Kurt Angle is one of my favorite wrestlers of all time. To use a baseball term he was a 5-tool wrestler, because there wasn’t anything he couldn’t do it. His gimmick was actually real since he did win a gold medal at the Olympics (with a broken neck). Many hoped he would come back to the WWE but it didn’t happen and now we know why.
But first here is Kurt talking to SI about how he beat Brock Lesnar in a legit wrestling match back in the day.
“We fought in a wrestling ring during the day before our show,” said Angle, the current TNA world champ, recalling his 2002 victory over Lesnar. “It wasn’t fun. It was nerve-wracking. Someone was going to win, get hurt, or die.”
“The match started because someone asked how he’d do in the ring against me,” explained Angle. “Brock said I was too small for him. That got to me.”
Remember at the time Brock was an NCAA Heavyweight Wrestling Champion and at his absolute physical peak. Here is what happened next.
“Brock was in the ring with Big Show,” said Angle. “He was literally throwing this 530-pound man around the ring like a little kid. I’d never seen anyone lift up Big Show like that without his help, but Brock was picking him up and throwing him around.
“I said to Big Show, ‘Get out of the ring.’ Then I tapped Brock on the shoulder and said, ‘Let’s go.’ And that’s when we started.”
Lesnar came into the fight at 300 lbs, outweighing Angle by nearly 80 pounds.
“I know I’m not the biggest person, but I’ve annihilated people a lot bigger than me,” said Angle. “You’re one of the best in the world as an NCAA champion like Brock, but when you’re an Olympic gold medalist, that’s a whole other level. The guys who saw Brock and I wrestle that day witnessed how much of a gap there is between the two.”
“When I got done with him, I didn’t want to wrestle him again,” he said.
I would have loved to have witnessed that 15 minute match.
As far as coming back to the WWE it appeared to be a done deal, but Triple H shot it down.
“Paul [Levesque] (Triple H) is in charge,” said Angle. “I found that out when I contacted Vince. I’ve always had a good relationship with Paul, so I didn’t consider that a problem. But he decided they had enough talent.
“For the Vince McMahon who I knew, enough was never enough. He always wanted more. I don’t know what was going on over there, but they even canceled our meeting. I never went to see them. They didn’t even sit me down and talk to me.”
Angle goes on to say that he would have loved to wrestled Daniel Bryan, Rusev and Brock upon his return to WWE, but it wasn’t meant to be.
I sort of understand why Triple H made the decision, Angle is 46-Years-Old and well past his prime, but The WWE is trotting out Sting, NWO and DX like they aren’t 100 years old. Triple H himself is 45 and makes sure he gets some mainstream matches in every year.
Good piece overall on SI if you are a wrestling fan you should check it out.
