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411’s Steve Austin’s Broken Skull Sessions Report: Kurt Angle on His King of Ring Match with Shane McMahon, His Relationship with Eddie Guerrero, More

September 28, 2020 | Posted by Robert Leighty Jr.
Kurt Angle Broken Skull Sessions

411’s Steve Austin’s Broken Skull Sessions Report: Kurt Angle

-Another episode of Broken Skull Sessions has dropped and the guest this time is Mt Lebanon High School’s own, Kurt Angle. Let’s get to it!

-Air Date: 09.27.20
-Run Time: 1:46:19

-Austin welcomes us to the show as his guest is a guy who has won so many awards he can’t name them all. This is Broken Skull Sessions!

-Small talk to start as Kurt gets to promote his new food line of chicken snacks. This is the first time they’ve been together since RAW 25 and before that when they last wrestled. They talk neck surgeries and the doctor they both saw told Angle that Austin’s neck was the worst he’s ever seen. Just warriors as I hear them talk about the neck surgeries and pain. They discuss the problem with doing neck bridges and Kurt feels they aren’t really good for you long term. Everything went down hill when he broke his neck the first time.

-Before we get started Angle has a gift for Austin and it’s a t-shirt that reads “Forget Fresno.” Austin says it is an inside joke between the two of them. Austin laughs as he had Fresno, California written down on his sheet of things to discuss. So we get the story as Austin and Angle had a match in Fresno. It was the only time in his life that Kurt got a little tired and it was the only time someone blew him up in the ring. He thinks it was due to something he ate, but Austin takes it as a badge of honor. Austin jokes that he could have won a Gold Medal in 96 based on that fact he got Angle to suck wind. They talk about the art of how to deal with blowing up. Veterans told him that nobody paid money to see him suck ass while on the mat in a rest hold, so you have to push through.

-We go back to Olympics in 96 and discuss Angle winning his Gold Medal. He puts over the man he beat as the best in division and he was terrified as it was his first Olympics. Angle had torn his groin at one point and did all he could to keep the match at 1-1. He won on the decision and they show still photos of him with the American Flag.

-Austin asks what all this meant with his mother being there, his dad dying, and his coach being murdered (Dave Schultz) only 6 months earlier. Kurt couldn’t get cleared to compete due to his broken neck and the chances of him wrestling were slim. He found a doctor that would numb his neck before the matches. He did what he had to do even though he was in crazy amounts of pain after the novacaine wore off. He never thought about quitting and was looking for anything he could to get through it.

-Growing up he didn’t want to wrestle and was more involved with football, baseball, and basketball. His brothers all pushed him into wrestling and since he was the youngest boy he got all the coaching. His credits his brothers for being his coaches. He took a lot of ass kickings from his brothers and it made him tougher. His goal was to do intense training for 250 hours a month and did it for 4 years. He would give himself 1 day off a month. He was considered young to win a Gold as most heavyweights hit their peak in the mid 30s and he was only 27.

-After the Olympics he was immediately contacted by Vince who offered him a 10 year deal for $500,000 per year. His agent told him not to do the fake crap and that he needed to capitalize while he could off the Olympic buzz. Kurt fired his agent and went back to Vince who wasn’t offering the same deal now.

-Austin interrupts to bring up Shane Douglas (also from Pittsburgh) and what happened with ECW. Kurt says he was misled as they told him ECW was more legit like Olympic wrestling. He was paid to attend the show and he sees it’s hardcore wrestling. That was the same night they did the crucifixion angle with Raven and Sandman. That was quite the intro to pro-wrestling for Angle and he mentions anything WWE was doing wasn’t that bad.

-He next talked to JR and he was told he would need to work his way up and they would start him at $50,000 a year. Twenty minutes into his try-out, JR pulled him aside and said they needed to sign his ASAP. He was signed to a 5 year deal and within a year he was the WWF Champion working with Rock and Austin. He then came back to negotiate and said he wanted what Austin was making and Austin loses it as he tells him he can’t do that which makes them both laugh.

-We get footage of Kurt training with Dory and Tom Prichard. This is cool! Kurt mat wrestling former NWA Champion Dory Funk is awesome and Angle puts over that Dory was walking him through each step. Angle says this was easy as he took his aggression away as his goal was learn how to bump and sell before getting into what he did well. He wanted to show he could get beat up and sell and he thinks that’s why JR signed him so quickly.

