On the back of Olympic gold in '96, Kurt Angle had one of the most incredible rookie years in WWE history way back in 2000.

He left just six years later to join TNA, where he has wrestled ever since. Next month, Angle goes on his TNA Farewell Tour, coming to the UK for what could be his last matches with the company.

Ahead of the momentous matches, Digital Spy sat down with Kurt to talk WWE, TNA and everything in between.

Is January really your last ever tour?

"Yeah, this is my final tour for TNA Wrestling. Is it my retirement match? For TNA, yes... I don't know what I'm going to do. I'm going to take a year off after that and see what I want to do.

"It's cool because if I were going to retire anywhere, it's here. The crowd, the fans, every time we come here we pack the house.

"We're having a bit of difficulty doing that in the United States, so to come here and be able to have my last few matches is phenomenal - it's a great way to go out."

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TNA is still a big deal in the UK - Wembley Arena is a massive place!

"TNA has done fabulously well here but any promotion does fabulously well here. That just shows you the state of wrestling, where it is in the UK.

"TNA is a hot company over here along with WWE, but you look at ICW - they just drew 4,000. That's phenomenal. For an independent company? Holy smoke. Only in the UK."

After the year is up, will you get back in the ring?

"Am I finished wrestling for good? No. I don't plan on doing a lot of it. Whether I do decide to wrestle for myself, or TNA, or WWE, it would be very, very part time - very limited.

"But I've had a wonderful 9 years in TNA. It's been a lot of fun. This company has been through so many ups and downs and being along and enjoying the ride was really cool.

"For a small company like TNA, the things we were able to do were nothing short of phenomenal. The wrestlers we had - Sting, myself, AJ Styles, Samoa Joe, Bobby Roode - it was a lot of fun."

How do you feel watching ex-TNA guys like Sting and Joe being a success with WWE?

"I'm not surprised. Or the Dudley Boyz, or James Storm. There is so much talent in TNA that could be on the main roster in WWE. The problem with TNA is not talent.

"Whether we've had the budget the last couple of years... we spent a lot of money and that hit the company pretty hard.

"We made some good decisions, we made some bad decisions. But overall, TNA survived and they tried to make that comeback again to where they were in 2009."

It's so rare for people to get proper heat now - how did you manage to be such a successful heel back in the day?

"I was very comfortable being a heel and I knew my role. There are a lot of guys out there who want to be cool, they want to be liked as a heel, and that's not the way it is.

"You have to play that role and you have to want people to hate you. It's hard these days because everyone wants to be accepted.

"Everybody wants to say, 'You know what, he's a heel but he's a cool heel and I like him'. That's not how it is. You've gotta be hated."

Jim Ross says that no-one "got" the business as naturally as you - how does that praise feel?

"I got it right away - it was almost overnight. I understood right away that I had to forget everything I learned my whole life. I couldn't bring my amateur wrestling skills to the table.

"I couldn't bring my mentality to the table, because all I did was dominate. I had to realise that I had to allow people to beat me up and slam me around.

"I caught on quickly because I kept my mouth shut and my ears open. I let guys like Undertaker, Triple H, The Rock, Stone Cold - I let them lead me.

"I was a really great follower. The more I followed, eventually the better leader I became... I listened and I studied and I wanted to be as good as I could be by learning from the best."

How do you feel about the end of the Undertaker era when it comes?

"It's sad, because what he's brought to the table since the early '90s, gosh, he's done so much for the business, I don't want to see him go.

"I'd love to see him go another five WrestleManias. Whether he can do it or not, that's really up to him.

"The crazy thing is, I don't think he should have been beaten at WrestleMania. His legend is all about the Streak and it would have been nice to see him go out undefeated.

"But, if you're going to going to get beat, it might as well be against Brock Lesnar, who's the most legit athlete who's ever gone in the business besides myself."

You're a TNA Hall of Famer - how do you feel about the rumours of you joining the WWE Hall of Fame?

"I'll believe the hype when I decide to talk to WWE. I haven't. We were going to have some type of meeting last year, unfortunately it got cancelled.

"We really haven't spoken. I don't expect them to speak to me until my contract's up and I haven't really gone after them to talk to them.

"Somewhere along the line it'll happen, I just don't know when. Would it be an honour to be in the WWE Hall of Fame? Yeah, it's an incredible honour. Would it kill me if I wasn't? No, it wouldn't.

"The most important thing to me is being in the National Wrestling Hall of Fame, which is Olympic wrestling. That's where my legacy truly is.

"It would be nice to be on the WWE Hall of Fame - it'll happen, I just don't know when."

Is there any chance of you rejoining the WWE?

"We'll see. Would it be a possibility? Yeah. I'm not ruling out anything. I know that next year I will take off and then we'll see where it goes.

"I have spoken to TNA about possibly coming back someday. That's still on the table. The way TNA has treated me the last 9 years, I can't throw them away.

"Whether it's TNA or WWE - or I could end up doing something myself. I have a match in March with Rey Mysterio... it'll be kind of nice just to promote myself and wrestle guys like Rey."

If you were going to point at something in pro-wrestling and say 'that's my legacy' - what would you want that to be?

"I've actually had a better career in TNA than I had in WWE and it's hard for me to say that, because my six-and-a-half years in WWE were phenomenal.

"I had a great, great career. In that short bit of time I probably had more five-star matches than anybody else.

"You look at the matches I had with Chris Benoit, Eddie Guerrero, Brock Lesnar, Shawn Michaels, Triple H, The Rock, Undertaker, Stone Cold, Chris Jericho, Edge - I had a lot of incredible matches.

"But what's crazy is when I came to TNA my style matured more. I learned from WWE but when I came to TNA I got even better. My matches with AJ Styles, Samoa Joe and Sting were off the chart.

"I've really enjoyed wrestling new talents. Even up to this day I wrestled ECIII for the title and we had a knock-down, drag-out match that was phenomenal.

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"It made me feel good because at 46 I was doing the same things I was doing at 32. My match last year with Bobby Lashley for the world title was a phenomenal five-star match.

"I'm still able to go on all cylinders at this age so it makes me feel really good that I can still contribute the way I've always contributed."

You've said you'd love a match with Daniel Bryan - what do you love about him and do you think he'll ever wrestle again?

"Daniel Bryan is my pick. He always will be, I really believe he'll be back. Right now, pound for pound, he's the best wrestler on the planet.

"He reminds me a lot of AJ Styles - there's a kid who doesn't get credit either - he's one of the top three right now in wrestling, Daniel Bryan. I've had my eye on him for years.

"It was like when I was in WWE. I'm happy, I'm having all these wonderful matches, but that young kid over in TNA, that AJ Styles, I'd love to get my hands on him.

"Eventually I did. That's how I feel about Daniel Bryan. It's going to happen. Whether it's in WWE or TNA or independently - we'll book it and make it happen somehow."

That'd draw!

"I really believe it would. He's a fan favourite. WWE didn't have to put their brand behind him. It was the WWE Universe that brought him to winning the title.

"The fans demanded it and they got what they wanted and deservedly so. Daniel Bryan is freaking amazing. He's the best wrestler today, I really believe that."

Kurt Angle's Farewell Tour with TNA takes place in the UK in January 2016.

All shows on the TNA Maximum Impact 8 shows will be taped for Impact Wrestling and tickets are available now.

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