It is the Kurt Angle time of year. The Olympics have just finished and a gold medal-winning wrestler is weighing up the idea of a run with the WWE. Everybody knows Angle’s story, and how he won an Olympic gold medal with a broken frigging neck.

As one Olympic champion looks to start his career, another took the time recently to ponder the ending of his. Talking on his Kurt Angle Podcast, Angle discussed his long history of neck injuries and admitted that he is going to have to have neck fusion surgery at some point down the road.

“I have a lot of motor skill problems in my hands, my fingers because of my neck. Numbness down my arms, I have a lot of pain in my neck. I’ve been putting off fusion surgery for gosh, 15 years. I might not be able to put it off for much longer, I’m eventually going to have to have fusion.”

Neck injuries aside, Kurt Angle enjoyed a long run in a WWE ring, and a wrestling career spanning over forty years. Hanging up his boots in a quick match against Baron Corbin. Corbin was not Angle’s ideal choice for a final opponent but did what was necessary as an ageing star.

Kurt Angle is the Man Who Helped Cena Get His Start

Every WWE fan remembers the infamous moment a young upstart named John Cena claimed ruthless aggression was enough for him to take down Kurt Angle. While Angle won the match, it put Cena on the map pushing his career down the path it still treads.

Talking on his podcast Kurt Angle admitted that he would have liked his retirement match to have been against John Cena.

“I thought Cena made sense, I started his career and I thought Cena could end mine so it made better sense.” Angle explained, discussing how another possibility that had been floated was a match against Shane McMahon.

However, with his list of injuries, Kurt Angle admitted a match against Shane might not have been the best idea. The choice of Baron Corbin remains a strange one, however, Angle did as was customary and put over the younger star in his final outing. However, the poetry of the John Cena match would certainly have been a far more fitting end.

Kurt Angle was offered contracts by both AEW and Impact Wrestling after his retirement match in WWE but the Olympic Gold Medallist turned them down. The former world champion recently had an interview with Fightful where he discussed a number of things.

He also explained why he turned down offers from both promotions during the interview. Angle claimed that he wishes he could take the offers. However, he explained that after his long career his body is too banged up to continue wrestling:

“Well, I had had AEW, TNA, they’ve offered, but I can’t do it, I wish I could. My body’s too banged up, I’m 52 years old, just trying to live my life now and try to live it in less pain.  And I’m in a lot of pain right now, so I’m suffering from the career that I’ve had, but I don’t regret it.”

• Kurt Angle on Life After Wrestling: “I’m In Extreme Pain All Day Long”

Kurt Angle On Deals Offered By AEW And Impact

Kurt Angle also went into the details of the deals he was offered by both the promotions. According to him, AEW offered him a seven-match deal while Impact wrestling wanted him on board for just one match:

“AEW, I think it was like a seven-match deal, TNA I think they were just gonna do one match, but I just felt like my final matches in WWE, I knew that I’d lost a step, I wasn’t the same as I was in my prime, and I didn’t like the person I was, the performer I was.

So if I can’t perform at that level that I was in my prime, I’m not gonna do it anymore. And that’s why I turned down the offers from AEW and TNA.”

Kurt Angle wrestled his retirement match in WWE at WrestleMania 35. He chose Baron Corbin as his opponent for the bout and lost to the lone wolf during the event.

WWE Hall of Famer Kurt Angle has taken to social media to become the latest celebrity to troll UFC star Connor McGregor. McGregor suffered a broken leg at the end of the first round of his trilogy fight with Dustin Poirier.

Kurt Angle has never been one to back away from reminding the world he won an Olympic gold medal with a broken neck. Breaking it out once more to laud over the Notorious One.

“So….@TheNotoriousMMA (Conor McGregor) broke his freakin’ ankle this past weekend. Big deal. I break my ankle all of the time. Broke my ankle this morning and I’m jumping around right now!! I even won a gold medal with a broken freakin’ neck too,” Kurt Angle said.

The comments from Kurt Angle are of course made in jest, aimed at a fighter who has built a career from his barbed comments and scalpel-sharp wit. Now, he finds himself on the other end of things, and people are wasting no time in taking advantage of the situation.

Kurt Angle Knows a Thing or Two About Injuries

All athletes suffer injuries. Some are luckier than others. Kurt Angle is one of those who understands full well the toll a serious injury can take a performer. Angle broke his neck four times during a career that included both amateur and professional wrestling glory.

While Kurt was quick to jump on the trolling bandwagon, he was no doubt pleased to hear that Connor’s surgery was successful. Regardless of persona, it’s never good when someone suffers such a possibly career-ending injury.

Now retired, Angle is still very much active in the wrestling world thanks in part to this podcast The Kurt Angle Show. Kurt Angle has spoken recently about how he lives in constant pain as a result of his wrestling career. Pain management is a part of his life. It is the price that is paid for a career inside both the squared circle and the octagon.

