Kurt Angle Believes AEW Talent “Is Going To Be A Big Star”

On the latest episode of The Kurt Angle Show, the former Olympic Gold Medalist spoke about his Royal Rumble match against Taz at Royal Rumble 2000. Kurt Angle spoke about the result of the match — having him lose to Taz for the first time in WWE, and reveals why he doesn’t think he lost the match to this day.”

“I wasn’t told when my winning streak was going to come to an end,” Angle said. “As a matter of fact, I think the Taz ordeal kind of popped up out of nowhere. They had plans of me staying undefeated and obviously, I still was undefeated after I wrestled Taz, regardless of what Taz says.”

The former WWE Champion continued to talk about the finish of the match and why he sold the Tazzmission for so long during the conclusion.

“I had to sell this much because I had to be knocked out so that when I got to the back and woke up during the pre-tapes to say, ‘What happened’ and they said, ‘You got choked out’ and I said, ‘wait a minute, that was an illegal choke so I’m still undefeated,’ Angle said. “That’s why I really had to oversell the choke.”

Speaking of Taz, his son Hook has made a name for himself in AEW as of late. Kurt Angle spoke about Taz’s son and what his opinion on the AEW superstar is.

“He’s making a huge impact in wrestling right now,” Angle said. “This kid is awesome. He’s going to be a big star, he definitely is. I hear he’s got one of the top selling t-shirts for Pro Wrestling Tees which is unbelievable. Kid only had four matches in AEW and he’s already a sensation.”

Kurt Angle On If Taz’s Suplexes Were Dangerous, Taz Responds

Back at the 2000 Royal Rumble, Taz made his big debut by submitting Kurt Angle in a relatively quick match. Towards the end of the bout, Taz pulled off a few of his signature suplexes on Angle, one of which Angle flipped over in midair and landed on his stomach. According to Jim Ross — who brought in the ECW star — Taz’s suplexes were considered dangerous by some people backstage.

“Nobody could’ve had a better debut in Madison Square Garden than Taz got and he beat Kurt Angle by submission,” Ross said on an episode of Grilling JR earlier this year. “People thought his suplexes were dangerous, a lot of the talents got back to Vince and said, ‘I don’t really want to work with this guy.’ Enough of the top talents convinced McMahon that Taz was not a good hire, he was limited on what he could do, his suplexes were dangerous, so he fell out of favor.”

On The Kurt Angle Show, Angle wanted to make it clear Taz was not a dangerous wrestler, and it was in fact his idea to pull off that particular suplex during the match in 2000. (h/t Inside the Ropes for the transcription):

“Taz was not dangerous,” Angle stated. “That was my idea. I told Taz to give me a German suplex and throw me really high in the air, I would flip over to my stomach. I wanted to do a moonsault German suplex where I landed on my stomach, I thought it’d look really vicious and brutal. So that was all my call. I’m not sure why Taz didn’t then tell the office that I’m the one that chose the move. Taz was never dangerous with his suplexes. He was relatively safe, I never had a problem with him.”

Taz has since responded to Angle and appreciated the WWE Hall of Famer clearing things up.

“So for me, aren’t many more credible in the history of the biz than Kurt. For anyone who thought/think I was ‘dangerous’ the man with the brightest GOLD has spoken. I appreciate you explaining this @RealKurtAngle.”

Taz Discusses Why He Left WWE, What Caused Kurt Angle To Walk Out From ECW

On the latest episode of AEW Unrestricted, Taz chatted with Aubrey Edwards and Tony Schiavone about his career in WWE. Taz has discussed his WWE debut before and the feeling that he was doomed from the start. However, wrestling at Madison Square Garden was always a dream of his and he talked about fulfilling that dream and talking with Paul Heyman as he was leaving for WWE.

“I had just a few goals in my life and my career. I always wanted to hold a championship at one point, I wanted to make a living in the business didn’t care how much it was and wrestle in Madison Square Garden just one time. And stretch Kurt Angle,” Taz said jokingly with Schiavone. “I figured two out of three ain’t bad. I’m never working at The Garden. Then Vince told me that I was gonna be working at The Garden. I was like, ‘oh, there’s number three.’ Then I told Vince the story. He goes, ‘oh, that’s great pal.’ He didn’t really give a s–t. No, but so anyway that night was amazing.

