Kurt Angle recently appeared on Steve Austin’s podcast to talk about a number of topics. Here are the highlights.
On His New Life on the Indy Scene:
I took the shield off. I wanted to take a break. I actually got the chance to wrestle a few guys before I step out. One of the guys was Cody Rhodes. I had the chance of facing him a few times. It’s crazy; the indy scene is doing really well, especially in the UK, Scotland. They’re getting about 4-7,000 fans. They are livestreaming their ppv’s. The money is incredible, especially on an indy show. Wrestling right now is really good no matter where you are. I never thought I would make the money I am making wrestling on the indy scene. I know a couple of the wrestlers are doing; they didn’t tell me how much they were making but they were pretty happy with the pay. I wrestled Cody Rhodes, and I couldn’t believe the outcome and how they were able to advertise. I really believe these companies in the UK are about to get some major steam. I think they are going to get TV deals and get bigger. For some reason, wrestling out there is getting a lot hotter than wrestling here in the States.
On Stardust Not Getting Over Because of the Style of Pace in the Ring:
Well, I have always believed in his talent. I think I understand why he left. I don’t think he’s going to be gone from there forever. I think that he will eventually go back there. I just think he wanted a break, and wanted to do something where he could just find himself. I think that in WWE, he was doing what they wanted him to do, and I know he wanted to elaborate more on the Stardust character. It seemed that watching, he was on TV every week so I give WWE credit for that, but I just didn’t see him progressing in the ranks, I just saw him continue to be where he was. I don’t think they saw him where he thought he should be, and there will be a lot of people that agree with Cody on that, but at the same time, I look at WWE and there are a lot of good talent right now. Their style have picked up the pace more, they need to pull that back a bit. They need to go back to being a little more old school. I think their pace is going really fast, and I think the one thing that they are not doing is selling as much as they should. I think that down the road, if they continue to do that and pick up the pace it could eventually kill the business. You know wrestling works in cycles. There was a time when I was in WWE, I remember were I started 50 straight matches without tying up; it started with punches, but then it slowed down, then came to technical wrestling. I think it’ll come around again, I just think right now they are giving wrestlers less time on TV, so there’s no time to tell that story and show their wrestling ability.