-Austin asks Kurt his mentality coming from amateur wrestling into a world like the WWE. Kurt says it was hard as he knew there was a lot of pressure as guys had weeded out shooters that didn’t pan out. He talks about watching every match during house shows and that idea came from Austin as he did it every show. It helped Kurt greatly as he started studying guys and Austin says he got the idea from Dutch Mantell who cussed him out for not doing it back in the day.

-They show one of the original Kurt Angle vignettes and man, did they ever lay it on thick with him. Kurt says Vince was working with him on the vignettes and Kurt wanted to be Stone Cold, but Vince took him the other way. Kurt thought he should a babyface Olympic hero and Vince wanted a heel. Obviously, Vince made the right call as the fans likely boo Olympic babyface hero Kurt Angle.

-Vince had Kurt cut a heel promo in Pittsburgh and we see video of that show from the old Civic Arena. He is upset with his town cheering a pimp and his hoes over an Olympic Hero. Vince told him to celebrate like he did in the Olympics and the fans would hate it. Vince told him he messed up with The Rock when he debuted so he learned and that’s why Kurt was the heel. Makes perfect sense as again, Angle as a happy babyface gets booed out of the building in that era.

-Austin touches on that Angle had the lights out work rate, but was working on his character from the start. Angle mentions it became fun and a lot easier as he had an identity and where to go. Vince wanted him to get his ass kicked 90% of the time and then sneak a win and celebrate like he won a Gold Medal. Angle gives all credit to Vince for the character and Gewirtz for being his writer. He wishes he would have done his own stuff more and got better at that when he went to TNA.

-More early Angle promos as he insults the crowds including a hilarious one where Canada can’t have BBQs because they would be attacked by Moose or Grizzlies. Never mind the last part though as the Grizzlies never beat anyone. Sick burn yo, though I’m sure younger audiences have no clue the Grizzlies used to be in Vancouver. Everything came together for Kurt with the writing, character, and winning streak. He brings up losing to Taz but it being great because he was told Taz choked him out and since that’s illegal he was still undefeated. Fantastic!

-Austin asks about the relationship Kurt has with Vince McMahon (The Old Man). Kurt felt like they had a father-son relationship and only thing Kurt didn’t like was he wasn’t as busy savy. He didn’t have any input on his merchandise and told Vince he wanted to make more, but Vince told him they couldn’t use anything related to Olympics or Gold Medals on shirts. Austin and Kurt both talk about young guys needing to learn the business as it will pay off when they can’t make money in the ring anymore.

-They discuss his rise in his first year as he won the Euro, IC, and King of The Ring. He started getting pushed to mid-upper card and losing to Show and Taker so he felt this was his spot. A few days before RAW he was told he would be working Rock for the WWF Title and Angle believed he would be in the Main Event against Austin at WrestleMania. Obviously the Title went back to Rock a few months later. Angle admits that he was listening to everyone throughout his first year in the business. He then says that when he beat The Rock he knew he needed to get a new contract.

-No Mercy 2000: Kurt Angle wins The WWF Title for the first time as The Rock puts over the next big thing once again. Kurt laughs as he had a giant booger in his nose during his celebration, and Austin says at least he was a heel so it didn’t matter as much. Ha! Kurt was elated as he mentions there is a big difference between a World Title and a WWE World Championship. He knows there is a difference between amateur and pro-wrestling. He talks about there being no emotion in amateur as the focus was on pinning your opponent while he needed to emote in the WWE. He still had no clue what he was doing. Austin is amazed that amateurs were trained to tune everything out and that it was all reactionary. You were taught to look at your opponents hips and not their face.

-Angle talks about learning from Austin, Rock, Taker and HHH. Austin jumps on that as they put over HHH as a great in ring general. Austin says HHH is very methodical and always has a plan if something happens. Angle brings up the triple threat from SummerSlam where Angle got knocked out when a table broke too early on a Pedigree spot. Nasty! Angle admits he was out and basically snoring for a few minutes. HHH basically carried him through the entire match and even made Kurt duck out of the way so he could get the spot where he hit Stephanie.

-Austin throws to another clip where Angle goes in the back to check on Steph who was knocked off the apron by Angle earlier in the night. Angle tells Steph he cares for her and then kisses her as the crowd erupts. Austin gives him a hard time about how long the kiss lasted. Angle says it was directed by Vince who was only a few feet away, and Steph told him he kisses like a fish. Angle told her that her dad was sitting right there so he wasn’t going to open his mouth or anything. That whole storyline was great, but sadly never got the blow-off it needed.

