Kurt Angle Believes Jeff Hardy Needs To "Look Himself In The Mirror"

During the latest episode of The Kurt Angle Show, the former WWE Champion spoke about Jeff Hardy and his release from WWE. Following Jeff's release, his brother Matt issued a statement and said The Hardys want to end their careers together. Kurt Angle mentioned how he's experienced similar troubles in his career to Jeff's with addiction and gave some words of advice to the Charismatic Enigma.

"I've been through it, I think Jeff needs to look himself in the mirror and see what he wants to do," Angle said. "Does he want to change or does he want to stay the same? I personally think he does need help but that's something that he needs to deal with inside himself. He needs to realize what's important in his life, is it the stuff or is it his family and his job? It really comes down to Jeff making the decision on his own."

Despite his own issues, Angle went on to have historic professional and amateur wrestling careers before turning his personal life around a few years ago. The Olympic gold medalist commented on being inducted to the National Wrestling Hall of Fame in 2001 for his contributions to the sport and his country.

"It was the most important Hall of Fame in my life," Angle said. "It's the one Hall of Fame that you want to be in, it's the biggest one and it's the best one. I hate to say this because the WWE Hall of Fame means everything to me but this National Wrestling Hall of Fame is a bigger deal to me. This was the real wrestling, the amateur wrestling, the Olympic wrestling and I was very proud to be inducted my first chance. You had to be retired for five years so 2001 was five years after 1996, so the first time that they put my name in there I made it into the Hall of Fame which is cool."

Angle also talked about the reaction backstage to his induction from people in WWE like Gerald Briscoe and Jim Ross.

"They were over the moon about it," Angle said. "Gerry, he's an amateur wrestler and he had a lot of respect for that Hall of Fame and he knew that was a big one for me. Jim Ross was a huge amateur wrestling mark, he's a huge fan of amateur wrestling and he thought it was a huge deal too."

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit The Kurt Angle Show with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.