Kurt Angle
Kurt Steven Angle (born December 9, 1968) is an American retired professional wrestler and collegiate wrestler. He became a gold medalist in freestyle wrestling at the 1996 Olympic Games. He is currently signed to WWE, on a Legends contract. He is also known for his tenure in Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA).
Not to be confused with Kurt Engl.Kurt Angle
Kurt Steven Angle
December 9, 1968
Mt. Lebanon, Pennsylvania, U.S.
5
- Eric Angle (brother)
- Jon Bernthal (nephew in-law)
Kurt Angle[1]
6 ft 0 in (183 cm)[1]
220 lb (100 kg)[1]
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
August 20, 1998[2]
While at Clarion University of Pennsylvania, Angle won numerous accolades, including being a two-time NCAA Division I wrestling champion in the heavyweight division. After graduating from college, Angle won a gold medal in freestyle wrestling at the 1995 World Wrestling Championships. He then won a freestyle wrestling gold medal at the 1996 Summer Olympics, despite competing with a broken neck. He is one of four people to win the Junior Nationals, NCAA, World Championships, and the Olympics (known as the amateur grand slam).[4] In 2006, he was named by USA Wrestling as the greatest shoot wrestler of all time and as one of USA Wrestling's top 15 college wrestlers of all time.[5] In 2016, he was inducted into the International Sports Hall of Fame.[6][4]
Angle made his first appearance at a professional wrestling event in 1996, and signed with the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, later renamed WWE) in 1998. Noted for his rapid comprehension of the business, he had his debut match that August within the company's developmental system after just days of training, and participated in his first WWF match in March 1999. After months of dark matches, Angle made his televised in-ring debut in November 1999 and received his first major push in February 2000, when he held the European and Intercontinental Championships simultaneously. Four months later, he won the 2000 King of the Ring tournament and soon thereafter began pursuing the WWF Championship, which he won in October. Among other accomplishments, Angle has held the WWE Championship four times, the WCW Championship, and the World Heavyweight Championship. He is the tenth Triple Crown champion and the fifth winner of the Grand Slam. In 2017, Angle was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame.
After leaving the WWE in 2006, Angle joined TNA where he became the inaugural, and record six-time, TNA World Heavyweight champion, and the second TNA Triple Crown winner, holding all three championships simultaneously. Angle is also a two-time King of the Mountain. During his tenure with TNA, Angle competed for New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) and the Inoki Genome Federation (IGF), winning the IWGP Heavyweight Championship. In 2013, Angle was inducted into the TNA Hall of Fame. He is the second wrestler, after Sting, to be inducted into both the WWE and TNA halls of fame.
Angle has won over 21 professional wrestling championships and is an overall 13-time world champion. He is the only wrestler to have won the WWE Championship, WWE's World Heavyweight Championship, the WCW Championship, the TNA World Heavyweight Championship, the IWGP Heavyweight Championship, and an NCAA wrestling championship. Angle is also the only person to have been King of the Ring (WWE) and King of the Mountain (TNA), as well as being the first to have held both the WWE and TNA Triple Crowns. He has headlined numerous pay-per-view events, including WrestleMania XIX and Bound for Glory on three occasions, the flagship events of their respective companies. In 2004, the Wrestling Observer Newsletter inducted Angle into its Hall of Fame and later named him "Wrestler of the Decade" for the 2000s.[7] He is considered one of the biggest stars of the Attitude Era[8] and one of the greatest professional wrestlers of all time.[9][10] Former opponent and industry veteran John Cena said of Angle's legacy within WWE: "He is, without question, the most gifted all-around performer we have ever had step into a ring. There will never be another like him."[11]
Early life[edit]
Kurt Steven Angle[12] was born in the Pittsburgh suburb of Mt. Lebanon Township, Pennsylvania, the son of Jackie and David Angle.[13] He is of German, English, Irish, Italian, and Lithuanian descent.[14] Angle has four older brothers (one of whom, Eric, is also a wrestler) and a sister, Le'Anne, who died in 2003.[15] He attended Clarion University of Pennsylvania, graduating with a degree in education in 1993.[16] His father, a crane operator,[17] was killed in a construction accident while working on Fifth Avenue Place when Angle was 16, and Angle dedicated both his career and his autobiography to his father. Angle stated in an interview that, following the death of his father, he regarded his wrestling coach, David Schultz, as a paternal figure. While training Angle, Schultz was murdered in January 1996 by John Eleuthère du Pont, the sponsor of Schultz's team of Olympic prospectives.[18][19][20] Angle's mother died of cancer in 2015.[21]
Amateur wrestling career[edit]
Kurt Angle started amateur wrestling at the age of seven.[22] He attended Mt. Lebanon High School,[19] where he won varsity letters in football, as an All-State linebacker, and wrestling.[19][23][24] He was undefeated on the freshman wrestling team and qualified for the state wrestling tournament his sophomore year.[19] Angle also placed third in the state wrestling tournament as a junior and was the 1987 Pennsylvania State Wrestling Champion as a senior.
