Kurt Angle has reacted to Dave Meltzer’s initial comments on his move to ECW in 2006 stating that, in retrospect, “he was absolutely right in saying what he did.”
WWE Hall of Famer Kurt Angle has discussed his move to ECW and the negative impact it had on his career, responding to a statement from Dave Meltzer in 2006 in which the wrestling journalist described Angle’s move to ECW as “The worst move possible for Angle”.
In 2006 Kurt Angle wrestled a handful of matched for WWE ECW following its revival under WWE CEO Vince McMahon, Angle would take on the likes of The Brooklyn Brawler and Justin Credible before departing in August of 2006 citing injuries and frustrations at the WWE.
Angle has commented on the offer he received from Vince McMahon back in 2005/6, including McMahon’s proposal to make Angle the face of the brand.
Speaking on The Kurt Angle Show, the former WWE Champion would state:
“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 so I would get the same money as I would if I was on RAW or SmackDown. He did promise that and did go through with it.”
In 2006 on an episode of the Wrestling Observer Radio Show, renowned journalist Dave Meltzer would comment on rumours of Kurt moving to ECW with Meltzer commenting:
“Upon more thinking, this is possibly the worst possible move for Angle. Angle’s body has broken down badly and ECW is being pushed as a more violent promotion, even though Paul Heyman called it a “new direction of ECW”.
Angle will be performing three nights a week at house shows for a far more demanding fan base and generally speaking with sloppier wrestlers and those willing to take more risks.
On the fourth night he will be on SmackDown Television and fans their will also being expecting something different than what they had already seen on the show because of the ECW moniker.
Kurt Angles career will be shorted, possibly greatly if this move isn’t rescinded within a few months and he is put back where he can take more care of himself and has performers that are less likely to mess up”
The face of Ad-Free Shows and Kurt Angle’s co-host on The Kurt Angle Show, Conrad Thompson, would ask Kurt for his thoughts on Dave Meltzer’s statement in retrospect with Kurt Responding:
“If I would have read that [the statement by Dave Meltzer] back then I would have said ‘he’s crazy’, looking at it with my perspective now, he’s absolutely right.
That [move to ECW] is what sent me over the top, and I got injured wrestling in an ECW house show; wrestling Rob Van Dam and [did] my hamstring, my groin and my abdominal muscle all at the same time. Looking back, he was absolutely right, it was the wrong move for me, knowing that the fans would be more demanding of me and expect me to do different stuff and I would have to more extreme stuff, that was definitely the case.
Concluding his response to the 2006 statement, Kurt Angle would conclude that Dave Meltzer was correct in his statement and that the move would significantly harmed his career despite his short period of time in ECW.
“He was absolutely right in saying what he did.”
WWE ECW would continue to exist between 2006 and 2010 with Ezekiel Jackson defeating Christian Cage on the February 16, 2010 episode of ECW to capture the ECW World Heavyweight Championship before the show was cancelled and rebranded as WWE NXT.
Kurt Angle recently also took to The Kurt Angle Show to discuss how his behaviour deteriorated in 2006 leading to him threatening WWE CEO Vince McMahon via text:
“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 when I decided to leave after ECW in 2006, he had a whole list of text messages, and I’m sitting reading them thinking ‘gosh, I don’t remember texting this.’ It was really graphic, ‘I’m gonna beat the sh*t out of you’ and some of the texts didn’t make sense. I was probably high on painkillers when I was sending them. It was just ridiculous. I was in awe looking at them thinking ‘holy crap, I don’t remember saying any of this stuff. It was just a bad situation.”
You can listen to The Kurt Angle Show in full here and the Wrestling Observer Radio show here.
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