Chad Gable recently opened up about the wrestling legends who inspired him to pursue a career in professional wrestling. Gable revealed that several iconic names shaped his journey, with WWE Hall of Famer Kurt Angle playing a major role in his development.
Gable is widely regarded as one of WWE’s best technical wrestlers. Many fans have compared him to Kurt Angle because of their Olympic backgrounds and elite in-ring abilities.
Chad Gable names the WWE icons that made him want to wrestle
Speaking on Good Karma Wrestling, Chad Gable was asked which matches or wrestlers first made him want to become a professional wrestler. He said, “Oh man. It was more of a progression of, like, wrestlers that did it for me, you know. Like, early on it was guys like Macho Man and these flashy guys. And I remember Lex Luger coming down from the chopper and slamming Yokozuna, and it was like these larger-than-life guys. But then, I was taken aback by the pageantry of it all.”
Gable said he started collecting tapes from Japan and studying some of the industry’s greatest wrestlers. “But then, as I started to fall in love with the technical aspects, and like I said, I was a big tape trader, you know, like a real wrestling geek when I was young. So, like, I was collecting tapes from Japan.”
“And when my eyes got open to guys like Duchian Liger and Kabashi and Kawada and some of my favorites, and I saw them combine athleticism with a different kind of emotion on their faces, like real gritty, real sports-like stuff that I was doing in amateur wrestling, where you would see guys have to really gut it out, you know, in these moments.”
Chad Gable names Kurt Angle among his biggest wrestling inspirations
Gable then highlighted Kurt Angle’s influence. “And so I was just watching different performers as we go. They all spoke to me in different ways and just at seemingly the right time in my life where they just resonated with me. You know, there was always just, like, guys like Kurt, obviously, were a huge inspiration, just opening the door for me and being so helpful and realizing that, ‘Hey man, you don’t have to take yourself so seriously all the time.”
“I think that’s a big gap that a lot of people fail to bridge sometimes. It’s like you want to be taken so seriously and such a badass all the time. And it’s like, ‘Hey man, Kurt was the Olympic gold medalist, and look at the stuff he did.”
“Like, we don’t need to go down the list of the stuff he did that was hilarious and just awesome.’ So if he can do it and, you know, still be comfortable with, like, who he is and what he’s done, like, who are you? And tell me anybody who can’t do that, then, you know, we should all be able to.”
Read More: Former WWE Star Apollo Crews Makes Surprise TNA Debut With New Name
[ad_1