Upon graduating from high school, Angle attended Clarion University of Pennsylvania, where he continued to wrestle at the amateur level.[25] He was a two-time National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I champion,[26] national runner-up in 1991, and a three-time NCAA Division I All-American. In addition, Angle was the 1987 USA Junior Freestyle champion, a two-time USA Senior Freestyle champion, and the 1988 USA International Federation of Associated Wrestling Styles Junior World Freestyle champion.[27]
After graduating from college, Angle continued to wrestle. In 1995, he won a gold medal at the FILA Wrestling World Championships in Atlanta, Georgia.[26] Following this victory, Angle began preparing for the 1996 Summer Olympics (also in Atlanta) under Dave Schultz at the Pennsylvanian Foxcatcher Club,[28] training between eight and ten hours a day.[29] In January 1996, not long after Angle began training at the club, Schultz was murdered by John Eleuthère du Pont, the sponsor of Schultz's team of Olympic prospectives.[18][30][20] As a result, Angle quit du Pont's team, searched for new sponsors, and joined the Dave Schultz Wrestling Club in Schultz's memory.[31]
Angle faced further hardships while taking part in the 1996 Olympic Trials, when he suffered a severe neck injury, fracturing two of his cervical vertebrae,[32] herniating two discs, and pulling four muscles. Nonetheless, Angle won the trials and then spent the subsequent five months resting and rehabilitating. By the Olympics, Angle was able to compete, albeit with several pain-reducing injections in his neck.[26] In the fall of 1996, Angle stated that he temporarily became addicted to the analgesic Vicodin after injuring his neck.[33] He won his gold medal in the heavyweight (90–100 kg; 198–220 lb) weight class despite his injury,[27] defeating the Iranian Abbas Jadidi by officials' decision after the competitors wrestled to an eight-minute, one-one draw. The bout saw Jadidi earn a point after two minutes and 42 seconds by turning Angle, and Angle earning a point of his own with a takedown after three minutes and four seconds. The officials' decision was protested by Jadidi.[34]
In 2006, Angle was named the greatest shoot wrestler of all time by USA Wrestling,[5] as well as one of the top 15 college wrestlers.[5] In April 2011, Angle revealed that he was planning a comeback to amateur wrestling for the 2012 Summer Olympics in London.[35][36] He later announced he was unable to make the trials for the national team due to a knee injury, though he held an honorary title as team manager.[37] In 2016, Angle was inducted into the International Sports Hall of Fame for his amateur wrestling accomplishments.[4]
Video games[edit]
Angle appeared in every WWE/F video game from 2000's WWF Royal Rumble up to WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2007, released in 2006. After an eleven-year absence, Angle made his return to WWE video games as a playable character in WWE 2K18 (as downloadable content), before subsequently appearing in WWE 2K19, WWE 2K20, and returning in WWE 2K23 and WWE 2K24. He also appears in TNA Impact!, TNA Wrestling, and TNA Wrestling Impact!.[263]
Other endeavors[edit]
In 1996, Angle became a marketing representative for Protos Foods, the manufacturers of OSTRIM, an ostrich-meat-based foodstuff.[18][273] In 1997, he worked for a year as a sportscaster on Pittsburgh's local Fox affiliate WPGH-TV.[274][275] He also did a commercial for Pittsburgh-based pizza chain Pizza Outlet. Both Angle's pizza commercial and his time on WPGH-TV would be referenced on WWE television (the latter through the WWE Network show Ride Along), and his time with WPGH-TV would also make him an alumnus of WPGH-TV parent Sinclair Broadcast Group without having ever appeared for Sinclair-owned wrestling promotion Ring of Honor.[276][277]
Angle is a longtime fan of MMA, and has occasionally talked about his desire to compete. UFC president Dana White stated that Angle was in talks to appear as a heavyweight contestant on the 10th season of The Ultimate Fighter, but did not meet the medical requirements. Angle signed with Bellator MMA on October 28, 2015. He attended a fan convention on November 6, the eve of Bellator 145, then joined the commentary booth the next night, during the Bobby Lashley vs. James Thompson match, where he teased possibly fighting for the promotion himself.[278]
Angle's book, It's True It's True, was released on September 18, 2001.[279] In 2008, Angle was selected to be featured on the cover for metal band Emmure's second album The Respect Issue, where he is depicted on the front and back covers for the record, as well as on the inlay.[280]
Angle began hosting a podcast called The Kurt Angle Show, with Conrad Thompson, in 2021.[281]
