches were indeed the most hyped part of the tour, but in 2016, you would think that the fans would be understanding if he had to bow out after Manchester with a concussion. It also looks even worse with the news coming out a few weeks after Daniel Bryan’s retirement speech, though the actual concussion happened just over a week before Bryan made his retirement announcement.
For what it’s worth, elsewhere in the ESPN article, Angle says that he’s better overall shape than people think, especially when it comes to his oft-injured neck: “A lot of people feel I’m banged up. I had some bad luck with my neck for a couple of years in WWE. Ever since I’ve been pretty healthy as far as my neck. Obviously I’ve had knee injuries, shoulder injuries, we all do. It’s just a matter of the recovery time and when you can come back, and I’ve been very fortunate to come back soon.”
Meanwhile, as for all of the talk of whether or not Angle is retiring, he said that “I’m gonna take a break from [professional] wrestling, I know that for sure, at least a year. So we’ll see how it goes and I’ll go from there.” Angle then clarified thet “I’m not gonna say I’m gonna retire. I am pretty much done with TNA. Not sure, maybe down the road, maybe I might come back, but most likely I probably won’t, because there’s a chance that I might not wrestle again. I just wanna get a feeler this year and see what I wanna do and see where I wanna go.” The TNA UK tour was set to be the site of his last matches for the time being, but it looks like the offer to wrestle Rey Mysterio at the UR Fight card next month must have been too lucrative to pass up. Although if he suffered a concussion on January 29th and it was far from his first, wrestling on March 20th may not be a great idea.