Kurt Angle Recalls Earning Vince McMahon's Trust And Winning WWE World Title

Kurt Angle's rookie year in WWE has gone down in history as one of the greatest anyone has ever had in wrestling. He debuted at Survivor Series 1999, and one month before Survivor Series 2000, he beat The Rock to win his first WWE Championship. 

Angle revealed the main reason why he won the WWE Championship so quickly during a recent appearance on "NotSam Wrestling," explaining that it stemmed from a performance he actually has no memory of. "The reason why Vince [McMahon] went with me to win the world championship is because when I was at SummerSlam, I had a triple threat with The Rock and Triple H, and I got a concussion during that match. I got wheeled away, but I came back and I finished it, and Vince was like 'this guy's reliable, I'm going to put the title on him.' So it was like, thank you Kurt for doing what you did."

The WWE Hall of Famer also believes that his willingness to learn from top stars in the company, despite being an Olympic Gold Medalist, earned him respect backstage, as it showed he was humble enough to know he was still green compared to the rest of the locker room. Angle later revealed that after the match at SummerSlam, he woke up in the hospital at 4AM asking what happened, as his last memory was being set up for a Pedigree on the announce table. Angle's first reign with the WWE Championship only lasted four months, but in that time he defeated some of the best in the business, was involved in the first-ever six man Hell in a Cell match, and solidified himself as a main event star for the rest of his career.

Please credit "NotSam Wrestling" when using quotes from this article, and give a H/T to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.