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WWE Hall of Famer Kurt Angle lavished praise on his long-time rival AJ Styles and explained why it was easy to work with The Phenomenal One.
After Angle left WWE in 2006, he joined TNA (later known as IMPACT Wrestling), where his incredible rivalry with AJ Styles began. The two had several fantastic matches in the promotion and a short match in WWE during Angle's farewell tour.
On the latest edition of The Kurt Angle Show, the Hall of Famer discussed his first match against AJ Styles in TNA, where he teamed with Rhyno to face Styles & Samoa Joe. Angle said he knew right away Styles is a unique talent and fun to work with:
"Yeah, he was so much fun to work with. The incredible thing about AJ is when you're in the ring with him, you don't have to do anything; he does all the work for you. He flies around, bumps and feeds for you. All you have to do is catch him and you're guaranteed a five-star match regardless. AJ was so easy to work with, you didn't have to do a lot, you didn't have to expend a lot of energy, he did it all for you." (from 5:48 to 6:14)
Kurt Angle reiterated that Styles is the "second coming" of Shawn Michaels as the two had very identical styles. The Olympic gold medalist said Michaels, Styles, Chris Benoit, and Eddie Guerrero were his favourites to wrestle.
Kurt Angle and AJ Styles were unhappy with their final match, which took place in WWE
Angle's penultimate match of his wrestling career came on SmackDown in 2019, where he faced Styles in a three-minute bout. Both superstars were unhappy with the way the match turned out:
"AJ and I went out there, it was three minutes and we kicked a** for three minutes. But what’re you going to do? There was no finish and it just kind of sucked. Unfortunately for AJ and I, it wasn’t the finish that we wanted."
The match ended when Randy Orton, who was to face Styles at WrestleMania a few days later, RKO'd The Phenomenal One, resulting in a disqualification.
Please H/T The Kurt Angle Show and Sportskeeda if you use any quotes above.
