On the June 25, 2015 taping of Impact Wrestling (aired July 1), Kurt Angle lost the TNA World Heavyweight Championship to Ethan Carter III. Less than a year later, Angle parted ways with TNA, with his final match taking place on March 8, 2016 against Bobby Lashley.
On a recent episode of “The Kurt Angle Show,” Angle recalled the time he realized that Impact Wrestling might be in trouble as big stars began leaving the promotion.
You can check out some highlights from the podcast below:
On if he was surprised TNA had him lose the title to EC3: “No, no, he was the upcoming star. He was without a doubt the guy that was head and shoulders above everybody else. I mean, EC3 stood out like a sore thumb. His promo skills were incredible. His in-ring work was great wasn’t like incredible, but he was good enough that he was passable to be a main eventer, but he got better and better as time went on. He was a little green when he started, but he got better at certain points in time, but man this guy could cut a promo. He had an incredible look and he could work in the ring. He was the future star.”
On whether Impact going from Spike TV to Destination factored into his departure: “You know what it was, it felt like a step down, there’s no doubt about it. I mean, going from Spike to Destination America, you knew that the company was a little bit in trouble. We couldn’t get any other network to air our show besides Destination America. I knew things weren’t going as well as they should have.”
On if the network change was the moment he knew TNA was in trouble: “No, when I saw a guy starting to leave like the big stars like Hulk Hogan, Eric Bischoff, Sting guys like that at that caliber. When they started to leave I realized, ‘Okay, the money’s running out.’ I know they are keeping me because I’m the guy on the show. I was the top guy, I was the guy that they were pushing every week and making the name and face of . And Sting was up there too, but they couldn’t afford to pay everybody and my contract was pretty, pretty pricey. So they decide to keep me and they decided to let go of certain other folks and I knew that at that point in time eventually they weren’t going to be able to pay me if things stayed the same if they didn’t get better.”
