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[Darren Grett]

Alex Barie of WrestlingNewsWorld.com interviewed TNA Wrestler Kurt Angle on a number of subjects. Below is a quick recap:

First of all Kurt, I have to ask, do you read any “dirtsheet” wrestling websites?
"No, I really don’t read any websites. I never really got into it. I really don’t know what to believe. A lot of it is true and a lot of it is not. I don’t involve myself in that. I am to busy with my family and my businesses…..Anglefoods and BarnDadNutrition.com – UltraFiberDX.com. Basically, no, I don’t read the dirtsheets. I don’t care about the dirtsheets. I get word from friends about certain things being said. Recently there was something being said and I had to retaliate. It was a disrespectful comment to TNA, so I did what I had to do it and it was one comment."

On getting into the wrestling business:
WWE, F at the time, was going through the Attitude Era. I actually, thank God, met Ric Flair. I asked him about WCW and he straight up told me right to my face to not go there and go to WWE. Ric pretty much scared me off. WCW would do nothing with you. Vince McMahon would make you a star. Ric was right. I am very grateful what Vince did to me. He utilized me the right way. I believe if I would have went to WCW, it would have taken a heck of a lot longer to get to where I am now.

On wrestling in Japan:
"had some awesome matches over there. One was for Brock Lesnar. One with Yuji Nagata. One with Nakamura…..Tanahashi. They have a very high standard over there especially when they wrestle popular Americans. They put a lot of pressure on themselves to make sure they steal the show. I really didn’t like going over there, but TNA was booking me to do it out of relationships with New Japan. They were getting a pretty good chunk of money for me to go overthere. It was part of my contract that they can sublease me out. No longer can they do that anymore, thank God. But they would book me over there and make a good bit of money. I did that for about 3-4 years and I told them I couldn’t do it anymore. But it was a good experience……wrestling guys that didn’t speak english. The Japanese wrestlers are very respectful. It’s a great style, very stiff. I got pretty banged up going over there, but that’s the way they go. You got to respect their style and you got to give it back to them. If you don’t, they will have less respect for you because you aren’t giving it back. They expect that. There are very different and they have a lot of pride in their work. They want to make everything look real and sharp."

Any regrets putting his children in a public spat with his former wife Karen.
"No. I didn’t bat an eye in it because, for me, I get to see my kids once a month because they live in Tennessee. For me, I was getting to see my kids every week because Karen and Jeff were on TV. Whether my kids were on TV or not, having Karen come down……she guarantees she will bring the kids. So, I was getting to see my kids every week, which was a bonus for me. Was it worth it to suck up my pride and put my real story life on the line? Yes, it was for my kids. So, I don’t regret it at all. It was a blast! I got to take them to Disney World during the day and have a blast with them and then at night play out the storyline. Everybody kept coming up to me and saying, “I can’t believe how you are handling this.” I said I am having a blast; I am with my kids. It wasn’t a hard decision."

On working with Eric Bischoff:
No. At first I didn’t like Eric Bischoff. I didn’t think he would do anything to help the company. Hulk Hogan…..I always liked Terry. I didn’t have a problem with him. I thought he had one of the top three minds in the business because he was around Vince McMahon so much and when you are around Vince McMahon so much, you learn a lot! Thank God. I studied Eric Bischoff while he was down there and within the first two months, I could tell that he was very good at directing and very good at going over rehearsals for promos. You can tell he had a vision of what he wanted out of the wrestlers and the pretapes. You can tell he knew which direction he wanted to go with each wrestler as a character. Eric Bischoff actually surprised me that he knew as much as he did about the business. I thought he was just a guy that got lucky in WCW and booked Kevin Nash at the top and got Kevin to book the shows and made a bunch of money, but the guy actually knows what he is doing. I am glad I am working with Eric Bischoff. I like him. I do.

On the new creative team of Eric Bischoff, Bruce Prichard and Hulk Hogan:
"Him, Bruce Prichard, and Hulk Hogan are going to take TNA to the next level. Have they yet? No, but it always takes time. Everybody is always expecting overnight result. It doesn’t happen like that. People always say, “Oh Eric Bischoff is coming in….well let’s see what he can do” and they expect it to happen overnight. It doesn’t happen overnight. Will it in the next year, 2 or 3? Yeah. Will we get to WWE level? Not in my career. But I believe in 10 years from now there is a possibility that TNA might just be getting the same or better ratings than WWE. There is a chance. There really is. So, TNA is around. Their around for good, thank God. Their staying. Their making enough money that this company is not going to go under. The Carter family is 150% behind it."

On having a second viable company including a passing remark about CM Punk:
"Thank God we have another company and this is what bothers me about some of the other wrestlers. When you have two companies that are providing wrestlers jobs, you don’t want to disrespect either company. Because now you are limiting your opportunity to work in one of them. So, if an idiot wrestler makes a stupid comment about a company and calls it an indy company, he just limited his chance of working there. That’s very disrespectful. I would have never done that to TNA. I won’t do it to WWE because they are the monster and they are the top company in the world, but I wouldn’t even do it to Ring of Honor because you never know. Some day I might not want to be here or there or maybe TNA doesn’t want me anymore……I go back to WWE or WWE doesn’t want me and I go to Ring of Honor. You got to keep your options open. You don’t make idiot comments that basically take work away from you. You don’t want that to happen."

[waytoomuch]

good read. i like the last part of the interview regardin that piece of s**t cm punk n his comments towards tna