When a wrestler retires, it is not often they can just down tools and walk away. Many of the greatest stars of years gone by have gone on to become coaches, commentators, managers, bookers or producers, to name just a few positions. Kurt Angle is one such great. His career in the ring may have ended in 2019, but his career in wrestling is far from over.

Talking on a recent episode of The Kurt Angle Show, the Hall of Famer spoke about how he had been approached by HHH after his retirement. The offer was to work as a coach at the performance centre, helping younger talent hone their skills.

“Triple H, he contacted me about seven months ago and wanted me to help out down in NXT,” Angle said. “Wanted me to be a trainer. He only said ‘Hey, all I need you to do is go over stuff with talent. You can do it from home on your computer, you can do a zoom call. Just go through the tapes with them in their match and tell what they did right and wrong.’ I said I’d be interested.”

Yet, despite accepting the offier, Kurt Angle went on to say that he never heard back from anybody. “I never heard back from him. Long story short, they were interested but at the last second they must have backed out, which is okay with me.”

Kurt Angle Would be an Asset to Any Development Center

Kurt Angle knows how good he is, and he knows what he could bring to any organization. He is also a professional who knows how small the world is. Any wrestling company would benefit greatly from his experience, his stories, and his advice. It is surely only a matter of time before he comes back into WWE in a backstage capacity.

The performance centre is a quiet place to return. A place with no cameras and no storytelling. It is a place focused on the art and craft of professional wrestling. Something Kurt Angle knows inside and out. Whether he comes back as a coach, a mentor, or just the legend telling his stories to the younger crowd, the wrestling world has not seen the last of him.

Wrestling is a sport filled with tough men. They don’t come much tougher than Kurt Angle. A decorated amateur wrestler and gold medal-winning Olympian before he made the move over to professional wrestling. Now he is a well-respected podcaster, whose passion for the sport is still as bright as ever.

His career in the sport at both amateur and professional wrestling levels spanned over forty years. It’s well documented that he wrestled in the Olympics with a broken neck, but further to that, he amassed a number of injuries and bumps during his career.

Talking during a recent Q&A on AddFreeShows.com about the toll wrestling took on his body, Angle said “I’m so banged up now. I sacrificed a lot of my body in professional wrestling and amateur wrestling. I have to blame both sports, not just one. I’m paying for it now.”

Kurt Angle suffered several neck injuries during his career, to name but one body part that suffered during his career. Wrestlers both amateur and professional put their bodies through much more than it is designed to endure. The effects of this are felt long after their in-ring careers have ended.

Kurt Angle was ‘retired’ by Baron Corbin at Wrestlemania 35, yet even now, his body is still making him pay for those years of fame.

“I’m in extreme pain all day long. I do maintenance on my body all day, I do my neck traction. I have a thing called the Iron Neck, where it trains your neck. Then I have anti-gravity machine rollers. I stretch. I do a lot of weight training.”

Kurt Angle Knows the Dangers of Being in Constant Pain

The constant injuries and abuse a wrestler puts their body through in their career is no secret. You will be hard pushed to find a retired wrestler who does not struggle with aches and pains. Kurt Angle is brutally aware of the dangers not only of wrestling but of the dangerous side-effects of wrestling.

“I had a painkiller problem, and I kicked that eight years ago. Not having painkillers anymore is really difficult, but I’m never going back to those, nor do I want to.”

Kurt Angle is 52 years old and has himself in great condition as he continues to care for his injured body. His story, his message, is not one of regret, but one that should serve as a reminder to any fan. Wrestling is not for the faint-hearted. It is as real as it comes. Fame and notoriety can fade, but the pain is a constant reminder of everything that has been experienced.

Painful bumps are part of wrestling, and Kurt Angle knows all about them. The old line of it all being fake doesn’t hold water with the knowledge fans have of the sport. Bumps are real, bad landings hurt, even good landings hurt. Pulling off a move can hurt just as much as taking a move. Injuries are real. Yes, there are storylines built around them, and certain poetic license may be used, but beneath it, is a single constant. Wrestling is a dangerous sport that hurts those that practice it.

Talking during a recent episode of The Kurt Angle Podcast, the show’s star talked about the most painful injury he ever got in the squared circle. Fans will undoubtedly guess the match, but not the spot that caused it.

It was 2001, King of the Ring, and THAT match against Shane McMahon. While the infamous glass shot left both men battered and bloody, it was an earlier spot that Kurt Angle credits for causing him the worst pain he ever experienced.

Coming after a suplex on the concrete, Kurt Angle was left in the position of needing to finish a brutal match with a brutal injury that nobody could see.

