Kurt Angle Wanted To Wrestle Bret Hart In 2003 or 2004

On The Statement Show, 2017 WWE Hall Of Fame Inductee Kurt Angle spoke about wanting to wrestle Bret Hart in 2003 or 2004. 

 Kurt Angle revealed that he called Hart in "2003 or 2004" to ask him about having a match, but Bret declined. In Angle's estimation, Bret Hart declined because he could not perform to his own standard at that point. Angle said it hurt his feelings a bit  as Bret went on to wrestle Vince McMahon a couple of years later.

"I called him in 2003 or [2004] and I said, 'listen, you don't have to take a bump. Let me do whole match. I'll do the bumping and feeding. You just stay in there and lets have a great match.' He didn't want to do it and I understand now. After he had that stroke and he got kicked by Goldberg or whatever happened - he had a brain injury - he knew he couldn't have the Bret Hart/Kurt Angle match he wanted, so he wasn't willing to do it.

And I get it because me, at 50, I can still go. But 10 years from now, if Seth Rollins came to me and said, 'hey, lets do this match. I'll do all the bumping. Don't worry about it.' And I'm thinking it's not going to be that good because I can't stay with him. So I understood how Bret felt at the time. And it hurt my feelings a little bit because two years later, he wrestled Vince."