wrestling / News

Kurt Angle Loved Working With Team Angle, Thought They Broke Up Too Early

August 14, 2023 | Posted by Andrew Ravens
Charlie Haas Shelton Benjamin Team Angle Image Credit: WWE

On the latest episode of the Kurt Angle Show, the WWE Hall of Famer talked about beating Eddie Guerrero at WWE SummerSlam 2004, his thoughts on Team Angle, and more. You can check out some highlights below:

On wanting a tune-up match before his Summerslam match: “No, I’m the one that decided to have the match. I wanted to have a tune-up match before I wrestled Eddie. I was out for five months with my neck broken. You know, I hardly ever trained. I did diet [the] last month to prepare for looking better. But I wanted this match just so I was confident I could go into SummerSlam and wrestle Eddie. So that’s why they booked me against Charlie Haas… I had a strict diet for about five weeks, which worked extremely well.”

On Team Angle: “I always loved working with Team Angle, ’cause they were amateur wrestlers. They understood my style, we always had great chemistry together. It was unfortunate that we broke up so fast. We were only together for like six to eight months, which was nothing. But I’m glad we did because we got to wrestle with each other. And you know, wrestling Charlie [Haas] and wrestling Shelton [Benjamin], I love wrestling those guys because we have incredible chemistry together. Because we’re both, we’re all amateur wrestlers.”

On how he was feeling at that point: “I was still confused, man. My head wasn’t in it. I wanted to return to the SmackDown-only PPV the month after SummerSlam. I thought it would make a bigger impact if Kurt returned to a SmackDown-only PPV because I was on SmackDown. But Vince was adamant about getting me to SummerSlam. He wanted me booked on SummerSlam. He wanted to make a lot of money with me at SummerSlam. So that’s what I was going to do and I — you know, at this point I didn’t believe I was ready. But I had to be ready, I didn’t have a choice… I don’t blame him [Vince McMahon] for that but you know, I was trying to talk him into, ‘Hey, put me on a SmackDown-only PPV.’ He’s like, ‘No, bulls**t. Yeah, you’re going on this one.'”

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