During an episode of The Kurt Angle Show, Angle spoke on how much he enjoyed doing the cowboy hat skits with Steve Austin. Here’s what he had to say:
There were a lot of instances where we had to break the pre-tape and do it over again because we were laughing so hard. Vince was getting pissed off. Vince decided, ‘Listen, if you guys continue to laugh during the pre-tape before I yell cut, I’m gonna fine you $2,000 for each one.’ So, we got really serious about the pre-tapes even though they were supposed to be funny. We had to be more serious about what we needed to do and what we needed to accomplish. We decided we weren’t gonna laugh anymore and were able to get the pre-tapes done a lot quicker. He said, ‘No more laughing.’ Vince is a character because he’ll spend the whole entire night doing the pre-tape until the morning or next afternoon. He’s a perfectionist. He’s gonna make you do it until you’re done.
I’ve seen it so many times but it’s funny every single time I see it. Steve Austin was in the San Antonio International Airport and he saw this little tiny cowboy hat in the gift shop and he said, ‘Damn, I’ve gotta get that for Kurt. I’m gonna get two bigger cowboy hats for me and Vince and make Kurt look like an idiot.’ That’s what he told me, and he brought them to TV and said, ‘I have this idea’ and he pitched it to Vince. Vince loved it. That was it. We did the cowboy hat segments and the rest is history. This is one of my fondest memories in WWE, including the wrestling. These moments are what makes it last forever. This and the mail truck incident were my two favorite moments. I’ll never forget them and cherish them forever. The wrestling matches mean just as much, but when you’re doing character development and do things like this, fans remember the moments most of all.
You can listen HERE.
Credit: The Kurt Angle Show. H/T 411Mania.