Drew McIntyre Reflects On Making Kurt Angle Tap Out To Ankle Lock

Drew McIntyre has two wins over Kurt Angle, both of which saw Angle tap out, and he reflected on the matches in a recent interview. McIntyre defeated Angle twice in Manchester; one on the June 29th, 2016 episode of Impact Wrestling and then again on the November 5th, 2018 episode of Raw after he returned to WWE. Both matches saw McIntyre make Angle tap to his own finisher.

McIntyre was asked about the matches on Insight With Chris Van Vliet. He recalled how they were both in Manchester (yes, Drew, you are correct) and how the Raw match was to get him over as a top guy in the company. You can see highlights below:

On Making Kurt Angle Tap Out to His Own Finisher:

“I did it twice.”

On How they Came About:

“Well, the big one is obviously in WWE. I believe they were both in Manchester? That’d be crazy. Someone can fact-check it for me and get it in the comments. But yeah, the one in WWE, I want to say there was some kind of injury, or somebody was out, and it might have been when Roman was sick, and we had to start building some big, credible main event performers, and I needed some significant moments. That’s what makes you a top-level Main Event performer, racking up moment after moment after moment. I believe it was maybe when Roman went out sick initially, especially to build an opponent for when Roman came back, and that’s what came of it. I wasn’t going to not just beat Kurt Angle, I was going to annihilate Kurt Angle, and I was going to tap him out to his own submission, the ankle lock. Thankfully, Kurt was gracious enough to do it, because obviously, he could tie me up like a pretzel if he wanted to.

“But, you know, he was great. I was in his face. I was mocking him, basically tears in his face. I was ripping on his family, his kids, beating his arse and just being a terrible, terrible human being. He did so much for me that night, but he’d also done that for me a few years prior, in TNA, where he told me, I want you to not just beat me, but tap me out, because we’re trying to make me in TNA as the top babyface at the time, and I believe it was Manchester. I’m almost convinced they’re both in Manchester. Maybe Kurt likes to tap out in Manchester. Someone definitely needs to check that out for me. But I was tagging with Johnny Gargano at the time, Evolve Tag Team Champions. I couldn’t think of a submission. I’ll do the Gargano escape as a tribute to Johnny there. So I got Kurt with a Gargano escape there, then the ankle lock. So thank you, Kurt.”