Crockerinho

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Kurt Angle Interview
Shawn Michaels, the rematch, and his return to Raw.
by Jon Robinson



June 23, 2005 - It's one thing for fans to cheer, it's another to get a standing ovation. But when a wrestler walks behind the curtain after a match and the boys in the back applaud, when legends call you and tell you that they just witnessed the greatest match in the history of the sport, that's when you know you're at the top of your game.

And for Kurt Angle, that's exactly what happened after his match at Wrestlemania against Shawn Michaels.

He forced HBK to tap out in front of millions, while at the same time forcing a rematch by overwhelming demand.

The wrestling world hasn't seen anything like this since the days of Flair/Steamboat, and we're about to witness part two of this saga this Sunday on Vengeance.

But what does the former Olympic champ think about the rematch? Can the two superstars even think about topping what many consider the best pure wrestling match WWE fans have ever witnessed? IGN Sports caught up with Kurt Angle as he prepared for another classic. Here's what he had to say…

IGN Sports: Your match against Shawn Michaels at Wrestlemania is already being talked about as one of the best ever. Do you feel any pressure heading into the rematch to try and top the first match?

Kurt Angle: I think so. I think the fans also understand that a match like that is very difficult to do again. As a matter of fact, I think Vince was thinking of having a Street Fight match to make it something different, just because the original match was so darn good. I'm more of a pure wrestler, though. I don't like to have gimmicks. I don't like to have gadgets and stuff. I just like to go out there and entertain the fans by wrestling. So we talked Vince into having the same match again. To let us go in there and entertain the fans on wrestling alone. Plus, we didn't want to take away from the Hell in the Cell match. Why have a Street Fight when there's going to be a Hell in the Cell match headlining the pay-per-view? So Shawn and I are very happy with having another match. This is only the second time Shawn and I have been in the ring together one-on-one. We have never gotten in the ring in a dark match or to practice. Nothing. We just had our match and it was a blessing, it was magic. We have a chemistry in the ring that you just can't match, and we're depending on that chemistry to take us through and outdo the Wrestlemania match. It's going to be hard, but Shawn and I are both up to it and very capable of it.

IGN Sports: Where do you rank that Wrestlemania match in your career?

Kurt Angle: It's right up there. To me, it equaled my match with Benoit at the Royal Rumble a couple of years ago. The submission match we had where Chris actually got a standing ovation after I left. Those things don't happen very often, where the loser gets a standing ovation, and Shawn Michaels got the same treatment at Wrestlemania. I got one where I wrestled Brock Lesnar in an Iron Man match a couple of years ago, where Brock left and I got a standing ovation. Those three are my three favorite matches. I've had some really, really good ones that people haven't seen against The Undertaker, but you can't count those when they're not on TV and millions of people haven't seen them. I'd have to say the Shawn Michaels match was the best, though, because I've had a lot of wrestlers come up to me, legends, former wrestlers like Bobby "The Brain" Heenan, Paul Orndorff, Jesse Ventura call me personally and tell me that it was the best match they've ever seen in their life. There were also current wrestlers like Chris Benoit and JBL who came up to me and said "Kurt, I've never seen a match like that. That's the greatest match I've ever seen. That's what wrestling is all about." It surprised me, because when I was out there, I was feeling it, but I just did what I did then walked to the back like any other match. Before I knew it, everyone was on their feet clapping and I was like, "Wow, I didn't know it was that good." It made me very, very excited because at that point, it was something I needed. With all of the injuries I've had with my neck, what I needed was something to revive me, and that did. I think it showed Vince that I'm still at the top of my game and that my neck is no longer an issue. So he traded me to Raw and has given me a fresh beginning so now I can have an opportunity to make a run for the title. I think Vince was very concerned about my neck, and I think that's why you didn't see me in the title picture for a while, but now you're going to see me there.

IGN Sports: I loved the battle of the Wooo's the other night with Flair.

Kurt Angle: Ric Flair might not be the same Ric Flair of 10 or 15 years ago, but he still has that energy about him, and the fans love him so much. He's so damn funny. That's a guy who I've not wrestled yet that I do want to wrestle.



IGN Sports: So you've never felt the chest chop?

Kurt Angle: No, I haven't. But from what I've heard, it's coming pretty soon.

IGN Sports: You've been a part of so many hilarious promos like the one with Flair the other night. Do you have a personal favorite funny moment in the ring?

Kurt Angle: It's hard to remember all of them. [laughs] There have been so many funny ones. The ones I did with Edge and Christian, and then, obviously the stuff I did with "Stone Cold" Steve Austin. I love doing funny promos like the ones I did wrestling Rey Mysterio. I told him something like "Rey Mysterio, you're a boy living in a man's world and I'm a man who likes to play with boys." I forget exactly how it went, but it was something like that where I stub my toe and get to go "I didn't mean that…what I meant was…" And then I go on to say something else perverted. That's the kind of stuff I love doing. It's a lot of fun being able to entertain the fans that way. That's the Kurt Angle the fans look forward to seeing. The past month or so, being the perverted guy with Booker T and Sharmell, I didn't enjoy that very much. That's what was called of me, so I did it, but I'm glad to be back on Raw right now.

