WWE and TNA great Kurt Angle was a guest recently on the Steve Austin Show, and the Olympic Gold Medalist had quite a bit to say about the state of Independent Wrestling right now.
“It’s crazy, man. These indies now, they’re doing really well, especially in the UK and Scotland," he said. "I mean, they’re getting 4,000 to 7,000 fans at these events and they’re live streaming it on pay-per-view. And, I mean, the money’s incredible, especially for an indie show, so it’s pretty good. Wrestling right now is really good no matter where you are. I never thought I’d be getting paid the money I’m getting paid to wrestle at these indies.”
Here are some highlights of his match with Cruiserweight Classic Semi-Finalist Zack Sabre Jr. at RevPro in England.
Angle is of the opinion that the talent on the indies is measuring up nicely compared to the WWE. “I think that right now I really believe the indie scene is just about as good as it is in WWE," he said. "I wouldn’t say completely because obviously WWE gets the cream of the crop. They continue to recruit and they have a lot of talented individuals. But the indie scene isn’t that much worse. I mean, there are a lot of great matches, a lot of great wrestlers.”
Angle isn't a fan of how the pace of WWE matches has quickened over the years.“I look at WWE, and there's a lot of good talent right now. Now, their style, I think they’ve picked up the pace a little bit more. And I think they need to pull that back a little bit and get back to being a little more old school," he said. "I think the pace is going too fast. And I think the one thing they’re not doing is not selling as much as they used to. I think that down the road, if they continue to do that and continue to pick up the pace, it will, it could kill the business a little bit."
Angle commiserated with Austin about the good old days."You know that wrestling goes in cycles and there was a time, I remember when I was in WWE where I’d say I had 50 straight matches where I didn’t tie up. It started with punches. But then, it slowed down, and then, the style came into technical wrestling and I know you and I did a lot of that, so I think that it’ll come around," he said.
Angle added, "I just think right now, they’re probably giving these wrestlers less time on TV and if you give them less time, they’re not going to have time to tell that story at the beginning, showing that wrestling ability. Instead, they just go right into a high spot.”
There has been a lot of talk about an Angle return to the WWE, but so far, nothing has materialized.
