Kurt Angle on his interest in a role as a talent scout for WWE and discusses potentially wrestling Gable Steveson one day.
Kurt Angle is one of the greatest wrestling savants in modern WWE history. Almost immediately succeeding in the world of sports entertainment after winning a gold medal at the 1996 Olympics, Kurt Angle is proof that sometimes, "real" wrestlers adapt to the world of sports entertainment flawlessly and can build a second career for themselves while also helping to grow the industry of pro wrestling.
Now, Gable Steveson appears poised to follow in Kurt Angle’s footsteps. Having just won a gold medal for the United States in 2021, Steve Simpson was drafted to Monday Night Raw in October of the very same year following the announcement that he was WWE’s first NIL collegiate athlete.
Speaking about a potential future as a WWE talent scout for collegiate athletes, Kurt Angle would say on a Q&A episode of his podcast, The Kurt Angle Show, that he would actually love that job but WWE hasn't offered it to him yet. Kurt Angle also credited Gable’s wrestling ability saying that he believes Gable will adapt swiftly to the world of WWE.
"I definitely would be interested. That would be a really cool job to have. I would love to travel around and, you know, scout wrestlers from the United States and abroad. You know, there are a lot of great Olympic wrestlers out there. That could adapt to professional wrestling very well. I think Gable Steveson is gonna be a great example. I think he's gonna adapt because he is so athletic for his size. The guy's incredibly athletic. So I think that I would love to be able to be a recruit for WWE. They just have never offered me that job. They offered me every other job in the book, but not that one."
He added, "[Gerald Brisco] does a great job at it. He is on top of it. He knows all the college coaches. He makes phone calls. He does whatever he has to do to get recruits in. He's doing a really good job. Look at the look of the line of guys. We've gotten Jack Swagger, Chad Gable, Jason Jordan, myself, Brock Lesnar, Shelton Benjamin. I mean, you know, the list goes on. Now, Gable Steveson, and Gerald Brisco knows the Minnesota coach very well. So he's been talking to that coach for a couple of years about Gable. So this wasn't just brought up a month ago. This has been going on for years."
Furthermore, Kurt Angle would say that while he does believe Gable Steveson will have a successful career, a lot of it will come down to how open he is to embracing the world of sports entertainment. Famously, Kurt Angle was offered to come into WWE three years prior to his actual day to you but in 1996, fresh off the Olympics, he wasn't ready to embrace the scripted nature of professional wrestling.
“Like I said before Gable Steveson is a phenomenal athlete, especially for his size. The kid is a super athlete, and I think he's gonna adapt very well to pro wrestling. The only issue is, I don't know his personality. I don't know how open he is. If he's able to come up with a great character that people relate to, or that people absolutely hate. You know, you can be a great wrestler. But if you don't have the character, and promo skills, you're going to be stuck in the mud, you know, you're not going to have as much success and someone like Gable Steveson, he's an Olympic gold medalist. They're going to bring him in larger than life. So a lot of pressure is going to be put on him just like it was for me, my rookie year. I mean, I won every title that year and within 10 months of when I started, I won the world title. It was a really crazy year. You know, it opened my eyes because I didn't have any experience in pro wrestling. I never watched it. I didn't keep my eye on it. I was just an amateur wrestler that didn't you know, you know, the only sports I watched were football, baseball, basketball, wrestling. I didn't watch pro wrestling. So I think Gable is going to do a good job. I think he's gonna adapt very well. I think he's gonna have a lot of success in WWE.”
Kurt continued, “He's very young, he's gonna go back to college one more year and wrestle. I don't know why he already won the NCAA's, he won the Olympics, to go back to the NCAA's is, you know, I guess he just gives him another title under his belt. But he doesn't really need to do that. But I think he wanted to fulfill his promise to the wrestling program in Minnesota. So I don't blame him for that. But there's no reason for him to do that. But I think the game was gonna be a great addition to the WWE.”
But what about a match between the two Olympic gold medalists? Kurt Angle says he would be open to the idea if he felt like he physically could. Kurt says that he has had a lot of physical problems especially during the pandemic that simply rules out the match as a possibility.
“You know what, if I could do it, I would, I just don't think I can. I've been out of wrestling for the past few years. Especially during the pandemic, I had a lot of physical problems, a lot of problems that I had from not doing anything, not still working out as much as I did. Sitting all the time, nothing to do, being stuck at home. I started having a lot of back pain and knee pain, and, you know, it got to the point where I was like, ‘I probably won't wrestle again.’ So I started training hard again, to get my body back in shape. Not that I'm planning on wrestling, but I want to keep the option open. So I've been training, a lot of physical therapy training, working on my smaller muscles, my core, and everything like that. I lost a lot during this pandemic. I mean, I couldn't even walk in a straight line, my balance was off, my strength was off. I just was going through a really difficult time. I went through a lot of depression at the time, too. So you know, with all that, I'm trying to work myself back into pretty good shape. I don't expect myself to be what I used to be 10 years ago. But I would take, you know, five years ago, over anything. So if I'm able to be as feel as good as I did five years ago, I will probably wrestle but right now, I don't plan on it.”
Kurt Angle’s final match took place at WrestleMania 35 against Baron Corbin. Baron Corbin recalls that match as being an amazing experience for him and expressed gratitude towards Kurt Angle for sharing that moment with him. Learn more about that here.
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