Kurt Angle is One Tough Son of a Gun

“Yeah, I cracked my tailbone, it was extremely painful,” Angle said. “I never felt pain like that in my life. It ran down my legs, I could barely stand up and I knew I had to finish the match, but I wasn’t sure how I was going to do it. I was clueless about how I was going to finish the match because it hurt so bad.”

“Without a doubt, a 10 or 11, it was that painful. I never had pain like that, especially the way it ran down my legs. It grabbed a hold of my nerves that ran down my legs and it was just thumping the whole time. I couldn’t bend over, I had to stay standing up straight, my positioning was all messed up. I couldn’t really do much, I was supposed to carry Shane back to the ring after the glass spot and I couldn’t. Thank god I grabbed a cart to bring him back.”

Coming from the man who won an Olympic gold medal with a broken frigging neck, it must have been a very painful injury indeed.

Kurt Angle went through a dark period in his career in 2006. The former world champion was working through many injuries and the pain caused him to get addicted to painkillers.

The Olympic Gold Medallist was not only harming himself with the addiction but he got out of control to a point where he started sending threatening text messages to Vince McMahon.

Angle opened up about the time during the latest episode of his podcast. He recalled how he started behaving out of control because of his problem:

“Up until 2006 we were pretty close but my behavior became erratic, I started behaving out of control, sending Vince text messages threatening to beat him up. I had the painkiller problem that nobody knew about.”

• Kurt Angle On Vince McMahon Turning Down Request For Alien Gimmick

The former WWE champion explained that he wasn’t able to take time off because a lot of other talents were on the shelf. This led to him sending more and more texts to Vince McMahon:

“I was texting Vince more and more and he wouldn’t respond and that pissed me off even more. After I joined ECW it got even worse. [I sent those texts] because he wouldn’t get back to me. I understand why now, I wasn’t making any sense.

When I went to a meeting with Vince after I decided to leave after ECW 2006, he had a whole list of text messages and I’m reading these saying ‘Gosh, I don’t remember texting this.’ It was really graphic, ‘I’m going to beat the sh** out of you.'”

Kurt Angle finally decided to quit WWE only a month after he was moved to ECW. He was granted an early release from his contract in August 2006.

Kurt Angle signed with WWE in 1998 and he became an instant star. His brother Eric Angle then tried to follow his footsteps when he joined the company two years later in 2000.

During the latest episode of his podcast, the Olympic Gold Medallist talked about a number of things including his brother’s run with the company and more.

Recalling some scrapped plans for the duo, Kurt revealed that the company wanted them to be a tag team. However, the plans never materialized because of the release of his brother:

“That was the plan, they wanted Eric and I too tag together, they thought if Eric improved enough he’d be a great tag team partner for me, we could have a good run as a tag team for a while. Unfortunately, he got hurt and it never transpired.”

Eric Angle made his WWE debut during the Survivor Series PPV in 2000. He helped his brother in retaining the WWE championship against the Undertaker by switching places with Kurt Angle.

• Kurt Angle On Vince McMahon Turning Down Request For Alien Gimmick

He was then signed to a development contract and sent to OVW. Unfortunately for Eric, he tore a ligament in his arm and went through nine surgeries to help correct the problems with his biceps.

While Eric Angle did make a return to WWE TV for a brief run in March 2003, his run with the company didn’t last long after that. He was released from his contract the same year.

When Vince McMahon decided to revive ECW, Kurt Angle was one of the top stars who was moved to the brand to help establish it. However, the company then made some bizarre decisions with the brand.

This included putting the show on SyFy, a network for Science Fiction programming. During the recent episode of his podcast, the former champion discussed how this move made no sense.

Kurt Angle also revealed how the network had suggested the inclusion of alien characters on the show, an idea that Vince McMahon turned down immediately:

“It was odd, we didn’t correlate the two, we couldn’t understand it. I know the SyFy channel is a quality T.V. station, a quality network; it just wasn’t the right fit.

The crazy thing was the SyFy channel approached Vince saying they wanted two alien wrestlers on the show, “recalled Kurt Angle, “And Vince said no immediately. He said we’re not doing that, that’s way too tacky.”

• Kurt Angle Reacts To John Cena WWE Return Rumors

Apart from this, the Olympic Gold Medallist talked about the time RVD was stripped of the ECW championship back in 2006 after the high flying star got arrested for the possession of marijuana.

Kurt Angle discussed how it was an unfortunate incident because marijuana is now legal in many states but it was a big issue back in the day.

WWE Hall of Famer and Olympic Gold Medallist Kurt Angle has reacted to the news that John Cena may be returning to WWE in the near future. It was recently reported that WWE are looking to bring Cena back for the first SmackDown event to take place in front of a live audience in July.

