Kurt Angle Recalls Working With Steve Austin, Learning to Improvise From Him

On the latest episode of the Kurt Angle Show, the WWE Hall of Famer talked about working with Steve Austin in late 2000. Here are the highlights:

On wrestling Steve Austin in late 2000 in one of Austin’s first match back since returning from neck surgery: “He didn’t act like it. When he was structuring the match, he was really cool with me because he was like, ‘What do you want to do?’ I was like, ‘You’re Stone Cold Steve Austin. We’ll do what you want to do.’ And he was like, ‘No, no, no. Well, let’s talk about this together. Let’s come up with some, some good stuff together.’ And, so he enabled me to help start like, letting my mind start the motor in my head started moving. So this was good, because Steve was teaching me to learn how to structure matches and put matches together. Because he could have done it all on his own, but he wanted me to do it, too. And what he was doing was helping me learn. And that was a big asset. That’s why I loved working with Stone Cold and knowing that — but Steve was so good in the ring. Whenever, you know, we would be wrestling the match, and the next spot would be coming up and he’d call an audible I’d be like, ‘Well, what are we doing?’ He’s like, ‘Just stay with me.’ And he’d call the audible and do that, and then he’d go back to the spot that we were supposed to do. He was just so good at that. He was really good at improvising.”

On being nervous working with Steve Austin: “He’s the biggest star in the history of the business, man. I mean, he’s the biggest money guy they’ve ever had. Maybe outside of Hulk Hogan, but I would put both of them up there. But yeah, Steve was the biggest star in the business at the time.”

On getting into wrestling because of Austin: “It was a complete honor, again, to be in the ring with Stone Cold Steve Austin. I was so mesmerized when I got in the ring with the Rock, but when I got in the ring with Stone Cold — don’t forget, he’s the reason why I actually joined WWE, right? So I was like a super fan of Stone Cold. So it was a huge honor to be inside that ring with him.”

If you use any portion of the quotes from this article, please credit the Kurt Angle Show with an h/t to Wrestling Headlines for the transcription.