‘The Olympic Gold Medallist’ Kurt Angle has wrestled with the options for the greatest in-ring competitor he’s ever worked with and came up with only one name.
Across his long and illustrious career, the former WWE Champion has competed against many top tier athletes and legends of the sport in various different promotions around the world.
From Shawn Michaels, The Rock, The Undertaker and Triple H during his initial stint in the WWF, to and Sting, Samoa Joe and AJ Styles in TNA as well as the likes of Cody Rhodes, Joe Coffey and Zack Sabre Jr. for various independent promotions prior to re-joining WWE in 2017.
Now, the man in question has taken to his Kurt Angle Show podcast to reveal who, in his opinion, is the best in-ring talent he’s ever faced:
“Christian was vital for me. He was very knowledgeable. He was a young guy that I could grow a relationship with and learn more from him. That match that I had with Christian, it was only my second month so we did 5 days of training the first month, 5 days of training the second month and then that was when we had that match. It was Christians try-out match for T.V. and it was against me, and I didn’t know what I was doing.
Christian had to rely on me, but because he couldn’t rely on me he had to rely doubly on himself because he had to carry me through the match. We ended up having a great match, he talked me through the whole thing. When I started out, I was a great listener. In order to be a great leader, you need to be a great follower. You have to learn how to listen, have to keep your mouth shut, listen to the advice and take it as it is. I was really good at that, so I became a great leader a couple years later. Christian taught me that.”
Kurt Angle and Christian have a long history together which began all the way back in 2000 when the Olympian teamed with the man in question and his partner Edge. The trio would become one of the most popular comedic partnerships of the era before Angle stepped into a storyline revolving around his affections for Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley.