Kurt Angle
Kurt Angle
Kurt Steven Angleis an American professional wrestler, actor, former mixed martial artist and retired amateur wrestler. While at Clarion University of Pennsylvania, he won numerous accolades, including being a two-time National Collegiate Athletic AssociationDivision I Heavyweight Wrestling Champion. After graduating college, Angle won a gold medal in freestyle wrestling at the 1995 World Wrestling Championships. He then won a freestyle wrestling gold medal at the 1996 Summer Olympics. Angle is one of only four people to complete an amateur wrestling...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionWrestler
Date of Birth9 December 1968
CityMt. Lebanon, PA
CountryUnited States of America
You go from Olympic wrestling into pro wrestling, and it's a very difficult transition, but if you make it, you can earn a great living while at the same time giving amateur wrestling a lot of exposure by being on TV every week. Fans know where you came from.
Amateur wrestling, you can go by instinct. Pro wrestling, you have to memorize, and you have to go by what moves you said you were going to do. Sometimes you have to feel the crowd and do the moves at the right time and know the timing and tell a good story.
I've been chastised for going into mixed martial arts and backing out. But the reason I backed out was the terms - they wanted me ready to fight in four weeks, but you've got to be out of your mind. So I decided to go back to my roots, back to wrestling.
I love doing funny promos like the ones I did wrestling Rey Mysterio.
I love Vince McMahon. He came up with the Kurt Angle character. He ran with it, and then I was able to run with it. I thank him for the opportunity he gave me. Vince McMahon was one of my best friends, period.
We take pride in making our Knockouts Division about wrestling, not about looking pretty.
There are many young Americans that are very distant from our political process.
The Olympics is not really about the sport, it's about the story behind the person. You keep the sport relatively simple to understand - let the fans understand that a takedown is 1 point, a turn is 2, a pin and the match is over. Keep it simple, and keep the story on the individual.
When Jack Swagger copies my Ankle Lock and Randy Orton does my Angle Slam, it's disrespectful. I didn't come up with the Ankle Lock; Ken Shamrock came up with the Ankle Lock, but I waited until he retired to do the Ankle Lock.
I'm in professional wrestling, which is what I do for a living. I coordinate stunts. I memorize them.
In Canada, you can't even have a barbecue in your backyard without being attacked by a moose or even a grizzly bear. Then again, the grizzlies don't beat anyone here in Vancouver; oh, it's true, it's true.
There are so many things that have evolved since I wrestled. They don't have periods anymore. They have rounds... it confuses the younger demographic.
It took me a few years to explain to my colleagues and my mentors and the people that I looked up to and I wrestled that I'm not in wrestling anymore. I'm in sports entertainment. Pro' wrestling doesn't mean that we're saying we're a step up above amateur wrestling, because there's nothing above Olympic wrestling.
The cool thing about pro wrestling is we do a lot more acting as far as characters in general than MMA. I know a lot of people like the MMA fighters because they like the rugged look.