On the latest edition of the Kurt Angle Show WWE Hall of Famer Kurt Angle looked back on his WrestleMania 22 triple threat with Rey Mysterio and Randy Orton, and how the only time he ever ran long at Mania was with Shawn Michaels at Mania 21. Highlights are below.
How little time he, Orton, and Mysterio had:
We had like 21 minutes for our match, including entrances, and the entrance was pretty long as it was. So my entrance was 2 minutes, Randy’s was 2 minutes. Rey’s had to be 8 minutes. So you add that together, that’s 12 minutes. We only had 9 minutes to wrestle in one of the co-main events of WrestleMania. We had to cut a lot of stuff. It was a really difficult match to do, especially a triple threat match. It’s really hard to cut stuff out because you have to have all three people in unison with each other knowing what’s going on next. The only thing I’m thinking is ‘we’re not going to have enough time,’ and we didn’t. So we had to cut some stuff out and we actually sped the match up. It was a higher-paced match because of that.
Says the only time a Mania match of his ran long was when he faced Shawn Michaels:
Well, I just never made it an option. I always tried to end my matches on time because that’s what I was told. The only match I ever went over on was my match with Shawn Michaels at WrestleMania 21. So I think that to some degree those guys [Shawn Michaels and Triple H] are on a different level and they have a better understanding with Vince [McMahon] if they’re going to go long. They might have the reputation of doing that, but I didn’t want that reputation. I wanted to be a team player and make sure that I ended up on time.
(H/T and transcribed by Fightful)