Kurt Angle On His Match With Shawn Michaels At WrestleMania 21, How Vince McMahon & Pat Patterson Reacted After The Match

In a recent edition of The Kurt Angle Show, Kurt Angle discussed his WrestleMania 21 match with Shawn Michaels, how Vince McMahon and Pat Patterson reacted, and much more. You can read his comments below.

Kurt Angle on wrestling Shawn Michaels at WrestleMania 21: “Wrestling Shawn was a dream come true. Going into it, we ended up having the story – the angle started at the Rumble. I was so excited because when I first saw Shawn wrestle at Survivor Series a couple of years prior, I had never watched him wrestle before. So, the first time, I was in awe. It came down to him and five guys on the other team because it was elimination. He went through those five guys – he didn’t win and lost at the very end – but he eliminated four of them. The way he sold, his technique, his charisma – Shawn is without a doubt the best overall performer I’ve ever seen.”

On Vince McMahon letting them decide the winner: “Vince left it up to us. I was surprised, and I didn’t know that he did. What happened was, when I met with Shawn four days before WrestleMania, we went to the place where they structured the matches at the hotel in the party room where they had the ring set up. Shawn came to me and said, ‘We don’t have a finish for WrestleMania, but I think you should go over by tap out and this is why. I think you’re gonna do a program with Batista, and we need to make you look really strong.’ I was like wow. Shawn Michaels just basically said he’s gonna do a job for me. I was pleasantly surprised and didn’t know if he was serious. It showed me that it respected me, and he knew we would have an incredible match. It wouldn’t matter whether he won or lost. I do understand the program with Batista never happened, but I’m sure it was supposed to. But Shawn just decided to let me win without the guarantee that we were going to wrestle again because there weren’t any plans for us to wrestle after that.”

On how Vince McMahon and Pat Patterson reacted after the match: “Pat was over the moon about it. He was crying. Pat was an emotional guy, especially when you had an incredible match. He knew how hard we worked and what we wanted to accomplish. He was crying and so proud of us. Shawn, me, and The Rock were his three favorite wrestlers. Pat took an extra interest in us and cared about us more than the other wrestlers. Not that he showed it, but you knew it. Him getting emotional made me emotional…….Vince and I were not fighting but having some arguments over certain things at that time, but he forgot about it that night. He gave me a big hug and said, ‘I’m so proud of you.’ That meant a lot to me because I was struggling through some things at the time, and Vince wasn’t real happy with me. I made a lot of mistakes. He said, ‘You are the best.’ That’s what he told me.”

If using any of the above quotes, please credit The Kurt Angle Show with an h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.