During his appearance on the BASCHAMANIA podcast, Kurt Angle spoke on Vince McMahon helping him with his first promo and how nervous he was about it. Here’s what he had to say:
Initially, I thought Vince (McMahon) would only use me as a wrestler and that I wouldn’t have to speak much. Frankly, I thought I would be assigned a manager.
A night before my debut, Vince had me rehearse a preconceived promo at my hometown of Pittsburgh. He was instructing me on what to say but didn’t write down the lines.
When I got to the arena in Detroit, I forgot my lines. Vince was pissed at me and said, ‘Ok, here are the lines again but you better not forget again.’
Vince said, ‘Ok, I asked this guy to a cut a promo without a script and he did really well. We have something to build off here.
Back then, everything was spontaneous. We were going from arena to arena, taking bumps, and learning on the fly. We never had time to work on our promos. Today, in NXT, the wrestlers work extensively on their promos, matches, and pre-takes. They are very polished.
Credit: BASCHAMANIA Podcast. H/T WrestlingInc.