Kurt Angle, the Olympic gold medalist turned WWE Hall of Famer, is bringing his autograph and a few decades of wrestling history to a Livonia toy shop next month. Time Blaster Toys has announced that Angle will appear at its store at 38741 Ann Arbor Road on Nov. 22 from 1 to 4 p.m. for autograph signings, photo sessions and fan meet-and-greets.
The store first posted the news on Oct. 7, teasing the visit with a simple announcement reading, “KURT ANGLE MEET & GREET 11/22 1-4PM!” according to Time Blaster Toys. Tickets and autograph packages for the event are available for purchase now, ranging from $20 to $300, as reported by The Detroit News.
Time Blaster Toys bills itself as Metro Detroit's home of all things retro, rad and cool, with more than 4,000 square feet of vintage action figures, collectibles and video games to browse, per the store's own description. That makes it an appropriately nostalgic venue for Angle, whose connection to Detroit wrestling fans runs deep.
A Career That Started With Boos in Detroit
Angle made his WWE television debut at Joe Louis Arena during the Survivor Series pay-per-view in November 1999, a moment he has credited with shaping the rest of his career. His good-guy character was met with a hearty round of boos from the Detroit crowd that night, a reaction that ended up steering his character going forward, the same Detroit News report from 2017 notes.
“It was the start of my career,” Angle said of that Survivor Series appearance, according to the outlet's report. He has also credited the fans at Joe Louis Arena more broadly with shaping who he became as a performer, pointing to a level of devotion he rarely encountered elsewhere on the road.
Detroit's Unusual Wrestling Devotion
Joe Louis Arena hosted more than 100 WWE events after the then-World Wrestling Federation debuted there on Dec. 2, 1984. Angle recalled fans showing up early in the day and sticking around long after a show ended just to catch a glimpse of their favorite wrestlers, a pattern he said he rarely saw matched anywhere else.
He specifically remembered one night when roughly 5,000 fans remained outside the arena for an hour after a show just to say hello to him. “I've only been to three arenas that are like that: Madison Square Garden, the one in Baltimore and Joe Louis Arena,” Angle said, placing Detroit's old wrestling home in the same breath as two of the sport's most storied venues.
Nearly three decades after that boisterous Survivor Series debut, Angle is set to return to the region, this time trading the squared circle for a toy store meet-and-greet in Livonia.
