WWE Hall of Famer Kurt Angle spoke more about his famous WrestleMania 19 matchup against Brock Lesnar on the first edition of his “Kurt Angle” podcast on AdFreeShows. Hear what he had to say below.
How his neck was in bad shape ahead of Mania 19 and how Chris Benoit was a potential option to replace him:
“I told Vince, I’m going to have to have surgery and I’m going to have to skip WrestleMania. He said, you know, I’ll call you back. I have an idea, let me talk to the writers, I’ll call you back. So he decided that we were going to have a match before WrestleMania on SmackDown and I was going to drop the title to Brock and I believe Brock was going to go to WrestleMania and face a new opponent for the main event. So, I think they were going to substitute Chris Benoit, I believe. So he was basically going to take my place and you know it bothered me.”
Says he convinced Vince McMahon to keep the original main event, but how they needed to rework a previously scheduled SmackDown match:
“[I told Vince] Let’s have the match, and he said, you need to get it approved by your doctor, and I’m sorry Kurt, but we have a match that’s advertised on TV the past week, and it’s a SmackDown before WrestleMania, and you’re wrestling Brock, and Brock’s beating you for the title. I said, well we’re going to have to change that, Vince. He said, well, you’re going to have to have the match. I said, well, what can we do so I can retain the title and move on to WrestleMania without affecting the SmackDown match? He said, let me call you back. He always says that when he’s trying to come up with ideas. So I waited a couple hours, he called me back, he goes, we have an idea. We’re going to use your brother Eric. He looks just like you, we’re going to dress him up just like you. Put the hood on his head, the Team Angle hood, and we’re going to pull a switcheroo on Brock on SmackDown the week before WrestleMania.”
Thinks the switcheroo angle with his brother worked out well:
“So when I got to the ring that night on SmackDown, I got in the ring, went to the corner and started praying in the corner with my head on the turnbuckle. Brock Lesnar’s music hit and the lights went out, well little did anyone know my brother Eric was put underneath the ring with the same outfit as me before the show. So when Brock came out and the lights went out, I rolled out of the ring and my brother rolled in and replaced me and went in the same position as me. So Brock thought it was me when he came down the ramp and into the ring. He attacked my brother, beat him up and F5’d him, and went to cover him and saw that it wasn’t me, and he took a second look, he got up to take a second look and I snuck in the ring and rolled him up for a quick 1-2-3. So I retained the title to go on to WrestleMania for the main event. Pretty cool little angle.”
(H/T and transcribed by Fightful)