Kurt Angle Reveals Which Spot Caused Him Pain “Like I Had Never Felt In My Life”
On the latest episode of The Kurt Angle Podcast, the 1996 Olympic Gold Medalist spoke about his infamous match with Shane McMahon at King of the Ring 2001. During that memorable match, both Shane and Angle suffered multiple injuries which occurred during several different spots.
Before the memorable glass breaking spot, Shane suplexed Angle on the concrete floor which actually broke Angle's tailbone and caused him to wrestle the rest of the match severely injured. Angle revealed how much pain he was in and talked about how he had to do the glass breaking spot with Shane with a broken tailbone.
"Yeah I cracked my tailbone, it was extremely painful," Angle said. "I never felt pain like that in my life. It ran down my legs, I could barely stand up and I knew I had to finish the match but I wasn't sure how I was going to do it. I was clueless how I was going to finish the match because it hurt so bad.
"Without a doubt, a 10 or 11, it was that painful. I never had pain like that, especially the way it ran down my legs. It grabbed a hold of my nerves that ran down my legs and it was just thumping the whole time. I couldn't bend over, I had to stay standing up straight, my positioning was all messed up. I couldn't really do much, I was supposed to carry Shane back to the ring after the glass spot and I couldn't. Thank god I grabbed a cart to bring him back."
Angle stated that he and Shane prepared for the match three times a week for three weeks to make sure they nailed down each spot in the match perfectly. Unfortunately, during that preparation, the spot of Angle being suplexed on the concrete wasn't planned.
"No, this wasn't even planned," Angle said. "I called an audible for some crazy ass reason in the middle of the match and I wanted Shane to take over and I told him to block this move and give me a suplex and he did. He wasn't even supposed to do it, I was supposed to go straight to the glass. I couldn't bend over or anything and I knew I had to get him through the glass. Of course, I break my tailbone right before I do the spot."
The most memorable moment in the match was Angle's belly-to-belly on Shane through the glass near the entrance ramp. The glass did break several times, so Angle described how Shane kept telling him to try the spot again and again until it would eventually break. Angle described how much pain both wrestlers suffered from that spot, saying there was glass everywhere.
"I'm checking on Shane and I'm like are you okay and he's like 'Yeah, yeah I'm fine, throw me through the glass,' " Angle said. "I said it's not working Shane, we have to move on. He said 'You got to throw my ass through,' so I was like okay, one more time. I tried it here and it didn't work. I said 'That's it Shane we're done,' he said, 'No, throw me through one more time,' and I said, 'Well, you're going through head first.' That was probably the worst thing I could've done to Shane because it cut him up badly. It cut me up too, my arm followed through and the glass fell down my arm and I got a lot of cuts from it. It was crazy. This whole night was just ridiculous, these spots here will never happen again period."
If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit The Kurt Angle Show with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.