Kurt Angle talks about TNA Wrestling’s financial woes from 2012.
Kurt Angle was the top star in TNA Wrestling from the moment he arrived in 2006 and he stayed at the top for almost a decade. In 2012, the company was at the beginnings of a crossroads and, in addition to Angle, still had plenty of major wrestling stars as part of their loaded roster of wrestlers. Names such as Sting, Hulk Hogan, Ric Flair, Samoa Joe, AJ Styles, Jeff Hardy, Bobby Roode, and others all filled out TNA’s cards at the time.
On the latest episode of his podcast, The Kurt Angle Show, Angle does a deep dive into the year 2012 in TNA Wrestling Kurt is of the belief that if the company would have just had a little bit more money, they could have been very successful and comparable to where All Elite Wrestling is today.
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“Well, we had a really good run in 2008, 2009, and 2010. But in 2012, we were hurting for money. I know they signed a lot of big names at that particular time. I believe Hulk Hogan and Ric Flair were already in the company. I think Eric Bischoff, and Kevin Nash [were as well.] So there was being money thrown around, and the company didn’t have enough money to continue to go at the pace we were,” Kurt said. “In other words, we had to try to change our monthly schedules. So you know, TV [tapings] didn’t go every week anymore. They had the budget and tried to make make it work and it was unfortunate, but if TNA had just a little bit more money, I think they would have been able to make it over the hump and would have been a really successful company. Kind of like AEW today.”
Previously, Kurt Angle told another story about TNA Wrestling not wanting to pay Brock Lesnar the money he wanted to get him on the roster in 2007. Fans can learn more about that here.
TNA Wrestling, now rebranded as IMPACT, is still going strong today and its extensive Library featuring many of wrestling’s Hall of Famers can be accessed via IMPACT Plus and IMPACT Ultimate Insiders on YouTube.
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