Kurt Angle Talks About His Part-Time TNA Schedule & Working Smaller Crowds etc

http://www.kirksvilledailyexpress.com/article/20120809/NEWS/120809188

ORLANDO, Fla. - Professional wrestler Kurt Angle doesn’t mind performing on a slightly smaller stage even after 14 years in the business. Angle, who wrestles for Total Nonstop Action wrestling, in a lot of ways prefers the smaller crowds like the one he will wrestle in front of Aug. 18 at the Bridge View Center in Ottumwa, Iowa.

“In a lot of ways it’s better, they are more passionate and I get to meet a lot of them,” Angle said. “It’s more fan friendly, we take pictures in the ring and have more meet and greets. There’s a better opportunity for fans to get five to 10 autographs from each of the wrestlers.”

Angle, 43, signed with TNA in 2006 after wrestling with World Wrestling Entertainment for eight years, looking for a lighter workload.

But things changed soon after he signed with TNA.During his tenure with TNA, he has held the World Heavyweight title five times and was a six-time world champion in the WWE.

“At the beginning there wasn’t much of a difference,” Angle said. “I came down here with hopes of building the program, which TNA has done an amazing job of doing, but having a lighter schedule, and that didn’t occur for four or five years. It kind of blossomed after I got here and we went from doing 25 house shows to 125 and one hour on TV to two hours. With the timing of me coming in and what was going on, they needed me to be full-time. My new contract is part-time.”

The switch to part-time will help him transition to acting and other projects. Angle, who won the 100-kg freestyle gold medal at the 1995 World Championships and 1996 Olympics both in Atlanta, has been in contact with Team USA and would like to get involved after the 2012 Olympics wrap up.

Winning the gold medal in 1996 was a joyous and painful experience. Before each match he had 12 shots of Novocain injected because he was wrestling with a broken neck.

The shots got him through the matches, but he would feel excruciating pain an hour after the match.

“That was exhilarating [winning the gold medal],” Angle said. “I don’t remember a lot of it. I was really focused, I remember the opening ceremonies and standing on the podium and it was very emotional. I was happy, elated and felt a sense of relief after I won. It was something I wanted to do since I was 5 years old and my dream came true 22 years later. I felt a sense of relief, but also had a sense of depression because it was over. The training was atrocious, it was extremely hard, almost to the point of abuse. With the pressure that was on me to try and retain the Olympic and World Title over the next few years, I decide to walk away because I felt like I had done enough to leave my mark.”

Angle just finished filming “Pain and Gain”, due for release in 2013, with fellow wrestler Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and played a large role in “Warrior”, which was released in 2011, as a mixed martial arts fighter that. Warrior was filmed in his native Pittsburgh, which was a thrill for Angle.

“It was a lot of fun,” Angle said. “I was a little upset they took my speaking roles out. I had learned Russian for four months and they decided not to have me say anything because I would be more imposing. I was hoping they would show it on the outtakes on the DVD, but they didn’t do it. It was a lot of hard work, I had just finished filming ‘Dylan Dog: Dead of Night’. It was a busy year with TNA and both films. I had to go through a three-month camp and it was a pretty large project. They wanted me to be in MMA condition and learn the moves and make it look as real as they could.”

Angle believes that if MMA was more viable after he finished his amateur wrestling career, he would have gone into the sport instead of signing with World Wrestling Entertainment in 1998.

“I definitely would have went that direction,” Angle said. “The timing wasn’t right and the popularity and money was in pro wrestling. I’d say about five years after that the UFC started to bloom. I did have a couple meetings with [UFC President] Dana White and we didn’t come to terms. Dana was very fair to me and I respect him a lot. I don’t discuss those meetings a lot, but pro wrestling was a better choice when I first went into it. Had it been the other way around, I would have picked MMA.”

The show in Ottumwa will also feature former WWE wrestler Jeff Hardy and “The Cowboy” James Storm. The show will start at 7:30 pm.

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