Kurt Angle's WWE Title Match With Brock Lesnar At WrestleMania XIX Almost Didn't Happen

It's been 20 years since the WWE Championship match between Brock Lesnar and Kurt Angle at WrestleMania XIX, which is most remembered for Lesnar nearly suffering a catastrophic injury on a botched Shooting Star Press. The bout almost didn't happen at all due to Angle, the WWE Champion at the time, having a broken neck. This week on"The Kurt Angle Show," Angle explained why he ultimately went through with it after initially bowing out.

"I told Vince [McMahon] I can't do it," Angle recalled. "I told him like two weeks before, 'Vince, my neck's broken, I can't go. I'm gonna have surgery.'"

His surgery was scheduled for the week before WrestleMania. But while Angle was preparing, a neighbor made an impression on him. "I went over to my neighbor's house and there's this kid named Johnny — he has Down Syndrome," he continued. Johnny showed him a magazine that had Angle and Lesnar on the cover and said he wished the champ could compete. "He had a tear in his eye and I started crying, and I said, 'You know what? Why give up a match a week before WrestleMania? Why not just drop it to him at WrestleMania?'" Angle said.

McMahon's idea at the time was to have Angle drop the title on "WWE SmackDown" before WrestleMania, but Johnny's impact on Angle changed everything. Angle called McMahon and told him he'd tough it out after all.

"That kid Johnny inspired me to go at WrestleMania," Angle said.

If not for his broken neck, Angle apparently was originally slated to retain his title at WrestleMania.

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