WWE Hall of Famer Kurt Angle discussed his time on the indies while with TNA on a recent episode of The Kurt Angle Show. Angle discussed his victory over current NJPW World Television Champion Zack Sabre Jr. on June 12, 2016 from York Hall in London, England, at RevPro’s Angle vs. Sabre Jr. event. He also discussed his loss to Cody Rhodes at NEW’s Wrestling Under The Stars V event, which took place on August 27, 2016 at Dutchess Stadium in Wappingers Falls, New York. Angle would have two more matches with Rhodes: a victory over Cody on October 8, 2016 at WCPW’s True Legacy event from Silver Blades Altrincham in Manchester, England, and a Steel Cage loss to Rhodes on May 3, 2017 at NEW’s Wrestlefest XXI event from Crosby High School in Waterbury, Connecticut. Here are the highlights:
TNA allowing him to compete in the indies and work the shows for free:
“Well, in TNA I had an incredible contract. They gave me a lot of money. I had a lot less dates than WWE, I mean, I only had like 52 dates that I needed to obliged with the company. So what they did is they started sending me out, marketing me to other companies so they can make a little bit of their money. I didn’t get paid for these shows, unfortunately. But I understood why they did it, and after a while I told them, listen, that’s enough because they start sending me to Japan and I was going over there 5 times a year and it was ridiculous. You know, I was getting fifty grand a pop in Japan and I wasn’t seeing any of the money. So it didn’t seem right to me, after a while I was like, okay, I’m doing way too much. You guys need to back off and just let me do my TNA schedule and that’s what we did eventually. They did back off and Dixie was cool about it”
His match against Zack Sabre Jr. in 2016:
“He’s a huge name in the UK. He’s been really successful in Japan. I figured some major promotion in the United States was going to sign this kid because he was so damn good. Now, back then when I wrestled him, he looked like he was 18 years old, okay, he didn’t have much of a build on him, but, man, he could go. He was a machine. He had so much great technique, I really loved wrestling this kid. If my knee wasn’t that bad, I would have a five star match with him.”
Meeting Cody Rhodes, their matches in 2016 and 2017:
“That was the first time I met him. Very respectful. Reminded me a lot of his brother Dustin. Both of those guys are incredible human beings, both very talented in the ring. I honestly don’t know who is better than the other, they’re both extremely talented. If you didn’t notice, his boots said, Cody Angle. One had Cody on it and the other had Angle on it. What he did is that he made that specifically for me to wrestle me. And not only that, but he gave them to me to give to my son, Kody. There was meaning to it. Cody Rhodes versus Kurt Angle and Kody Angle. It was really cool that he did that. They were $600 boots and he’s like, here you go. That’s why I did the job. The whole thing was, listen, I had nothing else to prove in my career, you know, these guys are up and coming, I wanted to help them out. I even would have done a job for Zack Sabre Jr. The thing is, I just wanted to give back. That’s basically it, I wanted to do something good for these guys, to get their careers moving.”
You can listen to the complete podcast below:
(H/T to Joshie Lopez and WrestlingHeadlines.com for the transcription)
