Kurt Angle On Earning Undertaker's Respect, Reason For Short WWE Title Reign In 2001, Austin, More

By Raj GiriDec. 8, 2015 11:45 am EST

Thanks to WrestlingINC.com reader Gavin Horne for sending in this report from Kurt Angle's recent Q&A in Leicester.

Click here for the first set of highlights from the Kurt Angle Q&A, which includes Angle discussing if Triple H resented his rise, wanting a match with Daniel Bryan, Rob Van Dam always hurting him, The British Bulldog in the WWE Hall of Famer and more. The second set of highlights is at this link, where Angle discussed who would win a shoot fight between Brock Lesnar and Haku, leaving WWE And TNA, MMA, Chad Gable and more.

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I attended "An Evening with Kurt Angle" at the Leicester City Football club as he is almost finished on his U.K. Golden truth Tour by Triple M Promotions. Some photos and videos can be found from all of the weeks events at this link.

Also at the evening was TNA's Jeremy Borash, who brought a TNA camera to the event and said that his girlfriend lives in Leicester and so he has been trying to get TNA to visit Leicester for a few years as he loves the city and owns a flat (apartment) here.

Borash informed the crowd that Angle would be making a first time statement to the TNA cameras and that it will be edited and shown on TNA Impact in the next few weeks. He then introduced Kurt to the stage, and Triple M had cued up Kurt's WWE "You Suck" Olympian music. After recording the crowd, Borash commented, "f@ck! We can't use that as we don't own the rights! Believe me though, I will edit this so we can use it!".

Someone asked Kurt about his title win at Unforgiven in 2001 and said that as a fan, that was one of his favorite matches. They asked Kurt if there were any matches that he personally felt he enjoyed in that way. Kurt replied, "Yes, absolutely that match". He went on to explain that he was never supposed to get the title at that point in his career, but due to 9/11, he felt that people needed an American symbol and as he was the American Hero, he felt he could do it. He said that at that time he could feel an energy in the crowds that people wanted and needed someone to believe in, so he called Vince McMahon and asked him if he thought it was a good idea if he won the title. After the conversation, he said that Vince said, "I'm fine with it but you need to talk to Stone Cold and get him to agree". He said he was a little nervous asking Austin, but when he called him up, Austin immediately agreed and said it was a good idea. This led to Kurt winning the title at Unforgiven, but there was no long term storyline plan for him to be the champion and he lost the belt two weeks later. He said that at that time though, the fans needed that "win" and that losing the title didn't detract from it at all and that it still made a lot of sense. He then said that whenever you see something like that and someone wins a title only to lose it again quickly, it's because something has happened behind the scenes and that it wasn't meant to happen that way.

A fan (wrestler Styxx who will be headlining Triple M's St Georges Day Mayhem event in 2016) then asked about The Undertaker being known as a locker room leader, and if Kurt remembers a point when suddenly the younger guys on the roster would come to him for advice. Kurt replied "absolutely, yes," about a year and a half into his WWE run he started to earn the respect of the locker room more and as he did the younger guys, who would start to ask for his advice on certain things. He said one of the key factors in that was earning the Undertaker's respect and as soon as he did that, other people followed pretty quickly.

Kurt was then asked how much truth there is to the rumor that he was supposed to end the Undertaker's streak and he answered, "no it was never really going to happen." He said that Undertaker did personally talk to him about having a Wrestlemania match with him when Angle was the WWE Champion and his initial thought was, "well, Vince doesn't want you to lose but he also doesn't want you to win the belt so what would we do?" to which Taker replied, "well, you would beat me". He said that it was pretty inspiring to be considered by the Undertaker to end the streak, but he always knew that Vince would never go for it. He said that they did discuss it with Vince, but that it was immediately shot down and never brought up again.

Kurt then said that he had felt sorry for the Undertaker at that time because even though he had the streak, he had never really had that "WrestleMania moment" that everyone wants as he was always paired with green guys like Giant Gonzales. He said he understood why, because everyone knew that Taker could take someone who was green and still get a good match out of them, but at the same time he really wanted to be able to give him that five star match as until then, all of the matches in the streak had been 2 to 3 star matches at best. He said that he was honored to know that Undertaker felt that Angle could give him that 5 star WrestleMania moment match and that is was a shame it never happened. He did also say that he was very pleased for Undertaker when he finally had that match with HBK and told the audience that if you haven't seen that match, then you should.

A member of the audience then asked if there was one definitive Kurt Angle moment that he would like people to remember. An audience member shouted out, "tiny cowboy hat!" and Kurt started laughing as did everyone else. He said that he loved the comedy aspects in his first few years and that he really enjoyed the programs he did with Triple H and Stephanie (love triangle) and Vince McMahon and Steve Austin, because everyday you would wake up and want to go to work. He did say that he wasn't overly happy when Vince would suddenly decide "we're not doing that any more" because he often thought that there was more mileage in the skits. He said that if there was one iconic moment that he fondly remembers and wants other people to look back on, it would be the milk truck incident with Steve Austin just because of how much fun it was and how silly it was too. He said that the very idea of him standing with a fire hose spraying down the company's top star was ridiculous, but he had an absolute blast doing it and it is one of his defining moments.

The question was then asked that if Kurt had a time machine and could steal anyone's move from any company and any era, whose would it be and why. Kurt joked that he did and that he stole the Angle (ankle) lock from Ken Shamrock. He then thought for a moment and said that if he could steal anyone's move, it would be the Stone Cold Stunner because it is such a simple move (so simple that he even saw Vince McMahon perform it) and yet it was so insanely over with the crowd.

All in all it was a very entertaining evening and is the third such event I have attended ran by Triple M Promotions. I would highly recommend them to anyone in the UK as they are a fun evening with a lot to offer and on the evenings that I have personally attended like this one the Superstars are very open with answering any questions put to them. Triple M are also hosting evenings like this in March and April 2016 for both Ken Shamrock and Bret Hart respectively and they will also be hosting a wrestling event in Coalville, Leicestershire on Saturday April 23rd 2016 where Bret "Hitman" Hart will be a Special guest and the card will be headlined by ICW and TNA star Grado. Tickets and listings for these events can be found on either Triple M's facebook page or website.

Kurt Angle On Earning Undertaker's Respect, Reason For Short WWE Title Reign In 2001, Austin, More

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