Kurt Angle doesn’t blink.
Games Radar has been hidden away at a swanky member’s club with the former WWE Champion, in London to promote Midway’s upcoming wrestling game TNA Impact, for a good five minutes before Angle allows his eyes to close momentarily. Either that, or we have the exact same blinking pattern as he does.
But his intriguing eye habits aren’t the only striking thing about Angle. At around 5’10’’ he isn’t the tallest of wrestlers, but his intense features - stern brow, granite jawline, overpowering stare – and cocksure confidence – “I’m the best wrestler around today” are intimidating, even when you’re sat ten feet away.
Already things haven’t gone exactly as planned. Three questions in, a fellow journalist broaches the forbidden subject of Chris Benoit, the WWE star who murdered his wife and son before committing suicide last summer. Angle responds with impressive calm:
“I don’t blame WWE. I don’t blame Vince McMahon”. He’s equally non-plussed when an aide rushes over to prevent a gold side plate from Angle’s TNA title belt falling off. “It happened because I hit Samoa Joe so hard with it, last week,” explains Angle, not altogether convincingly.
“We [TNA] will overtake WWE,” Angle tells us later on, “and there are two things [that will make it happen]. One is stuff like the video game, showing our superstars in that format. And two, building our wrestlers into bigger superstars.”
