Kurt Angle Recalls His Babyface Run In 2002, Original Plan To Hold Title All Year, Smackdown Six’s End

On a recent episode of The Kurt Angle Show, Kurt Angle discussed the Armageddon 2002 pay per view. Topics included his original plan as a babyface champion and his reaction to the end of the Smackdown Six. Some highlights are below.

On the original plans for him that year: “I was suppose to have a title reign for a whole year. That was the whole plan. I was going to beat Big Show. I was going to carry it until WrestleMania and beat Brock and continue on. Unfortunately, I broke my neck in February and I had to have surgery after WrestleMania.”

On whether his face turn was hurt by Brock’s face turn: “No, I don’t think it was going to hurt. I think what they were planning on doing at WrestleMania was a double babyface match and they’ve done that before at WrestleMania. Obviously during the match somebody would turn heel. I think when Stone Cold wrestled the Rock at WrestleMania they were both babyfaces and I think Stone Cold turned on the Rock and turned heel. Maybe they had the same plan for us. I’d imagine I’d be the one to turn heel at WrestleMania. The plan was, what I know, is that I was going to continue on as champion for almost a year.”

On fan appreciation toward him: “They didn’t really start appreciating me until 2003. So, it was really hard to turn heel. It was a difficult time because turning baby and heel a lot of times fans didn’t accept me when I turned babyface because they liked me as a heel and enjoyed booing me and telling me I suck. It was really difficult for me to be a babyface in particular in the WWE.”

On blowing up during a WWE Confidential supermarket segment: “Well, let me tell you this. I didn’t blow up. There’s no way I blew up. I probably just didn’t feel like doing it anymore. So, I told his girlfriend to takeover. I’ve only ever blown up once in my career. It was against Stone Cold Steve Austin in Fresno. He’ll never let me forget about it. He always texts me every week ‘don’t forget Fresno.’ It was the only time I blew up in my life and I’m sticking to it. I didn’t during this Supermarket thing I did.”

On whether he was upset that the Smackdown Six ended: “Yes, I was. I was really sad to see it because we were having so a great run. These three tag teams had incredible matches together. But, at the same time, it was now time for Kurt Angle to get back in the World Title hunt and that meant that this had to end for me to begin the World Title hunt where I wrestled Big Show and won the title from him.

On whether he knew he’d wrestle Chris Benoit at the Royal Rumble: “Yes, yes, I knew I was going to wrestle Chris. That’s why we weren’t getting along and we were kinda pushing that storyline a little bit and worked up to Royal Rumble. I will tell you this my match with Chris Benoit at the Royal Rumble 2003 was the best match I ever had in my life. It’s the one I’m most proud of and I actually had knee surgery before that. So, I wasn’t 100%. After I got done with that match I was really upset because I thought the match sucked and then I watched it over and I was like ‘holy crap this is the best match I’ve had in my career.’ I’m going to put it above Shawn Michaels at WrestleMania 21. This match I would have loved for it to be at WrestleMania that would have been my dream come true.”

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