“I call Paul Heyman, and I thanked him. Even though it was kayfabe, he knew I was debuting there, so I just thanked him for my whole career and everything we did in ECW. I know you’re pissed off at me. I know you’re angry. He said, ‘no man. I love ya.’ He goes, ‘you’re gonna kick ass. I’m proud of ya.’ It was like closure for me. It’s weird. I sounds very soft, but I don’t give a f–k.”

Kurt Angle got his first taste of wrestling in ECW. Taz talked about Angle’s short time in ECW and the incident that made him walk out.

“Shane Douglas, who is from Pittsburgh, had mutual friends with Kurt, who is from Pittsburgh, and Shane was the reason how Kurt was at the ECW show in Philly. That was his first and last ECW show, and that was the first taste of pro wrestling for him, which I guess he liked,” Taz said. “Then something happened with Raven and The Sandman and the crucifix in the arena. Kurt Angle saw that. He got very offended and stormed out of the building. Me and Shane Douglas didn’t know that was going to happen, and we’re yelling at Paul. Kurt’s yelling at me and Shane. ‘We didn’t know. We didn’t know.’ We’re apologizing. F–king mess. It was a whole big craziness. Well, there goes the gold medalist out of the f–kin door because of some stupid angle.”

Taz has called his debut match against Kurt Angle the greatest and worst moment of his career. He talked about his reputation for being dangerous after dropping Angle on his head, and the reaction his debut had backstage.

“So when I wrestled Kurt at The Garden, when I came out, like when I heard that pop, I knew I was f–ked. I knew I was doomed. I knew it. I knew it because it was massive, and again, it was before the big craze of the Internet and all that s–t. People didn’t know I was going to be there. It was a legit surprise. A legit pop in the world’s most famous arena. The reason why I knew I was doomed is because that pop did not come from WWE,” Taz said. “I was a made guy before I got to WWE, and WWE, at that time, they’ll never admit it and they won’t admit it now, they didn’t want made guys. As I’m walking out with a towel over my head bad as a motherf–ker, I’m saying to myself, ‘oh my god. Shut up. Don’t cheer. Don’t pop just boo me. Do something just don’t saying nothing, even though it was an awesome feeling.

“When I knew I was really f–ked was it was the first match of the Royal Rumble, massive PPV at The Garden, I walk through the gorilla [and] there’s nobody there when I’m done with the match. They stretchered Kurt Angle out. Everybody’s gone. As you guys know, that’s not [good]. Nobody wanted to be near me or talk to me. Nobody. Nobody. I’m like, ‘oh boy,’ because even though it was my first night in the company, I knew how things worked. Then I was there for another nine years, so go figure.”

WWE brought back ECW in the mid-2000s, but the show did not have the same feel as it did in it’s original incarnation. Schiavone asked Taz if that was done on purpose. Taz said no and talked about when he realized that the rebirth of ECW was doomed to fail.

“I ended up leaving the Smackdown desk to do color commentary on the rebirth of ECW. You see the ECW guys call it the ‘rebirth’. We don’t call it ECW. It was Joey Styles and I. It was f–king horrible, and I don’t think Vince did that on purpose. I have no agenda to put Vince over. I’m just being honest,” Taz said. “I really believe that was Vince’s vision for what it should be and would be. He didn’t give a f–k. He wanted it to be what he wanted it to be.

“Here’s the thing, I knew that thing was f–ked [when] we did the rebirth of WCW [and] we were in Newark, NJ doing a TV, and the announce desk was not going to be the regular announce desk. It was just going to be a folding table with a box and wires all exposed. That was the first one or two that we did. Then we were in I think it was either Newark or Trenton, NJ, I can’t remember what town, and I remember Kevin Dunn saying to me and Joey Styles, ‘yeah we’re gonna change the table up. It looks like s–t.’ And me and Joey are like, ‘well, no. That’s kind of the look. It should look [like that],’ and he goes, ‘it’s WWE’s version of ECW. It’s not going to look like that.’ Me and Joey are like, ‘well, this thing is doomed.'”

Schiavone noted how Taz was able to leave WWE on his own terms. Tax discussed why he left, mostly citing the micromanaging of the commentators from Vince McMahon.