IGN Sports: With your successful transition from amateur wrestling to sports entertainment, do you see more amateurs following your footsteps into the sport?

Kurt Angle: Yeah, and I'm glad to see Shelton Benjamin, Charlie Haas, and of course Brock Lesnar was here for a little while. We have another guy, I think his name is Lashley, he's in OVW. I got him a tryout a couple of years ago and he's going to be coming in pretty soon. Rulon Gardner was interested, so he came in and did a little tryout. I think it's good for amateur wrestling. And I think that finally, amateur wrestling as a community, they always felt like they took a backseat to pro wrestling and they felt that in people's minds, pro wrestling was just the next step of amateur wrestling. They were out there trying to say pro wrestling was fake and they were real. But pro wrestling is not fake, it's sports entertainment. We go out there and we perform, and a lot of what we do out there is real, but we're not going to insult anyone's intelligence, there is a predetermined winner. It's just the fans don't know who it is, and that's what makes it so intriguing. Amateur wrestling finally realized that by entering professional wrestling, I wasn't taking the next step, I was taking another career path and I opened it up for other wrestlers to follow. Now we're seeing a lot more wrestlers getting involved, and I think one of these days, if we do it the right way, it'll be all amateur wrestlers. As long as they have the charisma and everything else…they obviously have the look. But if you bring your amateur wrestling techniques in and then learn the pro moves, it's a catapult. You go from Olympic wrestling into pro wrestling, and it's a very difficult transition, but if you make it, you can earn a great living while at the same time giving amateur wrestling a lot of exposure by being on TV every week. Fans know where you came from.



IGN Sports: The growth of Shelton Benjamin has been amazing to watch. Do you see him stepping up into main event status pretty soon, maybe even challenging you?

Kurt Angle: Oh yeah, I think that's the whole reason they brought me over to Raw. They see another Kurt Angle/Shawn Michaels match in Kurt Angle/Shelton Benjamin. I think Shelton needs to enhance his character a little bit, let his personality flow a little bit more to be a top tier guy. He hasn't been able to do that yet. He's starting to be a little more comfortable, but once he gets a feel for that microphone and he lets it loose, there's no telling how big he's going to be. He had a tremendous match against Shawn Michaels about a month ago, and he's always had top-notch matches, so I'm looking forward to working with Shelton. Not only are we going to have tremendous matches, but I think in a lot of ways I can help him. When you have a guy like Shelton, who I believe is the best pure athlete in the company, and he's learned the system so well, he's going to be a tremendous wrestler for years to come, no doubt about it.



IGN Sports: One thing that's funny about you, when you first came into WWE, people booed you like crazy, same thing with Rock. Now they boo you, but it's different. Now it's out of respect. When you first heard those initial boos, did you think that years later people would be talking about you as one of the best ever?

Kurt Angle: You know what, that was always my goal when I first started. I didn't get into it just to make money. Put it this way, a lot of the wrestlers in the company, I have to admit, are world class athletes. Not all of them, but a lot of them have the ability to stand out with their athleticism. But I told Vince from the very beginning that I wasn't just a normal pro wrestler. I'm an Olympic gold medalist. My goal is to be number one and I'm going to keep going until I am. I'm going to earn my stripes, I'll go as long as it takes, but I'm not going to settle for second best. I don't care if Triple H is on the card or The Rock or Stone Cold, eventually I was going to prove to Vince that I deserved to be the top guy. And if it weren't for my neck injuries, I believe I would be right now. I'd be the franchise. But my neck injuries set me back about a year and a half to two years, and that also lowered Vince's confidence in me because he didn't know if I'd be healthy from one week to the other. Now that I've proven that I can go a full year, full time without hurting my neck, without getting injured, knock on wood, I think that's why he traded me to Raw. He wanted to give me a fresh beginning. He noticed that I wasn't having any problems with my neck anymore, and it looks like I'm ready to go again. This is Round 2

Danny Diamond

Founder/Admin

Good interview

Bouchie

That pic with Flair would be great for JV's 'Picture This' game

ICEMAN

I think Kurt's final comments are a bit misleading. Yes he's gone a year now without being injured, but that is largely due to him working a very reducded in-ring schedule. For most house shows he was simply a manager for Jindrak-Reigns when they wrestled Big Show and other guys. Then you have the Kurt Angle "Hometown Challenge" where he basically squashed jobbers in 1-2 min. without having to take any bumps. He wrestles on PPV and occassionally on SD! in a competitive match (Booker T).

What I think Kurt meant to say is that both he and WWE have learned to keep him at a high level in the company, while at the same time finding creative ways to work around his injury.

I don't see Vince putting the strap back on Angle, unless it's something short-term, because I don't think Vince believes Angle can carry the company on a full-time basis.