Kurt Angle Comments on AJ Styles, Wrestling Future and More

Kurt Angle won't say whether he'll ever wrestle again, but he knows who he'd like to face if he does make a return to the ring. 

Angle spoke to Lilian Garcia of AfterBuzz TV on Monday, saying he'd choose WWE champion AJ Styles if he had to pick one last opponent (h/t Raj Giri of Wrestling Inc.):  

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I wrestled AJ in TNA, and I can tell you that he is every bit as good as Shawn Michaels. The thing with AJ Styles, and I want everybody to realize this--you don't have to do anything with him. He does all the work. So it's an easy match for you. He flies around the ring. He does all the bumping. AJ is a special individual where you can go in that ring and literally just stand in the middle and he does everything for you. I have never had a match with anybody that's been so easy, and every time I worked with him it was a five star match. So AJ's that kind of talent. He only comes around once in a lifetime, so I'd really love to shake it up with him one more time if I could.

"

Angle and Styles worked multiple programs against each other on the main event scene in TNA. Styles left TNA in 2013 and debuted in WWE during last year's Royal Rumble.

Angle left WWE because of health concerns in 2006 but debuted in TNA later that same year. He spent the better part of a decade in the promotion but never returned to WWE despite near-constant rumors that he would be making a comeback.

Those rumors finally manifested Monday night, when Angle was announced as the first member of the 2017 WWE Hall of Fame. Angle will be inducted right before WrestleMania and will headline a class that also reportedly includes Diamond Dallas Paige, William Regal and Rick Rude, per Marc Middleton of Wrestling Inc.

As for whether Angle's Hall of Fame induction will result in an in-ring return, Angle would not say. He did, however, appear satisfied with his legacy in the business: 

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I'm in a great place in my life. I talk to people and they're like, hey why don't you come back and wrestle? No, no, I'm in a good place right now. I'm OK with not being Kurt Angle the wrestler anymore. I'm just happy being who I am. I think that people don't know how to just accept who they are and be happy with who they are.

"

Angle's history of neck injuries could keep him from being cleared by WWE doctors, though he competed in 2016 in TNA and on the independent circuit. He spoke to Garcia about descending into painkiller addiction as a result of the pain. 

"I broke my neck four times in two-and-a-half years," Angle said. "I just got more and more depressed. It was like, why is this happening to me? I didn't want to feel the pain anymore. I felt like my career was being taken away from me."

WWE might be more likely to clear him on a short program rather than a long-term contract, where he might follow a trajectory of Goldberg or Sting.

Follow Tyler Conway (@jtylerconway) on Twitter.