“Which was great. I’m so proud to be able to do that because at that time people were getting future endeavored. So if they were to release someone, they would get future endeavored. ‘Yeah, we wish Joe Blow the best of his future endeavors.’ Not bad enough we’re gonna release you, we’re also gonna see you the way out of the door. How much of a f–king deal is that? Anyway, man, I just had enough. I was working Smackdown. Technically, I was working only once a week. I was flying on Vince’s plane, Michael Cole and I back to New York every Tuesday night after TV not because they liked us, but we had to go do VO’s [voiceovers]. So we had to get back to Connecticut. So commercially it would have been a b–ch,” Taz said. “My point is they wined and dined me. They treated me great, financially, everything. I had a new deal in front of me, a new three-year deal. They wanted to keep me, and I remember telling Kevin Dunn, ‘I think I gotta pump the brakes here. I don’t think I’m gonna stay.’ He goes, ‘what?’ He was shocked. He was shocked because it came out of nowhere. In my mind, I was tired of the vibe there.

“I would sit in the rent-a-car and do show prep. I didn’t want to be in the building. I didn’t want to be around any of them, and there were one or two other guys that would do the same thing. I don’t want to name names because one of them still works there, so I don’t want to bury them. I just didn’t want to go. This went on, no lie, for three months. I just didn’t want to go. I didn’t want to be there. I didn’t want to hear Vince in my ear. F–k, I know it’s a leapfrog dude. I mean I know it’s a dropkick. I don’t need you telling me, ‘it’s a bulldog.’ Yeah, no s–t. How many bulldogs have you taken? How many have I taken? Shut up. OK. That kind of sh–t, that kind of micromanaging got to a point where he was not just in my ear but the play-by-play guy were getting it a lot worse than the commentators.”

Taz talked more about his mindset at the time of leaving WWE. While expressing how instrumental WWE has been to his career, he said that he did not want to be around a McMahon anymore and did not blame politics as Schiavone had wondered if that was a reason why Taz had left.

“So that was a big part of it just being around, at that time, I’m gonna say it and they gave me to leave the ring and be a commentator and my podcast when it was going full time, I thank them publicly. I emailed Vince privately when I got my gig with CBS Radio. I emailed him, ‘without you turning me into a broadcast, I would have never had this,’ but I’m gonna tell you right now, I just never said it anywhere else. I’ll tell you this. I didn’t want to be around anybody named McMahon at that time,” Taz admitted. “They were f–king annoying, and it was the pompous, the arrogance. I think things have changed there a little bit. But the arrogance, not politics, the arrogance. That’s what I keep saying. That’s the adjective that keeps jumping out at me. Just the disposition of that elitist attitude, it got to the point where I was like, ‘you know what? F–k off. I’m out.'”

Taz talked about going out the right way and how he gave people a heads up that he would leave. He also said that he offered to work WrestleMania without pay, but since he was leaving, WWE changed their plans on how they were going to use him.

“He said go out, take a week to think about. Talk to your wife. I knew I had the opportunity to go to TNA at that time,” Taz said. “I knew. I’m not dumb. I wasn’t like, ‘I’m tired of working here. I’m just gonna wait until someone else calls me.’ I said to Kevin, ‘listen, Kevin I’m sorry. You’ve been really helpful for my career. I appreciate you. I need a break.’ He goes, ‘OK. Alright, I understand. You’re gonna have to talk to Vince. He’s gonna want to talk to you personally.

“I did say then because WrestleMania was the next week, I said, ‘I don’t want to leave you on a lurch. I’m not gonna sign a deal because my deal was up. I’ll go to Mania. Don’t pay me just take care of my trans[portation]. I’ll go in. I don’t want to leave you on a lurch. He goes, ‘Taz, I appreciate that. Let me go talk to Vince. We might go to a different direction since you’re leaving.’ That’s no problem, and they did. They went a different direction, but I know I rest on my head on my pillow at night knowing I did the right thing on the way out.”