It was also recently reported in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter that people within WWE have talked about Roman Reigns vs. Cena as a top match for SummerSlam. This would be a marquee bout for the company to promote as they welcome back fans in attendance full time for the first time in over a year.

Although the idea is potentially Cena vs Reigns, Kurt Angle has put the idea out there that he himself may return for one final retirement match against John Cena.

Kurt Angle on John Cena Match

“Hearing rumors about @JohnCena going back to @wwe” Kurt Angle would write on Twitter. “[It’s] got me rethinking about my retirement match, like…………”

Although Kurt Angle retired back at WrestleMania 35, he still appears to want that ‘one final match.’ The bout against Baron Corbin that Angle had at that Mania show did make sense in storyline.

However, it was arguably one of the most anticlimactic ways to finish the career of the pro wrestling great.

Whilst Kurt Angle is not able to perform at the level he could a decade ago; a potential final bout against John Cena, who himself had his first WWE televised match against Kurt Angle, would at the very least be intriguing.

Would you like to see Kurt Angle have one final match in WWE? Let us know in the comments

WWE Hall of Famer and Olympic Gold Medallist Kurt Angle recently discussed a horrific groin injury he suffered whilst in WWE back in the mid 2000s. The former TNA World Heavyweight Champion discussed the injury during the latest episode of The Kurt Angle Show.

“The hardest part was the injuries, I just couldn’t keep myself together,” Angle began on the podcast, talking about his mindset back in that time period. “That’s the main reason I even left WWE in 2006, I just couldn’t keep my body together.”

“My hamstring, my groin, my abdominal, my shoulder, my neck, I was falling apart and I was having a really difficult time and the painkiller issue wasn’t getting any better” Angle continued, describing just how broken down he was even 10+ years before he even retired proper.

“I said before, I started lashing out at Vince” Angle revealed. “Vince was ignoring me which made me even more angrier and I would leave him threatening messages on his answering machine on his cellphone. It just got so far out of control that eventually I had to go to Vince. [I had to] say ‘we need to have a talk.’”

Kurt Angle on Horrific Injuries

Kurt Angle would then reveal that he once had to physically show McMahon his groin injuries, just to get the WWE Chairman to fully appreciate the situation he was in. “I just came from an event and I went to a meeting and I pulled my pants down; it was a production meeting, Vince was in the front and everybody else was in the back.”

“I walked in between them and pulled my pants down to my ankles and I showed Vince my groin” Angle added. “It was all black and blue, I mean my penis, everything was black from the injury. It was an abdominal tear, a groin tear and a hamstring tear, all three in the same time and all the blood just rushed to my leg and my groin” Angle noted, revealing the extent of the injury.

“I said ‘We need to talk,’ Angle continued. “[Vince said] ‘Well let’s go in my office,’ I said ‘No, I need to meet you up at the headquarters this week, I want you to set me up a flight and bring me up because we need to have a personal discussion about what’s going on.’ That’s when I decided I was mostly likely going to leave the company” Angle would conclude.

Kurt Angle has had a storied history with Brock Lesnar. The two stars have challenged each other numerous times in the past and they have had matches in more than one promotion.

The Olympic Gold Medalist talked about the Beast’s early days in the wrestling business during the latest episode of his podcast. He discussed things from Brock’s time in WWE to his controversial NJPW run and more.

Angle discussed Brock Lesnar winning the IWGP world title in his debut match and keeping the belt for over a year. According to him, Lesnar didn’t want to lose the title to just anybody so he told NJPW officials to bring him over:

“He wouldn’t do it with just anybody, so he told New Japan if you bring Kurt Angle over, I’ll do the job for him. They brought me over, he did the job for me and then he wanted to have a rematch so he can make more money.”

Kurt Angle then talked about how Brock Lesnar is a very stern businessman and according to the former Raw general manager, for Brock it’s ‘money first’ and passion second:

“Brock is all about money. He’s a very stern businessman. Everything revolved around money for him. It’s money first, passion second.”

The former TNA star also mentioned how the former universal champion was making a ton of money for his NJPW matches and he was remaining the champion as long as he could.

Brock Lesnar won the IWGP heavyweight championship in his debut match for the promotion in October 2005. Despite his disputes with NJPW, Lesnar kept the title for a while and he dropped it to Angle in June 2007.

• Shinsuke Nakamura Calls Brock Lesnar’s ‘Unprofessional’ For NJPW Run

Former Raw women’s champion Ronda Rousey is once again teaming with WWE Hall Of Famer Kurt Angle for a new project.

The wrestling veteran teased the new project sharing a photo of the two on social media earlier yesterday. Both the former WWE stars are seen standing in front of a truck marked ‘Rowdy’s dairy home delivery’ with the following caption:

“Wait and see what @rondarousey and your Olympic hero have in store for you. Yes! That’s Ronda’s milk truck behind us. We had a great day filming the show. #itstrue”

There is no word yet on what the project is about. It’s likely that the Browsey Acres farm in California which is owned by the female star and her husband Travis Browne, is involved in it.

