Kurt Angle Says Vince McMahon Came Up With His ‘Three Is,’ How McMahon Taught Him To Cut Promos

WWE Hall of Famer and wrestling legend Kurt Angle joined The Ariel Helwani Show this week to discuss his illustrious career, and his WWE debut. Kurt Angle revealed that former WWE Chairman Vince McMahon was the one who thought up his initial heel character and utilizing his famous, “Three Is,” of “Intensity, Integrity, and Intelligence.”

Kurt Angle also spoke at length about how he struggled at first learning how to cut promos early in his WWE career and how Vince McMahon helped him along in that process. Below are some highlights.

Kurt Angle on Vince McMahon coming up with his Three Is

“That was Vince’s. He’s the one that came up with my character. He wanted me to talk about my my accomplishments and, you know, not brag, but try to be like you know, modest, but still bragging, you know, and and people are like, ‘You know, this guy is a little off. I don’t know what’s wrong with this guy.’ So, you know, Vince is the one that came up with that. And I guess I played the part perfectly because he continued on with it, and it worked extremely well.”

On being nervous about working his heel character and cutting promos

“I was nervous. Listen, i’ll tell you this. When I trained for the seven months before I started on TV, I only cut one promo and it was horrible. It was in Memphis, and, so when Vince McMahon told me I was making my debut at Survivor Series, I said, ‘Vince,’ he said, ‘You’re going to cut a promo tonight and have a wrestling match. I said, ‘Vince, I can’t cut promos. See, we didn’t have it back then. We had no way for for preparing. So then said, ‘Well, listen, I’m gonna i’m gonna give you an opportunity tonight. You’re either going to sink or swim.’ So he starts telling me the promo, and I’m listening, and three minutes goes by and I’m like, holy crap, this is a promo. He didn’t write it down for me to memorize it. He was going to tell me at once. He wanted me to go out there and perform it. So after three minutes, I stopped listening and he went on for about six minutes. He goes, all right, I want you to go out there and cut that promo. And I said, ‘Vince, I’m sorry, but I didn’t hear a word you said. You’re gonna have to repeat it one more time.’ He said, ‘I’ll repeat it one more time. Go out there, sink or swim.’ I went out there and I got 80% of it, right? And he said, ‘You know what? I can work with this kid. This kid has ability.’ So he starts having me cut promos every week and week after week they’re getting longer and longer, and i’m getting better and better at them. And I started mastering promos and I wouldn’t have been one of the best in the business at cutting promos if it wasn’t for Vince McMahon pulling me out of my comfort zone early on in my career.”

Kurt Angle was eventually inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in the Class of 2017. He wrestled his last match at WrestleMania 35 in 2019, losing to Baron Corbin at the event.

If using any of the above quotes, please credit The Ariel Helwani Show, with a h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.