Jim Ross On Taz Dropping Kurt Angle On His Head In His WWE Debut, His Push In The Company

“Good ol’ J.R.” Jim Ross talked about Taz’s WWE debut on his Grilling J.R. podcast. Taz debuted at the 2000 Royal Rumble pay-per-view and took on an undefeated Kurt Angle. Taz broke Angle’s undefeated streak to a lot of fanfare. Ross talked about the reception Tazz got in Madison Square Garden.

“Taz earned one of the biggest ovations that I’d ever heard in the Garden for anybody in WWE in my career there,” Ross said. “I remember when Austin came back. I remember when Triple H came back. A lot of guys [returned] where we can go back and say, ‘well that was a big pop.’ They all were. You’re right but nothing that I had ever heard from a brand new guy that had never worked in WWE before [overshadowed] what Taz did.”

Ross took a moment to congratulate Taz on signing a contract with All Elite Wrestling as a broadcaster as well as talking briefly about AEW renewing their contract with TNT through 2023. He also talked about an interesting fact about the Taz – Angle match.

“Congratulations to Taz. He signed a long-term contract to broadcast on AEW, who of course got renewed through TNT through 2023 which is great for me because I was always wondering what I was gonna do past 70. I want to work, so hopefully I’ll get that opportunity,” Ross said. “That’s good for the company, and now Taz is there now so it’s good for us to have a quality guy on our team. But man the audience went nuts. The beauty of this match, here’s the irony of this thing, we ain’t got Austin there, but we got a match that went three minutes and 16 seconds between Taz and Kurt.”

During the match, Taz dropped Angle on his head. Taz has said that he knew from the get-go the company would be unhappy because he got a big pop without being pushed. Ross defended Taz, talking about how the blame should not be solely on his shoulders.

“There is no way as a talent or someone that’s involved in talent management that I’m gonna look at a great pop like that as a negative. I think he overreacted there in my opinion. I do remember there were moments in the match, and look, Taz didn’t do those suplexes acapella, Kurt was taking them dare devilish,” Ross said. “It takes two to tango in those scenarios, but there’s not doubt there’s some release-type suplexes some things going on that we had not a lot of in WWE, and the reason for that was because they’re not totally safe. You gotta have a guy that knows how to take the bumps [and] that is prepared for it.

“There were moments in that three minute 16 second match that somebody could see that Kurt was going along trying to help Taz. He was acquiescing to unsafe moves. You can’t throw guys on their head. I don’t know if that’s anybody’s fault. It could be nerves. It could be not as bad as people thought.”

Ross talked about Taz’s personality being unsettled and called him paranoid. He noted that Taz was always going to be taken care of and suggests that he may not have been in that kind of environment before.

“Look, Taz is a difference maker. I can see in my mind as we speak in this very minute that my secretary handed me a note from a phone message from Peter Sernerchia. The first thing I say is, ‘who the f**k is Peter Sernerchia?

“‘Well he said you’d know who he was. He’s one of the boys.’ So hell I didn’t have any idea who Peter Sernerchia was. I can tell you who Taz was, but I didn’t know Taz’s real name. I did some investigative work. ‘Oh, that’s Taz.’ Taz still gets unsettled too easily. I kid him about it. That was the deal. I think he was a little paranoid. He still is paranoid in a lot of ways. He shouldn’t be. He should be sure of himself. He’s got a great ability, but I think that whole thing was kind of blown out of proportion, and I don’t know how comfortable he was once he got with us.

“I can tell you, not too long after, he tore something, and he was concerned. I remember Bruce talking to him, ‘look, we’re not gonna turn you loose. We’re gonna pay for your surgery. We’re gonna pay your weekly while you’re healing. Then we hope to get you back to work.’ That was the bottom line of that deal: ‘we’re not gonna screw you around.’ We didn’t, but he had never been in an environment where he felt protected and taken care of.”

Ross also talked about the changes that were happening at the time. Taz’s height did not match the stereotypical type of wrestler that WWE promoted. Ross said that Taz’s push despite his height did not garner a lot of praise backstage.

“A lot of guys didn’t like Taz because he got over at 5’8″,” JR noted. “Again, it’s the same whole deal of size matters, and if you’re 6’3″ or 6’4″, you’re gonna endorse that with all you can because you want Vince to not change his philosophy, but he sure changed his philosophy during this whole period of time because we got Tazz in there, we got Benoit, we got Malenko, Saturn and love him, god bless him Eddie. None of them were six feet tall so a lot of things happened that was going against the grain of some of the power brokers behind the scenes and certainly some of the creative guys that heard Vince say over and over, ‘he’s too short. He’s too short.'”

