We take pride in making our Knockouts Division about wrestling, not about looking pretty.
— Kurt Angle
The cool thing about pro wrestling is we do a lot more acting as far as characters in general than MMA. I know a lot of people like the MMA fighters because they like the rugged look.
My true love is with amateur wrestlin;, that's where I was born. I've always wanted to wrestle.
Wrestlers in the U.S.A. are very aggressive. All they want to do is attack, but they'll make mistakes.
Wrestling is such a competitive sport worldwide.
The hard part for me was being an Olympic gold medalist and having that persona; you don't see too many Olympic gold medalists go into acting. It's actually even more difficult. You're not taken very seriously, and you're looked at in a different light, so it was kind of hard for me to go straight from Olympics into acting.
Pro wrestling is not fake; it's sports entertainment. We go out there and we perform, and a lot of what we do out there is real, but we're not going to insult anyone's intelligence - there is a predetermined winner. It's just the fans don't know who it is, and that's what makes it so intriguing.
You've got to stay in pretty good shape to be a pro wrestler, and all the TNA wrestlers get a bit nervous when I wrestle them because they're afraid I'll tire them out, but the Olympics is a whole different level.
In Canada, you can't even have a barbecue in your backyard without being attacked by a moose or even a grizzly bear. Then again, the grizzlies don't beat anyone here in Vancouver; oh, it's true, it's true.
Join me in Olympic Heros for Abstinence. The best sex is no sex.
I teased Randy Orton because he started using my finish, the Angle Slam. I said, 'Hey, I don't mind you using it, but at least give it a name.' When he hits it, the announcers just say, 'Well, he just hit that... thing.'
Amateur wrestling, you can go by instinct. Pro wrestling, you have to memorize, and you have to go by what moves you said you were going to do. Sometimes you have to feel the crowd and do the moves at the right time and know the timing and tell a good story.
I love Vince McMahon. He came up with the Kurt Angle character. He ran with it, and then I was able to run with it. I thank him for the opportunity he gave me. Vince McMahon was one of my best friends, period.
It took me a few years to explain to my colleagues and my mentors and the people that I looked up to and I wrestled that I'm not in wrestling anymore. I'm in sports entertainment. Pro' wrestling doesn't mean that we're saying we're a step up above amateur wrestling, because there's nothing above Olympic wrestling.
I really have been trying to get in movies with smaller parts, just to get myself in there and get more practice, and not have to take the big lead. In 'Dylan Dog' I was one of the co-stars, and I had a pretty good part in that movie.
Believe it or not, I kind of went into professional wrestling so I could get an avenue into acting.
I love doing funny promos like the ones I did wrestling Rey Mysterio.
I've been chastised for going into mixed martial arts and backing out. But the reason I backed out was the terms - they wanted me ready to fight in four weeks, but you've got to be out of your mind. So I decided to go back to my roots, back to wrestling.
There are many young Americans that are very distant from our political process.
The Olympics is not really about the sport, it's about the story behind the person. You keep the sport relatively simple to understand - let the fans understand that a takedown is 1 point, a turn is 2, a pin and the match is over. Keep it simple, and keep the story on the individual.
I'm in professional wrestling, which is what I do for a living. I coordinate stunts. I memorize them.
When Jack Swagger copies my Ankle Lock and Randy Orton does my Angle Slam, it's disrespectful. I didn't come up with the Ankle Lock; Ken Shamrock came up with the Ankle Lock, but I waited until he retired to do the Ankle Lock.
There are so many things that have evolved since I wrestled. They don't have periods anymore. They have rounds... it confuses the younger demographic.
Pro wrestling was there, and I was good at it, thank God. I started getting a lot of offers, but unfortunately, at WWE I was under a tight leash. I think it had a lot to do with The Rock making the transition, and me possibly being the next guy - you know, the company didn't want to lose another top performer.
You go from Olympic wrestling into pro wrestling, and it's a very difficult transition, but if you make it, you can earn a great living while at the same time giving amateur wrestling a lot of exposure by being on TV every week. Fans know where you came from.
I don't like to have gimmicks. I don't like to have gadgets and stuff. I just like to go out there and entertain the fans by wrestling.
I'm not going to be a guy that retires and keeps coming back. When I'm gone, I'm gone. Same thing as amateur wrestling; when I won the world championships in Olympics, I left and I never went back. Same for pro.
You do not boo an Olympic Gold Medalist. I'm the best in the world. I came here for you. You don't boo me.