• Ronda Rousey Plays it Cool on a WWE Return

Ronda Rousey’s relationship with Kurt Angle goes back to the former UFC star’s debut match in WWE. She teamed up with the Olympic Gold Medallist to face Triple H and Stephanie McMahon at WrestleMania 34.

Though the former champion has been away from WWE since WrestleMania 35. She left the company to start a family and Rousey revealed in April that she was four months pregnant with her first child.

Stay tuned for updates on their project.

Backstage arguments are common in any wrestling organization. Talking on his Kurt Angle Show podcast, Angle recently discussed one such incident during his time with WWE. The argument in question is quite well known and happened back in 2006.

Smackdown stars Batista and Booker T got into a brawl behind the scenes and according to Kurt Angle, the whole thing was one big misunderstanding.

Batista made a comment that Booker T overhead. Tempers flared, as they are want to do in a business such as professional wrestling. The pair went at it, and the rest is news telling history.

“I don’t think it was anything personal against Booker T or anyone else on SmackDown. Batista said it and Booker confronted him and now the situation got hotter. Now Booker confronts Batista, makes Batista look like an idiot, Batista confronts Booker and now they end in a fight competition. The fight occurred, I got there afterwards, I saw Booker T had a black eye and Batista was a little banged up and I just thought it was a big misunderstanding. I know they apologized afterwards and made up and did whatever they had to do to move on, they just misunderstood each other about the whole situation. It was a shame; it didn’t have to happen.” Angle said.

In an environment such as professional wrestling, tempers are going to run hot at times. Incidents such as this can serve as a lesson to current roster stars. It’s important to get the full context of something before charging into a confrontation.

WWE Superstar Randy Orton recently appeared on The Kurt Angle Show podcast via AdFreeShows. Orton discussed a number of topics with the Olympic Gold Medallist, including his ‘RK-BRO’ tag team partner Matt Riddle.

Orton revealed that he was not a fan of the ‘laid back’ Riddle, saying that he felt disrespected the first time that he met him. Randy would however get to finally enjoy the company of the former UFC fighter.

“My olive branch was basically me just looking at Matt and I go ‘Oh, there he is, there he is,’ just kind of ice breaker, expecting a ‘Oh hey Randy, my name is Matt, nice to meet you’” Randy Orton revealed of Riddle and their initial meeting.

“But instead, Matt just kind of, with the bloodshot eyes, glanced over at me and just kept walking” Orton continued. “I remember thinking ‘That motherf***er.’ For quite a while I didn’t like Riddle and it was because of that little scenario.”

Randy Orton on ‘That Motherf*cker’ Riddle

“I love the guy now,” Orton continued, not confirming what the bloodshot eyes referred to… “I’ve been in the locker room with the guy for probably a year, I was there when a couple weeks ago he forgot his verbiage live on RAW and scooted off on the scooter with Asuka in the back and everyone thought it was brilliant.”

“That was some of the best s–t I’ve ever seen” Orton added of the seemingly messed up segment a few weeks ago. “His backstage character, the ‘everything’s cool,’ and rambling nature of his promos, that works because in the ring, he goes. He reminds me of [Kurt Angle].”

“That dude, he can do it all and he busts his ass in the ring” Randy Orton stated. “Some of the matches he’s had with Sheamus, not my style of match I like to do have, but the Riddle – Sheamus matches I’ve seen as of late have been amazing. I think he’s going to do quite well, he’s going to do well” Orton concluded.

How far do you think Matt Riddle can go for WWE? Let us know in the comments

During a recent episode of the Kurt Angle Show at AdFreeShows.com, Olympic gold medalist Kurt Angle discussed the topic of “greatest pro wrestler of all time.”

Many people would pick Angle as the G.O.A.T., but he named Bret “The Hitman” Hart as his pick.

“It is Bret Hart because I believe that he’s the greatest wrestler of all time,” Angle said. “I believe that with his in-ring performance, there’s nobody better. I would say Shawn Michaels and Chris Benoit are close, even myself, but I still put Bret up there.”

Bret Hart: The Ultimate Technician

In addition to Shawn Michaels and Chris Benoit, Ric Flair is also in the conversation. However, he was no Bret Hart when it comes to technical ability.

“Don’t get me wrong, a Ric Flair needs to be up there too because he’s the man,” he added. “Ric was a great wrestler and could get people interested in the psychology of the match, but he was also very entertaining.”

“He took a lot of crazy Ric Flair bumps. You knew what he was going to do and you wanted him to do it. Bret Hart was just the best overall technician I have ever seen in my life.”

