Kurt Angle Claims He Was Supposed To Win Historic WWE Tournament

During the latest episode of The Kurt Angle Show, the WWE Hall of Famer spoke about the infamous three-match tournament between himself, Stone Cold Steve Austin, The Rock, and Chris Jericho to unify the WWF and World Championship belts.

Kurt Angle revealed that Jericho was not originally supposed to be victorious at the end of the night and that plans were originally formed around wrestling's only Olympic Gold Medalist becoming the first-ever Undisputed Champion.

"The week before the pay per view, I was still supposed to be Undisputed Champion," Angle said. "Vince McMahon had me pinned as the Undisputed Champion and wanted me to win the two titles. Vince came to me the week prior to the pay-per-view and said 'Listen, is it okay if I give it to Jericho cause I want to start pushing Jericho and I think this would be great for him.' I said 'No Vince, you should do that. I think Jericho needs it and it's a great opportunity for him.' I was supposed to win the Undisputed Championship but Vince McMahon changed it at the last second and gave it to Jericho."

On a previous episode of the podcast, Angle revealed that Steve Austin was wary of working with him after his steel cage match with Chris Benoit on RAW where the two were involved in several dangerous spots. Kurt also stated that Stone Cold was the best in-ring worker he ever faced during his career.

The WWE Hall of Famer spoke more about his match with Austin at Vengeance 2001, saying it wasn't the greatest match they had. Angle also mentioned The Stunner and why he loved to take Austin's famous finisher.

"It was one of our better matches but it wasn't our best match," Angle said. "I believe Unforgiven or SummerSlam [were better], those two matches were incredible. I felt that this match was almost as good, I really loved working with Austin. At that particular time, he was the best worker in the business.

"Taking the Stunner from Austin was awesome. Going down and then springing up — over-exaggerating the Stunner was a lot of fun to do."

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit The Kurt Angle Show with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.