Throughout his time in the ring, Kurt Angle was a man for all seasons.
The former Olympian was capable of performing any given role on any given day to an incredibly high standard. Whether it was as a babyface or a heel, or a serious or comedic character, Angle has done it all.
Speaking on a recent episode of his podcast, The Kurt Angle Show, Angle has now revealed which of of his wrestling personas was his favourite.
The WWE Hall of Famer explained that while he had fun as the ‘Olympic Hero’ his ‘Wrestling Machine’ character was much more true to his personality in real life.
“Well the wrestling machine was my favourite gimmick. I actually liked it better than my Olympic hero character, where I did a lot of comedy. I was kind of corny and an idiot, but I really enjoyed doing that stuff. The wrestling machine was more me, that’s who I am, that’s what I was. I loved performing in those matches because it was all technical and that was what I was all about. I wanted to portray myself as a wrestling machine who was the best wrestler in the world. I think I did a pretty good job of that. I think that’s what my ECW character was about, the wrestling machine.”
Looking back at his time in ECW on AdFreeShows.com, Angle said that Vince McMahon effectively coerced him into working on the relaunched brand.
“Well Vince was a father figure to me so I would do whatever he asked me to, I had full trust in him. It was just at the time I wasn’t able to get a hold of him because of my erratic behaviour. And I think Vince was dodging me on purpose to teach me a lesson. You know, I was mad when he asked me. He said ‘Listen I want you to be the name and face of a new promotion. [Kurt asked] ‘What’s the promotion?’ [Vince] is like ‘ECW.’”
“I was like ‘Why?’ You know, I didn’t know why and he was like ‘Let me warn you too, you’re gonna make less money working small arenas’ and I said ‘I’m not gonna do that Vince, why would I wanna do that?’ So I was giving him attitude that day. But he persuaded me, he kept talking to me, and he kinda coerced me into agreeing with him. Vince does have a psychology when he meets with guys and he makes you feel good about the decision he just made for you. Vince is really good at that, he’s a great talker.”
Angle’s stay in ECW turned out to be relatively brief. After joining the brand at the end of May 2006, Angle was gone from the company in August. However, the Olympic Gold medallist wasn’t out of the ring for long as his debuted with IMAPCT, then known as TNA, the following October.