Kurt Angle On Bret Hart Turning Down WrestleMania Match With Him

WWE Hall of Famer Kurt Angle was recently a guest on The A2theK Wrestling Show to discuss several professional wrestling topics.

During the show, Angle talked about how he tried to get a WrestleMania match against Bret Hart back at WrestleMania 21 and 22.

However, the match never came to fruition, as he ended up working with Shawn Michaels at WrestleMania 21, and a Triple Threat match against Rey Mysterio and Randy Orton at WrestleMania 22. Here’s what he had to say:

“Bret Hart was always my dream match from when I started in WWE. I always thought I’d have a match with him, but right when I came in, he left. He went to WCW, and unfortunately, he got knocked out and had the concussion, and then he had a stroke.

Unfortunately, I tried to get Bret to wrestle at WrestleMania, I believe, 21 or 22. I told him, ‘Listen, I’ll do all the bumping, all the selling, I’d let you beat my butt.’ But I understood why he said no because where I am in my life now, I know I can’t have the Kurt Angle match that fans expect and Bret was trying to tell me at that particular time, ‘I’m not the Bret Hart I used to be and I’m not gonna go out there and embarrass myself.’

Not that he would embarrass himself, but he wants to be at a level that nobody else is and that’s that’s where Bret Hart always was. And if he can’t do that, he’s not gonna do it at all.”