TNA World Tag Team Champion Matt Hardy took to an episode of his “Extreme Life of Matt Hardy” podcast, where he talked about a number of topics including the importance of the business when Kurt Angle left WWE for TNA.
Hardy said, “I remember realizing it was a big, big deal whenever he first showed up, whenever he came up from the brood entrance and debuted. It was good. And it was good for TNA at that time, just because it helped elevate TNA as a company. And hopefully, they could be another place that guys could go, and they can work, and they can make a great living off pro wrestling. You know, just Kurt being there was obviously going to help that. So I remember thinking like, you know, Kurt is a talented guy. He’s doing killer stuff, and you just hope that the person on the inside of that character, that he’s doing okay.”
On whether it was the right call to have Angle wrestle Baron Corbin in his retirement match:
“I don’t know. I’m not too — if he was cool with it, then I feel like I’m cool with it. It would have been nice for Kurt to go out on some great high note or whatever, even if he had a match against someone who is a tippy top star at that time, and put them over. You know, that would be a great way for him to go out, too. But like, if Kurt was cool with it, and he was trying to elevate somebody on his way out — and that was obviously Vince’s mindset. I don’t know if that worked out looking back in hindsight, but it is what it is. And I think we just have to be very grateful for the moments we are given. So I don’t have a lot of critiques for it. I mean, could it have been a better final match? Probably. But you know, it is what it is, and you deal with what you have to work with.”
You can check out the complete podcast in the video below.
(H/T to 411Mania.com for transcribing the above quotes)