-King of the Ring 2001: Hell Yeah! Angle vs Shane and it’s a war and easily Shane’s best match ever. Angle says he was a little on the stiff side and Austin agrees. Shane gets in some potatoes and splits Angle which terrified Shane. They talk about kendo sticks and they do hurt like crazy. Angle says he would rather be hit with a chair. Man, I want to see a full watch along of this match with these two and Shane talking about it. Angle gets suplexed on the floor and break his tailbone. They get to the set and things get insane as Shane bounces off the plexi-glass and land directly on his head on concrete. Just crazy, nasty, insane stuff. Kurt says they put sealer on the glass so it wouldn’t break from the pyro and they weren’t aware of that. Poor Shane! Eventually Shane gets suplexed through the glass and there is blood everywhere. They still have to go back through the glass and Angle just opts to throw him through after another suplex doesn’t do it. I don’t know how Shane is even walking. Vince was apparently off camera telling the ref they are done and they tell him to give them one more and that’s where Shane goes through and now Angle cuts his arm. Angle told the ref to find him something to get Shane back to the ring and that’s why they used the box. For Kurt it was the only way to get Shane back to the ring as he was screwed. You have two injured guys working on the top rope on a piece of plywood and Shane takes a Super Angle Slam to end the war. No way that match continues if it happened today (well, unless it was in AEW….I kid, I kid). Kurt was proud of his first two years because he was so inexperienced and was still learning.

-So Kurt gets hurt and the same night Austin breaks 3 vertebra in his back from a table spot by the debuting Booker T. Austin makes sure to note it wasn’t Booker’s fault. Them both being hurt may have been the best thing as it forced them out of the ring, but they needed them on TV each week. Austin and Angle were put together and Angle calls it the biggest opportunity of his life. Austin is the reason Kurt got into the business and he knew he could develop his character working with Austin. He had no clue their work would help Austin in his battle to get over as a heel.

-Austin was the ass kicking redneck and he was trying to find something to do to get booed. They show a picture of them wearing cowboy hats and Kurt pulls out the kid’s one he wore. Apparently Angle took it and told WWE he lost it as they wanted to catalog it. Austin saw the hat in an airport store and immediately had the idea of the skit and putting Kurt in the hat. Angle says the stuff he did with Austin showed a different side of him. He became an idiotic character that was the Robin to Steve’s Batman.

-Next they show the Jimmy Crack Corn skit and I don’t know how Vince kept a straight face through it. Just amazing stuff and you can see Austin nearly crack at one point, but he held it together. Apparently most of the stuff they did was on one take and Vince told them all to make sure nobody laughed until they yelled cut.

-Unforgiven 2001: I was there for the show! This was in Pittsburgh and just after 9-11 so there’s no way Kurt wasn’t leaving with the title that night. Family and friends storm the ring and celebrate with Kurt. Angle is still amazed that he won his first 2 WWE Titles in less than 2 years and did so over The Rock and Steve Austin. Austin mentions it was a hard crowd to work for and not sure what happened. I kind of think people were still in a post 9-11 haze as it was just a few weeks after the tragedy. Angle says winning a Gold Medal and beating Austin for the WWE Title in his hometown are the two greatest moments in his career. Angle admits he wasn’t originally supposed to win that night but mentioned to Vince it was his hometown and he was the American hero coming off 9-11 and wanted to give the fans a happy moment. Vince told him to go ask Steve and Austin was all for dropping the title. Kurt knew it was only going to be for a week or so, but it was great. Austin calls it a great story and he forgot all about it. Ha!

-We jump forward to Summer of 2002 where Edge coins the “You Suck” chant by telling the fans to chant it each time, Kurt opens his mouth. They then chant it with his music and Kurt and Austin admit that it’s a sign of respect now. They discuss the “What” chants and Kurt says the “What” stuff set up his “You Suck” chants.

-The Brand Split is next and Kurt moves to SmackDown and Austin wants to know if Kurt felt like a leader at that point. Kurt mentions he was in Main Events for a few years at that point and knew he could give some advice. He started getting compliments from people like HHH, Austin, and Taker. His plan was to only stay in the business a few years and Austin told him he was full of shit. Nobody ever gets out as you get hooked and never want to leave.

