Kurt Angle is a big fan of Dean Malenko.
The Olympic Hero spoke about the Man of 1000 Holds on the latest edition of his Kurt Angle Show podcast, where recalled when the Radicalz (Malenko, Chris Benoit, Perry Saturn, Eddie Guerrero) debuted in WWE back in 2000 and how excited he was to have all of those guys from WCW. Angle states that out of the four Malenko is the one he looked up to more than anyone, later adding that he learned a lot from the former multi-time cruiserweight champion.
I looked up to Dean more than anybody else. Him being ‘The Man of 1,000 Holds,’ a technical wrestler — I got so excited when Dean Malenko, Chris Benoit, and Eddie Guerrero were going to come to WWE because they were all great technical wrestlers. That’s what I aspired to be. Knowing Dean was there, I knew I could learn a lot from him, and I did.
Angle and Malenko mainly interacted during Malenko’s stint as a producer, which is a position he currently holds in AEW. Elsewhere on the podcast, Angle spoke about his ‘Wrestling Machine’ gimmick in WWE’s version of ECW and how he received that gimmick shortly before his first departure from the company. You can read about that here.
(H/T and transcribed by Fightful)
