WWE Hall of Famer Kurt Angle recently joined Sports Illustrated for an in-depth interview about his upcoming documentary, where the Olympic Gold medal winner revealed that he once defeated the Beast Brock Lesnar in a shoot wrestling match. Highlights from the interview can be found below.
Says he defeated Brock Lesnar in a shoot wrestling match back in 2002:
We wrestled just once. It was during the day before a WWE show back in 2002. Dave [Shultz] taught me how to teach myself. The technique he instilled in me, that’s ultimately how I beat Brock. Brock said he’d beat my ass. So when Brawler told me that, I said, ‘Let’s go.’
Admits that it was very close but he edged Lesnar out:
Brock was picking Big Show up, double legging him, just wrecking him–and that’s when I thought, ‘I don’t know if I can beat this kid. But I figured, I may as well try. It was a tight match. I didn’t dominate. But I won.
On the differences between a national champion and a gold medalist:
There’s a big difference between a national champion and a gold medalist. I knew Brock was going to do his college wrestling with straight double legs. It was all about positioning. That’s what Dave taught me, and that’s why I hardly ever got scored on. Brock didn’t score on me.
During an episode of his podcast Angle stated that the talent in the Attitude Era trumps the talent of today’s era of wrestling. You can read about that by clicking here.