Bruce Prichard On Iron Sheik Being in WrestleMania X-7 Battle Royal, Sheik Looking For Kurt Angle Backstage

– On the latest Something to Wrestle With, Bruce Prichard recalled the Iron Sheik’s appearance in the Gimmick Battle Royal at WrestleMania X-7 and Sheik hunting down Kurt Angle backstage. Sheik was part of the battle royal that also included the likes of The Bushwackers, Jim Cornette, Repo Man, Sgt. Slaughter, Duke Droese, Doink the Clown, Nikolai Volkoff, and more.

Sheik ultimately won the battle royal, but Prichard recalled how before the match Sheik was looking for Kurt Angle backstage to talk to him about Angle’s 1996 Olympics gold medal, which he won by beating Sheik’s Iranian protege Abbas Jadidi. Highlights from the discussion and the full podcast are below:

On Iron Sheik being at the show: “The best part of that day, I think, was Kurt Angle. And Kurt Angle, 1996 Olympic gold medalist who beat the Iranian. And as soon as Sheik arrived, he’s like, ‘Where? Where is this jabroni gold medal Kurt Angle? He — my man! My man, my boy I trained, and Kurt Angle, he get gold medal when the Iranian, my trainee should have got that.’ And of course, as soon as Sheik starts this, there’s certain people who start poking the bear with Kurt. ‘Hey Kurt! Yeah, man, Sheik’s looking for you, he’s gonna stretch your ass because you cheated against his protege in the Olympics.’ And Kurt’s like ‘Ah, f**k, come on man.’ And Kurt is so respectful, and just — he’s excited to meet the Sheik, but at the same time he’s like, ‘Oh god, is he really as crazy as you guys say?'”

On Sheik meeting Angle: “So he [Angle]’s excited at first, and we’re in catering, and I come walking Sheik over. And said, ‘Sheik, Kurt Angle. Kurt, Khosrow Vaziri. [Sheik impression] ‘Ah, so great to meet you Mr. Kurt Angle. I humble myself to you. You know, my man–‘ [laughs] He goes right into the f**king Olympic match. And he just kept on, and he wouldn’t let go. And Kurt had a match he was trying to get, and we were trying to get the battle royal put together and what have you.”

On why Sheik won the gimmick battle royal: “The reason — I’ll say it is, the reason Sheik won the damn thing is, is who the hell — he couldn’t get over the top rope! It took him 45 minutes to get to the ring. And you know, nobody was going to — I don’t think he could have gotten over the top rope safely, and that was obviously, again, long before we had our medical protocols and what have you, where somebody tells you you’re good to go in the ring, ‘Okay, let’s put them in the ring.’ So we had those situations going on with guys that probably should not have been in the ring, probably me included.”

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit Something to Wrestle with a h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.