Joe Hendry Called His Shot And Got His Dream Match Against Kurt Angle

Joe Hendry bet on himself to make his dream match against WWE Hall of Famer Kurt Angle a reality.

IMPACT Wrestling‘s Joe Hendry was the latest guest on Tommy Dreamer’s House of Hardcore podcast to discuss a wide variety of subjects. During the interview, Hendry told the story of how his match with WWE Hall of Famer Kurt Angle came together for a WhatCulture wrestling event.

“WhatCulture wanted me to be on the show that they were doing,” Joe Hendry began. “I go on WhatCulture’s YouTube channel and they uploaded one of the wrestlers entrance songs and it got like 100,000 hits in a few days and I was like, what? On every other promotion, they would get like 1,000 or 2,000. I was like, okay, something’s going on here.

“So I actually just messaged them and said, ‘Look, do you want me to come down and film some promos?’ And they were like, ‘Oh, well, we know you live far away.’ I was like, ‘No I’m in town,’ and I wasn’t in town. They were like, ‘Yeah, okay, come in then.’ So I went in and did promos.

“And then they were like, ‘Well, we can only film stuff with you and the other local guy. So I guess you guys are the main event.’ So I became WhatCulture’s top babyface just because I offered to go and do promos. And a lot of people at the time were like, how did he get that spot? And it didn’t just happen, I put myself in that position. And then something really crazy happened after that. In 2015, someone tagged me and said, Who’s your dream match? And I said Kurt Angle and I tagged him. So Kurt Angle DMs me. And he goes, ‘Look, I know who you are. You’re not ready for it yet, but maybe one day we’ll wrestle,’ and I’m just thinking oh my god. So we chat back and forth a little bit.

“It’s left for a long time. ICW booked Kurt Angle to face Joe Coffey, right? But I said to ICW, why don’t you make me versus Coffey to see who faces Angle because I’m now doing amateur wrestling. They might think it’s me. So Kurt DMs me and says, ‘oh, that’s cool that we’re going to be wrestling at the Hydro,’ and I had to go, ‘Kurt, it’s not me. It’s actually someone else that you’re wrestling.’ I heard through the grapevine that WhatCulture tried to book Kurt, but he said no.

“And then I thought, wait a second, and I went if I could get a financier to do the match, would you do it anyway? And he went, ‘This is what I need, Business Class travel, whatever it was, and I thought well, you only live once. I actually marched into the WhatCulture office, and these guys are multi-millionaires. And I demanded a meeting with them. And I went, ‘You tried to book Kurt Angle, and they went, yeah. And I was like, What did he say? And they went he said no.

“Then I went, I can get Kurt Angle. But if I can get Kurt Angle, I wrestle him, and I’m now the top guy. They were like, alright, and then we shook hands on it. And then because of that, I got to wrestle Kurt Angle on a pay-per-view with Jim Ross and Jim Cornette commentating when I had started training in 2013 and this was 2016. So as you can imagine, my face was just exploding with pressure. I asked for it and I got it.

“And I’d say that match with Kurt was the one that made me realize like oh, I need to really up my game here and get better but it was an amazing experience. Kurt was the man he was awesome, and I learned what intensity was in-ring that day. When I was wrestling Kurt, I’m being absolutely serious when I say this, I forgot it was a work, genuinely. In the best possible way, everything was totally safe, but I believed it. You know how Stone Cold says he has to believe everything he’s doing. I legitimately believed what was happening in that moment. It was one of the best nights of my life.”

What do you make of Joey Hendry’s comments? Have you ever seen his match against Kurt Angle from 2016? Let us know your thoughts by sounding off in the comments section below.

If you use any of the quotes above, please credit the House of Hardcore podcast with a link back to this article for the transcription.