Kurt Angle wrestling Liam Payne
Kurt Angle wants to be a Hollywood action star.
The 'TNA IMPACT' wrestler has appeared in several movies already, including 'Warrior' and 'Dylan Dog: Dead of Night', and he wants to have a full-time acting career when he can no longer compete in the ring and thinks he would be perfect for the genre.
Kurt - who won a gold medal at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics - exclusively told BANG Showbiz: "I've done some great movies like 'Warrior' and I did a small part in 'Pain & Gain' and I've done some independent movies. But yeah I'm looking forward to doing more because I believe that's the next chapter of my career ... I want to work with people like Robert DeNiro, but I'm not an actor. What I am is an Olympic gold medallist wrestler that wants to be an actor. "I think action is my best way in, guys like Vin Diesel, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone, I think I can hang with them. When you're talking about guys like Leonardo DiCaprio or Tom Hanks I'm not going to be them, nor will I ever be them. But do I have something valuable that I could bring to the table? Yeah."
Kurt is hoping his good friend Randy Couture - who was part of the same Olympic wrestling team Kurt was on - can convince Stallone to get him a part in 'The Expendables' series.
Speaking about Randy - who plays mercenary Toll Road in the three films - getting him a part, he joked: "A good friend of mine, Randy Couture he's had a lot of success, I'm really happy for Randy, he's a real good guy. Maybe he can help me out and put a word in with Arnold and Sly. It's like, 'Come on brother, help me out, get me in there!' "
The 45-year-old grappler - who wrestled One Direction star Liam Payne as part of 1D Day last November - is currently in the UK and Ireland on the 'TNA MAXIMUM IMPACT VI Tour' and will be inducted into the TNA Hall of Fame at the show at Wembley Arena on Saturday February 1, an honour Kurt is very proud to receive.
He said: "To be the second inductee into the TNA Hall of Fame behind Sting, that's pretty amazing. I'm excited, I didn't think I was going to get inducted this year, I thought it was going to be when I retired but to still be wrestling and get inducted its cool, that doesn't happen very often."
The tour kicks off on Wednesday (29.01.14) at the National Stadium in Dublin, Ireland, and culminates in London, with the show being recorded for television.
A limited amount of tickets are still available at Ticketmaster.co.uk and Gigsandtours.com.