Kurt Angle has had many classic matches during his exemplary career, but a dream match against Bret Hart would have ideally exceeded all his previous efforts.
Despite Angle's earnest efforts, a clash with The Hitman sadly never came to fruition.
During the most recent edition of 'Ask Kurt Anything' on AdFreeShows.com, Kurt Angle revealed that he contacted Bret Hart about a match offer for WrestleMania 18.
Angle was willing to do all the work in the match, and he believed that the bout with the Hart Foundation Legend at WrestleMania had all the makings of being a five-star affair.
However, Bret Hart rejected the proposal, and Kurt Angle perfectly understood the reasoning behind the response.
"I did contact Bret. I'm the one that contacted him, yeah. I called him and said, 'Hey, I want to wrestle you at WrestleMania. I think it would be a dream match. You won't have to do any of the work. I'll do all the bumping and selling,' and he immediately said no. And I was like, 'Okay, well, I appreciate it, nice meeting you, Bret.' But I understand now; I mean, later on, in my career, I started losing a step, and I didn't like what I saw," said Angle.
Kurt Angle on why Bret Hart turned down a big WrestleMania match
Bret Hart was at the tail end of his career in 2002, and Kurt Angle felt that the Hall of Famer would not have wanted a lackluster match.
Angle realized how aging affected a performer's in-ring work, as he himself wasn't happy with the quality of his matches during the final years of his career. Kurt Angle added that a prime and injury-free Bret Hart would have loved to compete against him inside the squared circle.
"You know, when you get older, you start slowing down, and you can't keep putting on the performances you did in your prime. You don't want to do it anymore. A lot of athletes have a lot of pride, and I have a lot of pride, and I think Bret does too. You know, having the stroke and getting the concussion from Goldberg, he knew that he couldn't put on the Bret Hart performance that he did in his prime. And he doesn't want to wrestle Kurt Angle unless he is in his prime unless he can perform like he was in his prime. So, I understood why he said no," added Angle.
Angle also confirmed that there were talks for him to face either Sting or Bret Hart at WrestleMania 18, but the plans fell through.
"Yeah, there were talks about it. I heard about it, but I'm not surprised that it didn't occur. You know, they couldn't get Sting to sign that early. You know, Bret Hart, at that particular time, you know, he was still wrestling, I believe. Wasn't he with WCW at the time?," recalled Angle.
Kurt Angle recently called Bret Hart 'the greatest wrestler of all time' and even mentioned his desire to have a 60-minute Ironman match with the 5-time WWE Champion.