Bret Hart himself has said on many occasions that he would’ve loved to face Kurt Angle in the ring. Unfortunately this is another dream match that would not come to pass.

During this 2020 interview with Chris Van Vliet, Angle revealed the match almost happened at WrestleMania XX back in 2004:

Former WWE Superstar and Hall of Famer Kurt Angle recently spoke about Chad Gable on The Kurt Angle Show podcast. Angle was talking about how underutilized Gable is in the company, and how he may have to leave WWE to get a revamp to his character and presentation.

“I think this kid has so much potential” Kurt Angle began on the podcast, talking about Gable. “I know the company started pushing him, then they laid off, then they pushed him and laid off.”

“I don’t know if it has to do with his size, but the guy’s amazing” Angle added. “In real life, he can whoop any of those wrestlers asses.”

Kurt Angle on Chad Gable

“He’s a real life badass and to not have him go to the main event level where he deserves to be, it blows my mind” Kurt Angle continued. “He is a very talented, great technical wrestler, former Olympian, you can’t ask for anything more than that.”#

Kurt Angle finished by talking Chad Gable potentially leaving WWE and going to New Japan Pro Wrestling. It’s interesting that Angle chose NJPW specifically, although it is a promotion he has some experience with, having worked with them whilst in TNA.

“I think so, [although] I wouldn’t encourage him to do it,” Angle stated. “I wouldn’t give anybody that type of advice, I’d want them to do what they’re comfortable with doing but Chad does need a makeover.”

“Him going there [NJPW] and getting more experience and coming back with a different character with something with a subtle change, I think that would really help him” Angle concluded. “I’m not saying he should do it, I’m just saying it’s not bad advice to go ahead and do that.”

credit to WrestlingINC for the transcription

Kurt Angle recently discussed a conversation he had with Ric Flair back in 1998. The Olympic Gold Medallist was apparently choosing between WCW and the then WWF for his pro wrestling debut.

Speaking on his Kurt Angle Show podcast, Angle revealed that he reached out to the Nature Boy for career guidance.

“Somebody called me and said ‘Hey, if you want advice, call Ric Flair.’ So, I called Ric Flair, we started talking about wrestling. I said ‘Would it be smart to go to WCW?’ He said, ‘Hell no. No way, you go to WWE, Vince will take care of you.”

Angle said that Flair was not finished delivering his blunt message. Flair told him flat out, “Don’t come to WCW, they’re going to bury you.”

Kurt Angle on Ric Flair Advice

Ric Flair was working for WCW at the time of this discussion, so Angle had to decide how to take this advice. “I thought, he either doesn’t want me to take his spot or he’s being honest — and I think he was being honest.”

Kurt Angle had originally been offered a deal by WWE following his win at the 1996 Olympic Games. He turned down the offer at the time, thinking that he would continue as an Olympian.

It was only a few years later that Angle decided to make the jump to pro wrestling, at which point the offer on the table from WWE was substantially lower. WCW may well have offered a deal to Angle with a better monetary guarantee, but clearly Kurt made the right choice.

Luckily, Kurt Angle and Ric Flair would cross paths several times long after WCW went out of business in 2001. They competed against each other in a WWE ring on multiple occasions and had some memorable interactions in TNA, now Impact Wrestling.

WWE Hall of Famer and TNA alumni Kurt Angle recently appeared on Hannibal TV. The man considered one of the greatest ‘all-round’ performers in WWE history discussed a number of topics during the interview, including how he may be returning to WWE sooner rather than later.

“Well my relationship with WWE is really good and I like to keep it that way” Kurt Angle began the interview. “I don’t have any plans of going to AEW. I haven’t really spoke to them that much.”

“There’s just a couple messages sent back and forth but nothing serious” Angle revealed, negating any rumors that he was going to be All Elite bound. “I have something going on with WWE right now and it most likely will materialize.”

Kurt Angle on WWE Return

Angle finished by elaborating, somewhat, on those plans; “I can’t talk about it but that’s what I’m waiting on and I don’t wanna mess that up. The company’s been so good to me and I wanna be loyal to them.”

Kurt Angle’s last WWE match took place back at WrestleMania 35 against Baron Corbin. Angle has previously had a GM position on Monday Night RAW, so there’s a chance he may return for a similar role if and when he were to return.

Angle has stated in the past that he would like to work with Chad Gable, so that is also a possibility down the line.

credit to POST Wrestling for the transcription.

Would you like to see Kurt Angle back in WWE? Let us know in the comments

The Plane Ride From Hell is one of the most infamous stories in wrestling history. The event took place as the WWE roster was returning from a European tour on May 5th, 2002. One of the many stories to come from this commute was Vince McMahon deciding he wanted to wrestle the Olympic Gold Medalist, Kurt Angle.

