Kurt Angle Looks Back At Career On WWE Photo Shoot Special

Kurt Angle is featured in the latest installment of ‘WWE Photo Shoot,’ which was released via the company’s official YouTube channel on July 22.

In the special digital feature, the WWE Hall of Fame legend and Olympic gold medalist looks through memorable photos from his iconic career, and sharing the back-stories behind them.

Featured below are some of the highlights, as well as a complete video archive of the special episode.

On Team Angle and how his belief that his neck injuries were the reason that the faction ‘didn’t survive long enough’: “Wow, Team Angle didn’t survive long enough. I think it had a lot to do with my neck injuries. We were on fire, we were winning titles. Team Angle was getting really hot as the top heel faction. and then neck injuries occurred, and then when I came back, they wanted me against them. Team Angle could have gone for years. It was that hot. It just kind of sucks it didn’t.”

On the Brock Lesnar match at WrestleMania 19: “I was the established champion, the greatest wrestler in the world, and here’s this young guy (Brock Lesnar) coming up that wanted to take my place. This was a very emotional night for me because I had a broken neck and I had to have surgery.”

On Brock’s botched Shooting Star Press: “Brock did the Shooting Star Press, and he didn’t complete the move. I thought he broke his neck. I was very concerned for him. I kept saying, ‘are you OK? Are you OK? Are you OK?’ and he wasn’t answering, and then he said something like, ‘I think so.’ He proved a lot to me that night. He showed that even though he was young and inexperienced, that he deserved to be in that position.”

On how Vince McMahon ribbed Adam ‘Edge’ Copeland by telling him he would be losing the match and his hair during hair match with Angle: “Earlier in the day, Vince McMahon came to me and said, ‘listen, you’re losing tonight, so I want you to shave that hair off. I want you to go bald. We want the fans to start taking you more seriously. I want to turn you into a badass. But when Edge comes in here, I want you to lie to him.’ When Edge came in, Vince said, ‘Edge, Angle’s going over. You’re losing your hair.’ Edge pulls me aside and says, ‘I don’t know how I’m gonna look bald. I mean, I don’t have the prettiest face, and if I don’t have my long hair, I don’t know what I will have.’ We finally told him right before we went out to wrestle, and that frown turned into a smile.”