WWE Hall of Famer Kurt Angle spoke about some of his favorite wrestlers to work with on the latest edition of his podcast, which included some legendary names like Shawn Michaels, AJ Styles, Chris Benoit, and Eddie Guerrero.
To begin the conversation, Angle compared the Heartbreak Kid to the Phenomenal One, noting that both have very similar styles when it comes to in-ring performance. This led to him naming his list of his favorite people to wrestle.
“Shawn and AJ, they have so many identical ways about them, especially their in-ring performances, their athleticism, the way they were showmen. Very identical styles. Of the guys I worked with, I would say AJ, Shawn Michaels, and Chris Benoit were my three favorites to work with. And Eddie Guerrero is in there too.”
Angle later focused his thoughts on Styles, whom he had a number of battles with in TNA. Regarding TNA, the Olympic Hero wondered why the promotion would let Styles go as he was clearly their franchise player, and was still very much in the prime of his career.
“AJ was their franchise player. You get rid of him and you’re gonna have to build up somebody else to be the franchise guy. AJ was way too young to let go. At this point in his career, he was probably in his early 30s, so AJ was still in the prime of his career. You want to keep him, and you have to make him happy. They didn’t want to do that.”
Styles’ departure from TNA led to his run in NJPW, where he became the leader of the Bullet Club and captured the IWGP heavyweight championship. He would follow that up by joining WWE, and the rest as they say, is history.