-They talk about the cage match and Rumble match he had and how great they were and I think they are referencing the matches with Benoit, but I could be wrong. I mean they don’t mention him by name obviously, but that’s the only cage match I can think of that had Austin at ringside. I could be wrong though.

-They go back to neck injuries and we see Kurt get his neck jacked up at No Way Out in 2003 in a 6 Man Tag. Brock ran him into the buckles and Kurt broke his neck again. He needed surgery, but asked Vince if he wanted him to wrestle Brock at Mania. Vince gave the green light and Kurt found a doctor crazy enough to clear him. He admits that wouldn’t happen today, but it was a different time then. I remember they had SmackDown in Pittsburgh and advertised Brock vs Kurt for the WWE Title and I assumed Kurt was dropping the title in short order due to his neck and we would get something else for Mania (most were thinking Benoit at the time), but that didn’t happen obviously.

-WrestleMania XIX: Austin brings up the Shooting Star Press spot and Austin says there is no reason for someone like Brock to do that other than he can. Austin asks Kurt if he was too far away and Kurt mentions that before the show Brock was landing it over halfway across the ring. Brock is knocked out and Kurt thought he broke his neck. They obviously improvised the finish and Brock gets the win even though he has no clue he’s in Seattle. Angle says he wasn’t supposed to lose there, but his neck injury forced it. Angle says it was both of their faults as he agreed to the SSP. They talk the greatness of Brock and how there is nobody better at selling. If Brock likes you and is good he will sell for you like a SOB. I think we all know that now as you can tell who Brock likes and doesn’t by the way he has a match with them.

-They discuss the roster always asking what would happen if Brock and Kurt wrestled. Obviously, there is a big difference between NCAA Champion and Olympic Gold Medalist. Kurt knows the size difference was huge, but he had the experience and positioning. They had a go and Kurt won the battle as he got the lone take down and that ended it.

-Eddie Guerrero: Angle says he and Eddie had a brother relationship where they loved, but would also fight each other after matches. Kurt brings up the car wreck Eddie had while in WCW and that he wasn’t the same in the ring as the guy in WCW and anyone who thinks he so is lying. The injury he sustained made him alter his in ring style and he became a better worker and better with psychology. There were nights he would blow up easy and Kurt didn’t know what the problem was. He obviously later found out he hard a bad heart. They got into a fight as Eddie felt Kurt stiffed him and Kurt told him he never touched him. Eddie dives at Kurt’s legs, so Kurt choked him out. Show broke up the fight by picking both of them up by the tights. Kurt was heated as nobody ever man handled him like that. Kurt went to apologize and Eddie told him he wasn’t ready to make peace so they fought again and Show had to break it up again. He loved the match they had at Mania and talks about Eddie being on when the lights went on even if he looked bad between shows. “It was almost like he was living to perform.”

-WrestleMania 21: First we get Sexy Kurt and it’s still amazing. Austin puts over Sherri and Kurt loved working with her. Just amazing, amazing, amazing! Angle mentions Vince gave him advice on the dancing and I can definitely see that. Kurt was excited to have the match with Shawn and it was the first time they locked horns with each other. Shawn told Kurt before the match that he wasn’t afraid of him and if something went wrong he was ready to throw down. Fantastic! Their match is one of my favorite matches of all time and without thinking too hard I would have it in my Top 10 Favorites. Kurt calls Shawn the best in ring performer he has ever faced in a match. They do a brief commentary over highlights of the match and again, they are missing the boat by not making a series of guys watching their matches back and talking about it. Austin asks Kurt why he started using the moonsault and he says because he is stupid. Ha! Kurt tells us that Shawn personally told him he was going over and by tap-out and wanted him to kill it on SmackDown with Batista. Austin busts Kurt’s chops for kicking out a bit late on one of the near falls. Kurt credits Shawn for making the heel hook a killer move. Again, amazing match! Angle calls it his favorite match of all time. He also puts over his SummerSlam match with Austin, but they had 3 ref bumps and no winner.

-Austin brings up burn-out and what happened with Kurt ending his first run with the WWE. Kurt was injured all the time and started taking pain killers. He was so out of control and then his sister died of a heroin overdose which sent him down a bad path. He started sending Vince texts that he was going to beat the shit out of him and he doesn’t remember those as he was taking 20 pain killers a night. While all of this is happening he works with Taker at No Way Out and has one of his best matches. That match is the first version of the MMA style that Taker would start adding to revive his in ring career.

