Kurt Angle, the WWE Hall of Famer, opened up on the match against Steve Austin back in 2001. He reminisced and spilled the beans on the original plans of the outcome of the match.
Kurt Angle: I wasn’t supposed to win the World Title
During Steve Austin’s Broken Skull Sessions, Kurt Angle recalled clashing with then WWF(now WWE) Champion, Steve Austin at Unforgiven pay-per-view in 2001.
That night, Kurt Angle defeated Steve Austin after putting him in the ankle lock submission. ‘The Olympic Gold Medalist’ claimed his second WWF Championship reign in his hometown, Pittsburgh.
He revealed the story behind the title change and claimed that the finish to the match was not originally planned.
Kurt Angle said:
“But the story is and nobody knows this – I wasn’t supposed to win the World Title. I called Vince a week prior to our pay-per-view and I said, ‘Vince, we just had 9/11 in September. It’s a month later, it’s my hometown, I’m the American Hero, I’m a babyface now. I know Steve is working as a thing between baby-heel, but don’t you think it would be a good time to give the fans something they might want?’ And I didn’t know if they wanted me to beat you, but I thought since I was babyface at the time, it’d be a good idea and Vince said, ‘You have to ask Steve.’ So I called you and I said, ‘What do you think about this’ and you said ‘I’ll do it’ and I was like, ‘Wow’. You didn’t have to say that. You have no idea how grateful I am that you went unselfish and said, ‘Yeah, I’ll give it up to you’ and I knew I wasn’t going to carry it for a long time. I knew it was going be just for a night, maybe a week, but the whole point is riling the crowd up and getting the fans at home watching the pay-per-view so excited about something. Seeing an American Hero that’s a babyface, that won a Gold medal in the Olympics do something right after 9/11 was just so special and important and you being unselfish was incredible.”
