WWE Hall Of Famer Kurt Angle remains one of the most technically-gifted pro wrestlers to have ever stepped foot inside the squared circle. He had arguably the best rookie year in WWE history as he won the WWE Championship within a year and competed at the highest level for many years after that.
Angle would leave WWE in 2006 and made his way to TNA Wrestling, where he spent a decade in the company, surpassing the seven years he stayed in WWE. He also had instant classics in TNA, including matches against the likes of AJ Styles, Samoa Joe, Nigel McGuiness, and many more.
While speaking on his The Kurt Angle Show podcast, the Olympic gold medalist said that Backlund was instructed to put Chris Benoit in a Crippler Crossface. He was told to do the move while sitting, an instruction he didn’t follow.
“[Bob] was supposed to put the crippler crossface on [Chris Benoit] while he was sitting, and Bob didn’t want to do it because he wasn’t standing up. I looked back [at the writer] like, ‘Holy sh*t.”
Backlund also forgot his lines during a backstage segment, and asked the crew to re-do it while not realizing that the segment was being shot live. Angle feels that that could’ve been the reason why WWE fired Backlund.
“I think that was the deciding factor. When Bob went and did that, they just went, ‘We’ve had enough of Bob Backlund, we’re gonna move on,'” said Angle [H/T WrestlingInc]
