Kurt Angle On Trying to Get Bret Hart As His WrestleMania 20 Opponent, Says Brock Lesnar’s WM 19 Shooting Star Press Was His Idea

– Kurt Angle spoke with Chris Van Vliet recently and discussed his match with Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania 19, as well as his attempt to get a match with Bret Hart the year after. WrestleMania 19 took place in Seattle and saw Lesnar challenge Kurt Angle in the main event for the WWE Championship. At the end of the match, Lesnar went up for the shooting star press, a move he used to do when he was in developmental. However, Angle was too far across the ring and when Lesnar tried to hit the move, he came down on his head. Angle covered the situation by pinning Brock, who kicked out and recovered enough to hit an F-5 for the win.

Highlights from the discussion, and the full video, are below:

On whether the shooting star press was supposed to be the finish: “Yeah, yeah. That was my idea. And Brock was doing it in OVW years prior. And I just wanted him to have a WrestleMania moment. I didn’t know he was [gonna miss the move]. [chuckles] So he did miss. But the cool thing about it is, that’s what people most remember about WrestleMania 19 is Brock missing the moonsault. So it was a great moment for him. I loved wrestling Brock, he was so physical just like me. We would trade back and forth and I enjoyed wrestling him probably more than anybody.”

On improvising after the SSP was missed: “That was the finish, and unfortunately he missed and I was trying to — you know, he was knocked out for a little bit. He was on loopy street. And finally he was able to get me up for the F-5, and he finished it and won the match.”

On rumors that he was going to face Bret Hart at WrestleMania 20: “Well, I was trying to get that done. And I understood why Bret didn’t want to do it. Me being 51 now and looking back. And if a young Bret Hart came to me now and said, ‘Hey, let’s do our dream match,’ I’d be like, ‘Eh, it’s not gonna be the dream match I’d like it to be. I probably don’t wanna get in that ring.’ And so I understood why Bret didn’t want to do it, because he had the stroke and he had a lot of bad luck, you know. Some things that were medically difficult for him to be able to come back and be at his very best. So I understand why. He wanted to be the Bret Hart that everybody adored, and so did I. I was, you know. I even told him, ‘Look, you don’t have to bump at all. I’ll do all the bumping.’ And was like, ‘Nah, it won’t be the Bret Hart match I want it to be and I can’t do that.’ And I completely understood.”

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