Kurt Angle had a very successful career in the World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), winning the World Heavyweight Championship, the WWE Championship, the WWE Tag Team Championships, and the European Championship before it was retired. Angle also triumphed over Chris Jericho to capture the Intercontinental Championship. The Olympic Gold Medalist's victory came during the opening match of the evening of No Way Out 2000.
During the latest episode of his The Kurt Angle Show (included below), WWE Hall of Famer Kurt Angle discussed the reasons why he was not a fan of the way the match against Chris Jericho ended.
Angle is quoted as saying, "I loved the match with Chris, but I just didn't like the finish. I thought that the referee being outside the ring with Chyna for way too long, just felt like, a little too drawn out, and that was a little bit of a problem. Simply put, it wasn't, it wasn't a clever finish, and it had the potential to be better."
Angle competed against Chris Benoit and Chris Jericho in a two-fall match for both the European and Intercontinental Championships at WrestleMania 2000. The match was won by Jericho first, and then Benoit took over and won. When Angle won the Intercontinental Championship in 2000, he was asked if he knew that there was going to be a triple threat at WrestleMania 2000.
Angle continued, "No, I was completely unaware of that. I actually thought I was only going to defend one title at WrestleMania. They came up with the idea to have a triple threat and, you know, add Benoit to the mix and both of those guys would beat me for the title at WrestleMania and one of them would hold one and the other one would hold the other."
Angle expressed his delight at the prospect of collaborating with Benoit after the latter made the move from WCW. When asked about his involvement in WCW, Angle said, "I followed Chris, him, and Eddie [Guerrero] majorly. I loved both of their work and I knew that I could have incredible matches with them. I was very much looking forward to wrestling Chris."
Check out The Kurt Angle Show #82: NO WAY OUT & WRESTLEMANIA 2000 below where Angle discusses his hometown match in Pittsburgh against The Rock, his first Intercontinental Title reign, the victory over Chris Jericho, and his first WrestleMania at WM 2000!
About Kurt Angle:
During his time at Clarion University of Pennsylvania, Angle achieved a great deal of success on the wrestling mat, including being crowned the heavyweight champion of NCAA Division I Wrestling on two separate occasions. After receiving his degree from college, Angle competed in the freestyle wrestling event at the World Wrestling Championships in 1995 and came away with the gold medal. After that, despite having a broken neck, he competed in the freestyle wrestling competition at the 1996 Summer Olympics and won the gold medal. He is one of only three amateur wrestlers to win all six titles in the Grand Slam series (Junior Nationals, NCAA, World Championships, and Olympics). In 2006, USA Wrestling recognized him as the best shoot wrestler of all time and ranked him as one of the top 15 college wrestlers in the history of the sport. In recognition of his achievements as an amateur athlete, he was inducted into the International Sports Hall of Fame in 2016.
Angle made his debut at a professional wrestling event in the 1996, and in 1999 he signed a contract with the World Wrestling Federation, which would later be renamed the WWE. He had his debut match that August within the company's developmental system after only a few days of training, and he participated in his first televised WWF storyline in March of 1999. He was noted for his rapid comprehension of the business.
Following a number of matches that were held behind closed doors, Kurt Angle finally made his televised in-ring debut in November. He was given his first major push in the company in February 2000, when he held both the European and Intercontinental Championships at the same time.
After another four months, he triumphed in the 2000 King of the Ring tournament, and not long after that, he began his pursuit of the WWF Championship, which he eventually won in October. This brought an end to a WWF rookie year that many people consider to be the best in the history of the organization.
Angle's resume in the WWF/E includes, among other accomplishments, holding the WWF/WWE Championship four times, the WCW Championship once, and the World Heavyweight Championship once. In the history of WWE, he is the tenth person to win the Triple Crown, and he is the fifth person to win the Grand Slam (achieving this accolade twice under both the original and the current format). Angle was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame on March 31, 2017.
After leaving WWE in 2006, Kurt Angle became the NWA Heavyweight Champion, the inaugural and record six-time TNA World Heavyweight Champion, and the second Triple Crown winner in TNA history when he joined Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA, now known as Impact Wrestling). Angle is the only wrestler to hold all required titles at once. Additionally, Angle has won the title of King of the Mountain twice.
During his time with TNA, he wrestled for New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) and the Inoki Genome Federation (IGF), and he was even the IWGP Heavyweight Champion at one point.
In 2013, Angle became the second wrestler, after Sting, to be inducted into both the WWE Hall of Fame and the TNA Hall of Fame. Angle was given this honor because of his induction into the TNA Hall of Fame in 2013.