On the latest episode of his Kurt Angle Show podcast, Angle recalls the Plane Ride from Hell as being the ‘longest night of his life.’ There was a lot of rowdiness on board, but things got dangerous when Angle and McMahon were wrestling near the door of the airplane.

“The thing was, I was on the plane and Vince had a few glasses of wine in him,” Angle began. “He was feeling frisky and thought if I’m gonna wrestle someone that’s the best, might as well wrestle an Olympic Gold Medalist. You have to understand, Vince is the type of guy who would say to Mike Tyson, ‘Knock me out. Go ahead, hit me in the face. I want to feel what it’s like.’ He wants to feel what it’s like to be with the best person. I totally get it, but Vince is crazy.”

Angle further explained McMahon’s affinity for roughhousing. He’s an alpha male and wants to test himself by mixing it up with the best athletes in the world.

“He would have somebody come get me and he’d jump me from behind and we’d wrestle. We did this for five hours. We’d wrestle for a few minutes, and I’d hold him down and say, ‘Are you good?’ He’d say, ‘Yeah, yeah, we’re good.’ I’d go back and lay down and he’d jump on me again. It went for five hours, and it just became very irritating.”

“Tell the pilot to go…”

While some would expect the boss to assume control of the situation, it sounds like McMahon was as much to blame for things getting out of hand than anybody.

“The crazy thing, there were wine stains all over the floor – there’s white carpet and wine stains everywhere,” Angle said. “Vince and I were wrestling near the door, and there’s the latch. You open the latch and the door is open and you fly out of the plane. We kept hitting the latch while we were wrestling, so the flight attendant came and said, ‘The pilot said if you don’t sit down and stop, he’s gonna land this plane right now.’ Vince says, ‘Go tell the pilot to fuck himself. I’ll buy the fucking plane.’

“Here we are wrestling on the plane and we’re getting ready to land and they finally get Vince to calm down. Jericho is sitting in front of me and he says look who’s coming up the aisle. While we’re hitting the ground landing, Vince is army crawling up the aisle to jump on me again. I’m like, ‘Holy shit, this is the night that will never end.’ It was a frickin’ nightmare.”

This infamous trip will be covered in Season 3 of Dark Side of the Ring.

Not many WWE superstars can lay claim to as many accolades as Kurt Angle. From his Olympic medal to his plethora of championships and victories in the squared circle, he has done it all. He was a powerful, technically adept wrestler who made the transition from one side of the sport to the other almost seamlessly.

He is a man who knows talent and can call a good wrestler when he sees one. That’s exactly what he did this week when talking about Wrestlemania 37 on his own podcast, The Kurt Angle Show.

When asked who the best wrestler was in WWE today, Angle wasted no time in giving his answer. Danial Bryan.

“Daniel Bryan without a doubt,” Angle responded.

Kurt Angle Believes Daniel Bryan is a Technical Master

That answer should not really come as a shock, Bryan is a tremendous athlete, and his career has seen him fight for the top promotions across the world. Whether he was Bryan Danielson, American Dragon or Daniel Bryan, his list of accomplishments is nearly endless. From the Wrestlemania moment of moments back in 2014 to his comeback from a career-ending injury. He has held numerous championships and been both heel and face.

Often the underdog, he has never been one to back down from a fight, and the praise he received from Kurt was both understandable and well-deserved.

“That guy is a technical master. I love his work; I wish I would’ve wrestled him. He is one of the best in-ring performers today and I think of all time. Even though he is a little undersized, he makes up for it in work ethic. What he can do in the ring, he is just incredible.”

Beneath it all, one common theme always shone through. His technical abilities. There is no wrestler on the roster who is more technically sound than Daniel Bryan. Not just in WWE but across the globe.

In 2009, Dixie Carter suspended Jeff Jarrett from TNA Wrestling after it was revealed he was romantically involved with Karen Angle, Kurt Angle’s ex-wife. Jarrett and Karen would end up marrying in 2010. Eric Bischoff recently spent some time on his “83 Weeks” podcast talking about how this played out backstage in the company at the time.

“It was certainly unique, especially since Kurt was still in the company,” Bischoff said on the show. He would continue to say, however, that everyone seemed to get along just fine backstage.

“When everybody was backstage, when Karen was there, when Jeff was there, when Kurt was there, when the kids were there, they got along like an extended family. Since there was no real issue within their family that I could see – not that I would judge it one way or the other anyway – but again when they were all together – because Karen would often come backstage and bring the kids and she’d be with Jeff and Kurt was there and Kurt’s soon to be wife, I mean, everybody got along.”

“I can’t imagine being in that situation. It would be awkward anyway, regardless of whether Kurt Angle was the baddest man on the planet or whether he was an accountant.”

