GameDaily: Do you get excited during the Olympics?
Kurt Angle: Yeah. The only thing is, for some reason in pro wrestling, WWE never marketed me going into the games and utilizing my gold medal. If I'm here four years from now [in TNA], they have an idea what to do, but even Vince McMahon didn't market it like that and I was surprised. I had Visa call me. They wanted to do 10 athletes on their Visa card and one of them was me, so it would be easy, especially having so much access on TV. When you're interviewed on TV every week, whether two or four million people see it, you have a lot of exposure. That's the only thing we kind of missed the boat on, but thankfully you can do it during the winter or the summer Olympics. We'll be ready for it next time.
GD: Is the gold medal your greatest accomplishment?
KA: Without a doubt, yeah. As far as career, there's nothing that'll replace that. I try to do my best in pro wrestling, but nothing will ever give me the same feeling of winning the gold medal. Winning the world title is an honor and everything, and some people rate me the best wrestler in the world, but it's not the same. Never will be.
GD: Do you still feel like you can take on and beat any pro wrestler?
KA: Oh yeah. I haven't lost.
GD: Do you ever have guys come up to you in the dressing room and challenge you?
KA: Yeah. We mess around all the time. I take it easy on them because I don't want to hurt anybody. I stay light on them, take them down and make asses out of them.
GD: Do people recognize you more as the pro wrestler or the Olympic gold medalist?
KA: In WWE I was more recognized as the pro wrestler. Here [in TNA], because wherever I go they always say "the only Olympic gold medalist in professional wrestling", they remind people every time I come out who I am and I like that. I think that's very important. There's never been another Olympic gold medalist in professional wrestling. It's actually pretty difficult to make that transition, especially if you're that good at amateur wrestling. It's really hard.
GD: If pro wrestling didn't work out, would you have stuck with the amateur circuit?
KA: No. I wanted to get out. I was done. I did everything you could do. I won six national titles, I was a world champion, I was an Olympic champion. I won the Grand Slam, which only four guys have ever done. That's the Junior Nationals, the NCAAs, the Worlds and the Olympics. I was young and in my mid-twenties. Didn't need to do it anymore, unless I wanted to break John Smith's record of consecutive world titles, which is six. I had two and was just starting to get good. I wasn't even near my potential, but I was burned out. The training, the stress, the worry; I had enough of it. I was tired.
GD: Did you do anything for the TNA Impact video game?
KA: I didn't do all that much. I watched A.J. Styles, Samoa Joe and Christopher Daniels... seeing the sensors [motion capture] on them and doing all the moves and everything. They had me in the ring one night and we hit a lot of our trademark moves and I took a lot of moves, so I contributed to a certain extent. I give Samoa Joe and all those guys a lot of credit for doing that. I wish I had done a lot more, but I did actually get into the ring and do some stuff for Midway, so I am proud that I contributed
GD: Why is TNA better than WWE?
KA: I wouldn't say it's better. WWE is a monster. It always will be. TNA is a company that has so much room to grow, and they continue to grow. It's exciting to be a part of history. In WWE, you're a part of this huge mega monster that, all you do is contribute. Here, you can make a big difference, because TNA went from zero to being in 122 different countries in less than five years. Now it's six years old, but that's amazing. You have to give TNA a lot of credit for what they've done, but you also have to realize that if it weren't for WWE, TNA wouldn't have a lot of these opportunities. We signed TV deals in other countries that wouldn't be possible if WWE wasn't there. Competition is good, and I think WWE knows that and TNA knows that. It will take TNA a little while, but eventually it will knock on WWE's door. They're not even close right now, and I don't want to BS anybody by saying TNA is competing with WWE for ratings. We're not even close. Within the next two, three and four more years, there's going to be some stiff competition. Now you're starting to see guys jumping ship. The same thing happened with WWE and WCW, so it's going to happen all over again. Thank God TNA is not going anywhere.
GD: Do you play video games?
KA: I don't play any video games. I watch and I like to watch. All these guys are great. I watch A.J. Styles, Christian Cage, Samoa Joe, Motor City Machine Guns, Jay Lethal; they all play. I don't have a competitive bone in my body and that's hard to say because I should be competitive in everything. But I do not like to compete. For some reason, I don't like getting in front of a TV and having to prove myself by beating someone in a video game. It doesn't intrigue me. I don't know why because all I did all my life was compete. That's probably why. I'm tired of it.
Last week, A.J. was beat by James Storm in Madden Football, and A.J. is the best we have, so when James Storm beat him A.J. flipped out. He threw a table over. It's so important to these guys. I had to restrain A.J. He was really pissed off. No one saw that coming.
The game that blew my mind was Grand Theft Auto IV. I was like, what the hell is this game man? You steal cars, cops chase you, you beat guys up, you try to get laid, you go to a bowling alley, you play pool; it was like a movie. It's amazing what video games do now. I love the graphics in our game. I think it looks awesome.
GD: Thanks Kurt. Good luck ankle locking the competition.
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