Kurt Angle is widely recognized for his illustrious tenure in World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), where he secured six world titles and achieved the rare distinction of becoming the fifth Grand Slam champion in the company's history. His impressive resume also includes an Olympic gold medal, a feat that predates his professional wrestling career and adds to his legendary status.
However, dedicated fans of professional wrestling are well aware of Angle's dominant period in Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA). During his nearly ten-year stint with the promotion, he accumulated six world championships, two tag team championships, and an X Division championship, showcasing his versatility and sustained excellence.
Angle recently expressed his view that his career in TNA was, in his estimation, superior to his run in WWE.
"To be honest with you, I had an incredible career in both WWE and TNA and I believe that I had a better career in TNA and, unfortunately, a lot of those WWE fans didn't get to see it and I think that they would have seen my career. … Now we have a lot of great TNA fans all over the world but here in the United States, it’s a far second place to, before AEW came around, but it was a far second place to WWE. But I would have loved for the WWE fans to see me wrestle in TNA."
Memorable TNA Encounters
Throughout his time in TNA, Angle participated in numerous acclaimed matches against a roster of talented competitors, including Abyss, Samoa Joe, and AJ Styles. For WWE fans unfamiliar with his TNA work, Angle specifically recommends his bouts against Samoa Joe and AJ Styles as essential viewing.
"Any match with Samoa Joe or AJ Styles," Angle stated. "It doesn't really matter. My debut match against Samoa Joe at the pay-per-view, I think it might have been it might have been Bound for Glory, or right after it, but we had a banger of a match and I really enjoyed working with both of them. Joe was really physical and AJ was really athletic."
Angle elaborated on the synergy he shared with these opponents. He noted that Joe's background as a powerful, ground-and-pound grappler complemented Angle's freestyle wrestling expertise. Similarly, despite Styles' more acrobatic style, particularly in his younger years, Angle found their in-ring chemistry to be exceptional.
TNA's Unique Match Concepts
Among the distinct match types featured in TNA, the King of the Mountain match stood out. This unique contest, which Angle won twice, involved competitors battling to retrieve a championship belt and then hang it on a hook suspended above the ring, essentially functioning as a reverse ladder match.
Angle shared his surprise that such creative match stipulations from TNA have not yet been adopted by WWE.
"I'm surprised it hasn't already," he remarked. "WWE got really creative at a certain point in time where they were doing some really cool stuff. And it would be great advice to the WWE to use some of those things. I don't know if they're patented or not. I believe they aren't patented, but you could always change the name and mix it up a little bit, make it a little different, but TNA was always very creative with their pay-per-views."
Hall of Fame Recognition
Angle's significant contributions to TNA were formally recognized in 2013 when he was inducted into the TNA Hall of Fame. The esteemed list of TNA Hall of Fame inductees includes a host of prominent figures such as Angle, Sting, Jeff Jarrett, Earl Hebner, Gail Kim, Abyss, Ken Shamrock, Awesome Kong, Raven, Traci Brooks, Rhino, Bob Ryder, and Mickie James.
Looking ahead, TNA is set to welcome three new members into its Hall of Fame class during the Bound for Glory pay-per-view event scheduled for October. This year's inductees will be ODB, Amazing Red, and Konnan.