“I have a lot of respect for Jeff and for Karen and for Kurt. I think they’ve done a wonderful job under the circumstances keeping their families together as individual families and together as a broader 2-family scenario.”

Bischoff’s full comments on the matter can be heard in the player below:

WWE Hall of Famer Kurt Angle revealed another unbelievable story during the latest episode of The Kurt Angle Show podcast.

During Angle’s rookie year he was involved in a love triangle storyline with Stephanie McMahon and Triple H. Kurt Angle would end up kissing Stephanie backstage whilst she was ‘concussed,’ and Angle revealed how Vince McMahon had to direct the scene.

“This was ridiculously weird,” Angle began on the podcast. “To come backstage with Stephanie and have to do a pre-tape that was going live so we weren’t going to tape it, it was going to be one take. I think Vince did that on purpose so we only had to kiss once.”

Kurt Angle Talks Vince Backstage

“We got backstage and Vince wants to direct it” Angle continued. “I was like holy s–t, Vince McMahon, Stephanie McMahon’s father is going to direct me kissing her during a pre-tape.”

“I was nervous as hell” Kurt Angle added. “Vince was four feet way, his eyes were open and I was like ‘this is so weird man. I don’t know how I’m going to do this.’ I went down to kiss her and we caught eyes and then we went to kiss and I stuck my lips out, I didn’t want to go with an open mouth because Vince was there and I didn’t want to disrespect Triple H or Stephanie.”

• Triple H Explains Why He Turned Down WrestleMania Match Against AJ Styles

“After the pre-tape she goes ‘you kiss like a fish.’ I was like ‘what’d you expect Stephanie? Your Dad is here watching, he’s directing and your dating Triple H. What did you want me to do?’”

Triple H apparently put the ixnay on that storyline shortly after, but this has never been confirmed publicly.

credit to WrestlingINC for the transcription

New WWE superstars usually do not make a lot of money in their first year with the company but it wasn’t the case for the former world champion Kurt Angle.

The heavyweight star found success in his amateur wrestling career early on and this success apparently helped in launching his WWE career.

The former world champion talked about his first year on the latest episode of his Kurt Angle Show podcast, and revealed that he actually made $1 million during his debut year:

“You know what, my guarantee was $75,000, so I made well over that. What I was surprised about, and I promised J.R this when I accepted that contract, he said ‘you’re going to get $75,000 a year for five years.’

I signed the contract, I said ‘don’t worry about it because I’m going to make a million in my first year.’” said Kurt Angle, “He’s like, ‘whatever you say.’ So I did, I did make a million, which I’m really proud of.”

• Kurt Angle On How Vince McMahon Convinced Him To Join ECW

Kurt then revealed that the money did not come from merchandise sale as he was a heel at the time and the amount he was paid was mostly for wrestling:

“I wasn’t selling merchandise. They weren’t hopping off the shelves and people weren’t buying Kurt Angle stuff because I was a heel. So I didn’t make a lot on that. I got paid to wrestle and I got paid very well to do it.

So making a million dollars a year without any kind of merchandise, I made maybe 30 or 40 grand with merchandise, that was about it. I made a lot of money wrestling and I did exceed the goal that I told JR I would do.”

Kurt Angle is one of the four people to complete an amateur wrestling Grand Slam. He made his first WWE appearance in 1996 and signed a contract with the company in 1998.

Angle went on to have a successful WWE career. He won over half a dozen titles in the company before leaving the promotion due to health reasons in 2006.

Kurt Angle was one of the two big stars who was originally drafted to WWE’s version of ECW when it was first revived by the company and his joining gave the brand some much-needed legitimacy.

During the recent episode of his new podcast, the former world champion talked about the early days of the extreme brand and revealed how Vince McMahon convinced him to join ECW.

Angle explained that the boss promised him to be the face of the newly created brand and he also bumped his pay to make sure Kurt was not losing money:

“When Vince decided to start ECW, he came to me and said ‘Hey I want you to be the face of this new company that I’m starting, ECW. We’re going to ramp it up and I want you to be the face but I’m going to tell you this. You’re going to work in smaller arenas and make less money.’ I said ‘Why would I want to do that?’

What he did was, I would do the house shows and T.V.s and then the PPVs, Vince would triple my [pay] so I would get the same money as I would if I was on RAW or SmackDown.” said Angle, “He did promise that and did go through with it.”

• Kurt Angle Discusses His Relationship With Vince McMahon (Video)

WWE did not hold a draft in 2006 but the ECW representative Paul Heyman got one pick from Raw and SmackDown each for the roster of the newly revived ECW.

When given the chance, Heyman chose Kurt Angle and RVD as the two names for his brand in May 2006. Though Angle didn’t last in the company for long after this and he asked for his release in August.