Kurt Angle On Similarities Between AJ Styles & Shawn Michaels, His Favorite TNA Match With Styles

On a recent edition of The Kurt Angle Show, Kurt Angle discussed the similarities between AJ Styles and Shawn Michaels, his favorite TNA match with Styles, and much more. You can read his comments below. 

Kurt Angle on the similarities between AJ Styles and Shawn Michaels: “Shawn and AJ, they have so many identical ways about them, especially their in-ring performances, their athleticism, the way they were showmen. Very identical styles. Of the guys I worked with, I would say AJ, Shawn Michaels, and Chris Benoit were my three favorites to work with. And Eddie Guerrero is in there too.”

On Styles leaving TNA in 2014: “AJ was their franchise player. You get rid of him and you’re gonna have to build up somebody else to be the franchise guy. AJ was way too young to let go. At this point in his career, he was probably in his early 30s, so AJ was still in the prime of his career. You want to keep him, and you have to make him happy. They didn’t want to do that.”

On whether he thinks Styles has been underutilized in WWE: “No he hasn’t been. I will say this, they push him at certain circumstances, and then they pull back. But they never forget about AJ. They continue to utilize him as much as they can. Whenever they need him, they pull him up and push him really hard. I think he’s been world champion a few times. He’s gonna be off and on, but they will continue to utilize him because they know how talented he is.”

On his favorite TNA match with Styles: “I would say Slammiversary 2008. I think we went almost 30 minutes and AJ beat me, but it was the first time I had a really solid 4-star match with AJ. It showed me how talented he truly was. Usually, you wrestle on TV or house shows, you go 10 or 15 minutes. But having this lengthy match and being as good as he was and being as consistent as he was throughout the match really impressed me.”

If using any of the above quotes, please credit The Kurt Angle Show with an h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.