Kurt Angle On Vince McMahon Turning Down Syfy’s Request For Alien Gimmick In ECW

Kurt Angle spoke on his latest podcast, The Kurt Angle Show, about his time in ECW in 2006 when WWE decided to revive the company. Angle was chosen as the second pick for the company behind Rob Van Dam and was convinced by Vince McMahon that he would be the face of the brand.

The former Olympic Gold Medalist spoke about the show being placed on the SyFy network and how strange it was to have a wrestling show air on a science fiction and fantasy network. Angle said the company even asked WWE to use science fiction characters, but Vince McMahon turned those ideas down.

"It was odd," Angle said. "We didn't correlate the two, we couldn't understand it. I know the SyFy channel is a quality T.V. station, a quality network, it just wasn't the right fit. The crazy thing was the SyFy channel approached Vince saying they wanted two alien wrestlers on the show and Vince said no immediately. He said we're not doing that, that's way too tacky."

Speaking on a previous podcast, Angle discussed his time in ECW and how he accumulated many injuries, which led to him showing up to a WWE production meeting and dropping his pants to prove how hurt he was to Vince and others. Angle said his major injury to his hamstring occurred during a match on a house show to Rob Van Dam.

"That's the match where I got injured," Angle said. "That's the main match where I tore my hamstring, my groin, my abdominal muscle. I only wrestled in a few house shows for ECW before I quit, so there wasn't a lot that I did at that particular time. I didn't spend a lot of time in ECW, I was there I think for a month."

During his time with the revived ECW, RVD was positioned as the face of the company, becoming WWE Champion and ECW Champion at the same time. Unfortunately for Van Dam, he was stripped of the ECW title after getting arrested for possessing marijuana in 2006. Angle spoke about RVD failing drug tests because he couldn't give up marijuana, noting that it's unfortunate because it's legal today.

"I didn't see a lot of substance abuse," Angle said. "I think that Rob getting hit for marijuana, it kind of sucks because nowadays marijuana's legal in many states. Back then it was a big issue, it's one of the big no no's that you weren't allowed to do. You weren't allowed to take drugs, you weren't allowed to take steroids.

"Rob wasn't the only one who got title stripped from him or got suspended, I got suspended because I failed a drug test. If you're going to fail a drug test, whether it's Marijuana, painkillers or steroids, it doesn't matter what it is, the company is going to do something. They're going to suspend you or fine you or both. With Rob, they decided to strip the title from him and probably fined him. That's the chance you take when you're going to smoke weed [back then]."

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.