-Next Kurt was put in ECW and that’s when he felt he needed to get out. He told Vince they needed to talk and Vince ignored him. Kurt told Austin that something bad was going to happen if he didn’t get his release. Vince wanted Kurt to go to rehab, but Kurt told Vince he was afraid he was going to kill himself if he didn’t get his release. Not that he was going to shoot himself, but he was afraid he would do something that would end up costing him his life. Vince gave him the release and Kurt was off to TNA. Kurt brings up that he was in a bad spot and Cena seemed like the new guy. Vince told him he had a movie for him and Kurt was excited as it would be a 6 month break, but then Vince tells him Cena was getting the part. Kurt was so bad that the day before he left he pulled his pants down at a production meeting to let everyone see the bruises along his groin to his stomach. He was supposed to do a Triple Threat Ladder Match on RAW and he wanted Vince to see the pain he was in. That grabbed Vince’s attention and they had a meeting in Stamford where he ended his WWE run.

-Austin asks about the pain killers and Kurt says he overdosed once when he took 8 somas in a night. Vince asked him what he was doing and Kurt said he couldn’t sleep. Vince’s advice: “fuck sleep because if you can’t sleep tonight, you will sleep the next night.” Kurt was never high when he was wrestling and took that as an insult when fans would say that.

-To TNA and Kurt’s goal was to get clean. He started drinking down there though as everyone drank down there. Now he was making horrible decision as he started taking Xanax and drinking while driving. He ended up with 4 DUIs in 5 years. Things were out of control and when his wife said she was leaving he knew he needed to get clean and sober. He checked into rehab and says the first week was hell. The withdraw symptoms were the worst and it felt like his skin was eating away. Once he got through that week he started to learn about his disease. He says you have to do the full 30 days. Austin asks what keeps him straight now and he says his wife and kids. He has six kids and things are no longer all about him.

-Austin brings up his great run in TNA while he also doesn’t want to discount it. Kurt wishes his his run there was in the WWE so more fans could have seen it. He puts over they had fun there and drew over 2 million people on Spike. There is just a difference between WWE and other companies even if those other companies are legit.

-He was shocked to get the call for the Hall of Fame as he didn’t know if his WWE career was long enough. He had been keeping himself in shape to have an in ring return in WWE and that didn’t happen, so he started eating again and his body became arthritic. He wanted to have a run like Goldberg did, but that wasn’t in the cards. He then got to be in there with Rousey and the whole point of the match was to shine the spotlight on her. He calls Corbin a good kid, but he wished his last match was with Austin, Cena, or Rock.

-Angle was worried the fans wouldn’t remember him as it had been 11 years. He was so happy with The Hall of Fame and they show a photo of Kurt at Mania after his Hall of Fame celebrating. He tells a funny story that Vince told him he would have pyro and he was waiting, but it didn’t come as they used it for The Hardy Boyz the previous segment.

-He knows he will never go down as the Greatest of All Time because he didn’t put in enough years. Austin tells him he is shorting himself a bit. They show a photo from the infamous plane ride from hell and here we go! Vince and Kurt start having a wrestling match and Taker jumps on Kurt to stop it. Angle says Vince was drinking a lot of wine and kept getting girls (Trish, Lita, Terri) to go up and say they wants to talk to him. Each time he would go, Vince would jump on top of him and Kurt would reverse it and that would end it. Vince kept doing it though and the flight attendant told them to settle or the pilot was going to ground the plane. Vince shouts back, “Tell the pilot to go fuck himself as I can buy this plane.” They prepare to land and Vince starts army crawling to attack Kurt again and this time Kurt tells Vince he wins. As for Taker that happened earlier as Kurt slammed Vince and Taker came up from behind and put him in a tight choke hold forcing him to tap.

-Kurt gives Austin some of his chicken snacks and Austin breaks out a guitar and cowboy hat. This is going to be great. Before getting there Angle brings up the battle they had of who could be the last to hug Vince. Again, just amazing stuff! Kurt puts on the little cowboy hat and they sing Old McDonald together to close the show.

-Amazing and I found this to be the best episode in this series. Just loved everything about this and the only thing I wanted was more on his TNA run. No matter though as they touched on just about everything else and you could tell they were having a blast together. Definitely go out of your way to check this one out. Highest recommendation!