WWE Hall of Famer Kurt Angle recently appeared on the Wrestling Perspective Podcast, and he reflected on his legendary career. In one highlight, Angle revealed his “welcome to WWE” moment and Jerry Brisco introduced him to the professional wrestling business in a great way.
“Vince McMahon wanted me to wear the gold medal, [but] he wanted me to wear 25 gold medals. He wanted me to have an overwhelming amount. He wanted me to wear all those medals, so before I’d go out to the arena, I’d put the medals on and I’d do my promo, you know, all that stuff. But when I came back, I took them off, and Jerry Brisco said, ‘Hey you have to wear those everywhere.’ And I was like, ‘What are you talking about?’ He said, ‘Well that’s your character now, so you’re gonna have to wear them wherever you go’ and so I started wearing them every day. Then one week, I walked in the arena with the medals on,” Angle explained, “and Vince was there and he’s like, ‘What are you doing with your medals on?’ I said ‘Jerry said I have to wear them all the time.’ He said no you don’t have to wear them when you go out of the arena.”
In addition, Angle spoke about needing to improvise during his WrestleMania XIX match with Brock Lesnar, remembered more for Lesnar’s Shooting Star Press attempt that almost saw him break his neck. Angle said he was supposed to have time off due to his own injuries, but saw Brock land and feared the worst.
“The first thing I thought when he landed on his head, I said, “Shit! I’m gonna have to hold the title for another month.’ The reason why I lost to him, I was supposed to have a good title run for a while and I broke my neck again and I had to have surgery. Vince McMahon, he wanted me to drop the title to Brock the week before on SmackDown and just get crushed,” Angle said, “just an F5, 1-2-3 pin. Brock would just pin me real quick and I called Vince and I said, ‘Listen let me wrestle.’ And he said, ‘Well, we gotta have a doctor clear you.’”
“With Brock, I thought, ‘God, he’s not gonna be able to get up.’ I covered him for a pin and I’m like, ‘Please kick out, you have to kick out, Brock. Please don’t get pinned.’ I didn’t want to keep the title. He kicked out and I said, ‘Can you get up?’ He said, ‘I don’t know.’ I said, ‘Well try to get up.’ I actually pulled him up, I got him up and I said, ‘Can you F5 me right now?’ He said yes and he got me up, F5’ed me and that was it.”
If you use any portion of this transcript, please credit Colin Tessier of WrestleZone.com
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