Kurt Angle Recalls Rare Time He Considered Vince McMahon To Be Wrong

It happens in workplaces all over the globe where people, at times, have differing views to their boss. However, in Kurt Angle's case, there were only a few rare instances during his time working under then-WWE Chairman Vince McMahon that the Olympic gold medalist thought his boss was outright wrong, with one particular occasion involving the "WWE SmackDown" main event match held on September 26, 2002, between himself, Chris Benoit, and Rey Mysterio.

"Vince was not very keen on a smaller guy making it to the main event," Angle recalled on "The Kurt Angle Show." "As a matter of fact, you had to have a certain amount of size on you, especially in the '80s and '90s, you had to be like over 240 [pounds]. But then he kind of loosened up and started taking guys around 200, 185, 190 ... Then Rey, he wasn't folding with Rey, but somebody talked him into it and said, 'Give him a chance.' And he did it that night and from then on Rey was a main-eventer. Vince was wrong. I mean, Vince is hardly ever wrong, but he was wrong about this."

The match Angle refers to, which followed the early 2000s "SmackDown" format of being taped on Tuesday prior to airing on Thursday, actually saw Mysterio secure the victory after an exhilarating 8 minutes and 43 seconds of action in his hometown of San Diego. At the time, Angle was feuding with Benoit before the duo were paired together by then-"SmackDown" General Manager Stephanie McMahon, who entered them into a tournament for the inaugural WWE Tag Team Championship. The finals saw the pair collide with Mysterio and Edge at the 2002 No Mercy pay-per-view, where Angle and Benoit won the gold. 

If you use any quotes from this article, please credit "The Kurt Angle Show" with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.