Mick Foley On Working With Triple H, Changes He Would Make With AEW

20 years ago, Mick Foley and Triple H had a street fight in Madison Square Garden at the Royal Rumble pay-per-view. Foley was asked about the match and his experience working with Triple H on Inside the Ropes.

“I loved working with Triple H, not just because he’s in charge, and I might want to work there again. He’s my son’s boss too, but that’s not why am saying it. I loved working with Triple H,” Foley said. “He had a way of bringing out the best in people, and that’s an underrated quality that you can’t actually see. You have to feel.

“I was really hurting. My knees hurt really bad so he was working around me weaknesses, and we came up with a match that worked to my strengths, with a guy that could work up to my strengths better than anybody.”

Foley also talked about what Triple H had to go through during the match.

“One of the indelible moments was when I was suplexing Triple H on a pallet and a shard of wood when into Hunter’s calf. He had blood streaming down his leg during the entirety of the match, but he kept going,” Foley said. “It was great showing by him he brought the best out of me. No question is one of the best matches I’ve ever been in.”

The venue of Madison Square Garden holds a special feeling for Foley as he grew up going there to watch one of his favorite wrestlers, Jimmy Snuka. He was asked about how special the venue was.

“It does feel different. I remember it felt like a subdued reaction. Even last night, I was free to admit that Tazz had a bigger reaction than I did for [my match],” Foley said. “But the reaction during the course of the match was phenomenal, and there’s something special about not only Madison Square Garden, as the Mecca of wrestling in the United States, but the fact it was the building that I grew up going to and taking trains to and hitchhiking to where I saw Snuka come off the top of the cell so it really was a big deal for me.”

Foley was also asked about All Elite Wrestling and his thoughts on the promotion so far.

“They’ve got an amazing talent roster, but I think, with the exception of 8-10 guys, you have a lot of guys that haven’t worked full time for a promotion, and they haven’t had the chance to make mistakes in a smaller venue,” Foley said. “One of ten things I like about the For All Mankind DVD was that you literally got to see me growing. They’d show a promo from 1989, and it clearly wasn’t quite there, and you could see the growth [over time]. I’m sure you could see the growth of the AEW characters as they go but in the meantime you get to see some mistakes being seen on live television.

“Some of the guys have grown up yearning after the This is Awesome chant but having had the experience in angles that need to draw money I think guys from my era there was definitely a real sense that if the angle wasn’t successful you didn’t try the houses. There was no ancillary means of income, and I’m not down on the guys but you see the inexperience when it comes to shooting angles and performing for the camera.”

He went on to talk about how he was purposefully held back from his hardcore style to save his style for the right moment.

“It’s an admirable trait that they want to have the best match that they can, but every guy wanting to have the best match at every venue doesn’t necessarily lead to the best promotion, that’s just my opinion. So I think someone needs to reign some of these guys in like Gerald Brisco told me when I got to WWE, ‘we know you liked to do a lot of these things. There may come a time when we ask you to do that, but until then, we’re going to ask you not to,’ and that really improved my longevity,” Foley said.

Foley notes that NXT’s roster has a slight advantage over AEW because they are trained to work full time for a promotion.

“NXT’s advantage is that their guys have been trained to work for the camera, and I think they have an advantage of having more seasoned stars and now a dedicated team writing for them,” Foley said. “But in the end it comes to down to who has the ability to tell better long-term stories and get the audience engaged.”

Some of the wrestlers that have been trained to work in front of a camera are Cody Rhodes and Chris Jericho, and Foley was asked whether or not he’s surprised they were in the forefront of AEW to start.

“I always thought they’d be among the vocal points. I mean Cody just knocked that one promo out of the park. I thought they rushed the match. I think they’re not showing the patience they need to,” Foley said. “I would say that Moxley and Kenny Omega shouldn’t have had their first match in a while, in an everything goes environment, but I think these are mistakes made trying to give people the absolute best product that they can but there should be someone reigning in some of that enthusiasm.”