Kurt Angle Explains Why Dream Match With Bret Hart Never Happened

Over the years in the wrestling business, fans have been robbed of several dream matches for a variety of reasons: injuries, bad timing, contract issues, or retirements. Among those that never happened was Kurt Angle vs. Bret Hart. The legendary "Excellence of Execution" against the Olympic gold medalist was a possibility for WrestleMania 18 — the same card that featured the Hollywood Hogan vs. The Rock dream match. On the latest episode of "The Kurt Angle Show," Angle revealed that he had contacted Hart for a match in 2002, but Hart said no. 

"I didn't understand at the time but I understood when I got older, when I started losing a step, because Bret had that stroke and he wasn't able to move around the way he used to," Angle said. "For him to go out there and not be him at his best and wrestling me, I don't think he wanted to do that, he didn't want to do it unless he could put on a Bret Hart performance," he added. "I said, 'Bret, hey I'll do all the bumping, I'll do all the selling, you just kick my a**,' he's like 'Kurt, I don't want to do that.' Now I understand, here I am in the same position as him."

Speaking hypothetically, Angle laid out the circumstances that would have played into their match-up in Toronto. "There's no doubt that the fans would've went crazy for that match, whether they were cheering for me or Bret," Angle stated. "I think a USA-Canada matchup would've been great, I think it would've been great near the Canadian border, either in the United States or Canada but right on the border where fans can cross over and be able to be there."

Additionally, Angle elaborated on the influence Bret Hart and his in-ring style had on his own wrestling career. "I would've loved to wrestle Bret, that guy ever since I started wrestling, I studied tapes of him and that's who I wanted to portray. He was really technical. Bret Hart could talk, he wasn't the greatest talker in the world but in the ring, nobody better."