WWE News: Kurt Angle Shares Brock Lesnar ‘WrestleMania’ Story

Last night Kurt Angle was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame and tomorrow night Brock Lesnar will battle Bill Goldberg at WrestleMania 33. Both of these men have enjoyed huge WrestleMania moments and one of those came when they were in the ring together at WrestleMania XIX. Angle spoke to ESPN about that match and his memories of what happened when Brock Lesnar almost broke his neck.

Taking fans back to the WrestleMania match between Kurt Angle and Brock Lesnar, Angle was the WWE champion, beating Big Show for the title thanks to the help of Brock Lesnar. After that, Brock Lesnar won the Royal Rumble to earn a shot at the world champion.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ygj_7ftm-uw

The two fought on SmackDown, with Kurt beating Brock Lesnar by cheating, using his brother Eric and Team Angle as a distraction. Heading into WrestleMania XIX, Stephanie McMahon laid down an ultimatum. She told Angle that if he was disqualified or if Team Angle interfered, he would lose the WWE title to Brock Lesnar.

That was what happened in the storyline when it came to the WrestleMania match between Kurt Angle and Brock Lesnar. Behind the scenes, it was another story. Angle was suffering from serious injuries and needed to take time off from the WWE to get things fixed. Kurt needed surgery to repair nerve and spinal damage as well as disc problems.

Kurt Angle agreed to stick around and keep wrestling, postponing the surgery, in order to put over Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania. Unfortunately, things almost went very wrong and screwed up the entire plans of the WWE.

Back when Brock Lesnar used to wrestle for Ohio Valley, when he was breaking in with names like John Cena, Randy Orton, Shelton Benjamin, Batista, and Charlie Haas, Brock used to pull out a cruiserweight move and hit the Shooting Star Press from the top turnbuckle.

It was an impressive move for someone as big as Brock Lesnar and he decided to pull it out and give the fans at WrestleMania XIX a treat. It didn’t work out well, as Kurt was a fair distance away from Lesnar when he went up top and then Brock mistimed the flip and landed on the back of his neck.

“First of all, this is selfish, but I was like, ‘Damn, he broke his neck. I’m going to have to hold this title another month [when I’m injured].’ Then I was concerned about him because he wasn’t responding.”

Kurt Angle said that he crawled over to Brock Lesnar and asked if he was okay but Brock did not respond. Kurt covered him and told him to kick out. If Lesnar didn’t kick out, he was hurt too bad to continue anyway. But he did kick out.

Angle then asked if Lesnar could hit the F5 on him to end the match quickly but there was still no answer. Kurt started to lift up Lesnar and asked again and this time Brock said he thought he could do it. Brock Lesnar hit the F5 and won the title, ending the match to prevent further injury.

“Brock’s a pro. He came out of that. Let’s face it. That’s one of the most famous moves in WrestleMania history. It’s because he came up short, and everybody remembers that. If you want a WrestleMania type of memory, that’s a good one.”

Kurt Angle said that he feels that it is good because Brock Lesnar got his bell rung but did not suffer long-term damage. He still calls it one of his all-time favorite WrestleMania matches. Kurt then took time off to have surgery and Brock held the title until Angle returned and won it back in July 2003 at WWE Vengeance.

[Featured Image by WWE]