WWE RAW General Manager Kurt Angle recently spoke with the folks at Planeta Wrestling to promote this coming Sunday’s WWE Great Balls Of Fire pay-per-view in Dallas, Texas, as well as the pre-order bonus for the new WWE 2K18 video game. Below are some of the highlights from the interview.
On if he could be any character in WWE 2K18, which would he choose and why: “I would be either Undertaker or John Cena because they rarely lose. They are guys that, whether in the video game or real life, they’re real life superheroes. I enjoy watching them both wrestle. I think they’re both very articular and have a great outlook on their psychology in professional wrestling. Especially Undertaker, he’s the man. But those two guys are the guys I’d like to play. One of the newer guys – I love AJ Styles. I’m a big AJ Styles fan so I’d love to play him. I’ve wrestled him numerous times, and I know how truly talented he is. It’d be a lot of fun to be on the other side of that. I’d love to be AJ wrestling Kurt Angle. That’d be a lot of fun. So we’ll see how that goes, but those are the guys I’d like to be.”
On whether or not WWE has changed since his last run with the company: “It’s different now, but in many good ways. The drug policy, the wellness policy, the way they cater to the athletes – it’s a lot of fun to be back. I wanted to come back – Bill Goldberg said last year, he spoke about him returning to WWE. It wasn’t about him, it was about his kids. I have three little ones that actually never have seen me wrestle. A six-year-old, four-year-old, and seven-month-old. And not only that, but I owed it to the WWE Universe to come back and end my career here, where I started it. A lot of fans have been asking for that for many years. So it isn’t about me coming back, it isn’t about me making money, it’s about the WWE Universe, the fans, and my kids that never watched me wrestle. I wanted them to see their dad and the light that my two older children have and the light that the rest of my family have. So it’s really not about me, it’s about them and I want to show them what daddy really can do.”
On who he wants from the NXT brand to join the RAW brand on the WWE main roster: “Oh gosh, I really like that Asuka girl. I’m telling you, the girls have really come on strong. Watching her, I know she’s gonna make a huge impact when she comes up, and I really hope we get her on RAW. I really enjoy watching the females become a big part of the WWE. Not just an addition but a big staple. They’re just as highly demanded as the guys now, I think Triple H and the WWE have done an incredible job with NXT. They’re grooming these talents, they’re become stars before they even get on TV on RAW and SmackDown. Wow, that’s never happened before. You have to give credit to how they’ve been able to produce them. Whether they get them from theatre programs or independents, they bring them to NXT and they groom them.
“They get them ready for TV and it’s amazing how many talents are coming through NXT. That’ll continue to be their staple. that’s gonna be the way it goes and I like it. I like what they’re teaching them down there. And it’s not just the wrestling, it’s the persona, working on cutting promos, entrance themes – I mean you look at these entrances now: Finn Balor, Nakamura, Bayley, they’re just different now and larger than life. I really think the WWE has caught onto something really cool. Fans like the entrances just as much if not more than the matches, yes it’s true. So they’re on to something and I enjoy seeing it.”
Check out the complete Kurt Angle interview above or at YouTube.com.