Kurt Angle Is Greatest In-Ring Performer Ever Says Ex-WWE Star
A former longtime WWE employee is going with Kurt Angle as the greatest of all time.
Kurt Angle is a WWE and TNA Hall of Famer who only started as a pro wrestler in his late 20s after he had already won an Olympic Gold Medal for wrestling. He may have mentioned that gold medal a few times in his wrestling career.
During his initial WWE run from late 1999 until his mid-2006 departure, he spent most of his run as a main event level who was praised heavily for being one of the best all-around performers ever who excelled in the ring. Angle spent even more time in TNA Wrestler from 2006 for a full decade before a WWE return to end his career.
Throughout his career, Angle showed that he was just as comfortable being a goofy jokester as he was being a believable badass who could destroy anybody.
Jonathan Coachman is a former WWE announcer and part-time wrestler who had many roles in the company at the same time that Angle was there during his first run. According to Coach in his interview with Chris Van Vliet for Insight, Kurt Angle deserves to be called the greatest pro wrestler of all time.
“Kurt Angle is the greatest in-ring performer there ever is. People argue with me, I’m telling you right now, there’s been nobody — whether you’re training and you come into the business, or whether you’re an authentic NCAA wrestler like him and Brock and [Gable] and all these guys that’ve done it.
“What Kurt Angle was able to do, not only in the ring, but also as his character, with the cowboy hats and the singing… He embraced it. I don’t know why more talent doesn’t embrace trying something. Don’t sit on the sidelines and complain that they not using you; walk in, throw 10 things at the wall. If one hits, that could be a Stone Cold Steve Austin.“
Kurt Angle Believes He Had The Greatest Match Of All Time
While discussing his legendary wrestling career earlier this year, Kurt Angle spoke about his WrestleMania 21 match with Shawn Michaels in 2005 as perhaps the greatest match of all time.
“One of my favorites was Shawn Michaels at WrestleMania 21. I really believe, in my mind, it was the greatest match of all time. Shawn and I just clicked. And the crazy thing is, we never worked before that, we never had a match together. And, during the week, we were supposed to, like, get in the ring and practice moves and stuff. We didn’t do any of that. We never even tied up.
And to have that kind of chemistry with Shawn that shows how good Shawn was. I mean, everybody considers him the greatest superstar of all time, and I believe he is. He’s that good because he’s never had a bad match. He’s had an incredible match with everybody, and that just shows you how good he is.”
Kurt Angle also recently confirmed that a movie is being developed about his journey as an amateur wrestler that ended with Olympic gold.