Post by Madman Szalinski on May 23, 2011 7:38:54 GMT -5
Sharp eyes will notice that when Jed announced he wanted to hand the column over to someone else, about 30 people signed on. And only four sent in an actual entry.
Two, Simon and Neil, won. Two did not. I am Jeremy Cundiff, one of those two who did not win.
And while I am not bitter over losing, I do wish to put up my entry. I wrote in more of a column form than an actual story form, which was probably the reason I lost. And given the stories I have gotten to read, I'm glad I lost. But I know several people were interested in the topic I chose, which was...
"What if Raven didn't crucify The Sandman?"
Good question. Let's find out.
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In the year of 1997, wrestling was going through the second half of a gargantuan transformation known as the Attitude era. In 1996, the New World Order came into World Championship Wrestling in a story we've all heard so many times you can all say it in your sleep. In 1997, D-Generation X, Steve Austin, and other programs and angles run by Vince McMahon and the World Wrestling Federation also pushed the envelope and the line, turning wrestling from the cartoony gimmick-laden Saturday morning alternative to Captain Planet and Mighty Morphin Power Rangers into the edgy adult oriented programming that was crash TV at its finest, the highest-rated programming in the history of televised pro wrestling. A lot of the edge in both companies can be traced to early Southern territories, specifically Memphis wrestling. But when we talk about attitude and edgy...too late. You already said it before I had the chance.
ECW.
Extreme Championship wrestling was light years ahead of its time in terms of content. It was where the line didn't just get crossed, it got jumped over three or four times before Sandman poured the foam at the bottom of his empty beer on it before crushing the can on his forehead. Maybe it was too edgy. It was deifnitely too edgy for Kurt Angle, as we found out on the night of October 26, 1996. Kurt Angle was brought in to bring some real wrestling credibility to a promotion that quite frankly was the most athletically demanding style in America at that time. Immediately, fans dreamed for a Taz/Angle matchup, or other possibilities such as Japan or the Big Two. An Olympic gold medalist turned professional wrestler in a company touting the best wrestlers in the country? The possibilites could have been endless. And because of the company's adjacent policy of extreme, the possibilites were cut short in their tracks with one makeshift cross, some barbed wire, and the twisted ingenious of Scott Levy.
Raven, assisted by the Blue Meanie and Stevie Richards, participated in a mock crucifixion of the Sandman after interfering in a match. They has fastened him to the makeshift cross with barbed wire. In The Rise & Fall of ECW DVD, Richards has said, "the whole time I was telling Meanie, this is fucked up. And he said, I know." Simple, but all that you could say. It hushed the normally bloodthirsty and occasionally manic crowd into the most uncomfortable silence you could ever imagine in a packed arena of wrestling fans. This would have just been another typical bad angle bombing if not for one simple detail: ECW had a very special guest on this evening who had already happened to be in the show earlier in the evening. 1996 Olympic gold medal winner in amateur freestyle wrestling, Kurt Angle. Angle was so offended by what he saw that he immediatelythreatened legal action with a lawyer if he was shown in connection with the angle on any ECW broadcast, and his affiliation with ECW ended on the spot. Kurt also gave many a wrestler and backstage worker, regardless of job or rank, a small piece of his mind on how he felt about the crucifixion.
It would be over two years before Angle resurfaced in professional wrestling, this time with the World Wrestling Federation. However, his debut into the company consisted not of touting his prestige and reputation as an Olympic gold medalist, but participating in an angle with Tiger Ali Singh, who was paying the American fans to do gross or embarassing things for money not unline Ted DiBiase had done in the 80's. This paticular night on Sunday Night Heat on March 7, 1999, Singh offered Angle five hundred dollars to blow his nose on an American flag. Kurt denied. Singh doubled his offer, Angle again declined. Singh doubled that offer, and Kurt finally accepted...only to actually blow his nose on Singh's native country's flag. This prompted a little bit of confrontation where Angle and Singh traded a couple of moves. The potential in Angle was still apparent, and when Angle finally did make his wrestling debut six months later his training and dedication along with natural ability and experience was shining through. Finally, his background was a factor in his on-screen presentation and the rest is jistory. Kurt Angle seemed, and even now in his aging and weary state in TNA seems, a natural fit in the world of professional wrestling. As for Paul Heyman and company, they continued to chug down the road; eventually securing a lucrative and imperative to the survival of ECW Pay Per View deal. However, we all know how that opportunity was vaporized when a young man by the name of Eric Kulas made himself famous for fifteen minutes.
However, if not for the incident in ECW, the seeds had been set for Kurt Angle to appear on television a few more times and the outcome of the negotiations would inevitably have led Kurt Angle to train and get into the ring a whole lot sooner than 1999. A lot of people would tell you that Angle would have been trained in a completely different way of wrestling and thinking; that the "extreme" sect of this little indy fed that could was the kind of style that Kurt Angle would have been introduced to instead of "sports entertainment". They would also tell you that Kurt Angle would have been muh more interested in the athletically demanding, high impact world that was ECW. Kurt Angle would have been ten times the master craftsman in the ring that he already is. The possibilities with his working in ECW compared to the WWF on whom his opponents could have been is considered to be a much more diverse list. As great as he was against Shawn Michaels and Chris Benoit, miagine the thought of Angle vs. RVD, Angle vs. Jerry Lynn, or maybe...Angle vs. Taz. the one hint of an angle that actually did go down in the hsitory books? And how about ECW? I'm sure that if Kurt Angle achieved this plateau of success in Philly, sure ECW would also feel the flow as well and maybe even reached the national popularity to compete with Ted Turner and Vince McMahon. But that's all just what some people would tell you.
Here's what I'm going to tell you.
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October 26, 1996
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When Kurt Angle woke up on this morning, he didn't have to think about wrestling that night. Kurt Angle was three months removed from his gold medal win at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta. He had just recently turned down a contract with Vince McMahon and the World Wrestling Federation. But somehow, someway, Shane Douglas was the man responsible for convincing Kurt Angle to at least get in there and say hello to the fans of Extreme Championship Wrestling in Philadelphia, which was just down the interstate from his native Pittsburgh. There were no plans for Kurt to actually wrestle, although you have to think that it was mentioned at least once or twice. Of course it was going to be teased on television, because the appeal and the lending of legitimacy to a company that was as real as it gets for the time and the fan base that Kurt Angle posessed was tremendous. Here's a gold medal Olympian turning down the big bully in vince McMahon for ECW, a promotion which claimed to deliver the most in ring action and best wrestling on the market. There was potential that Paul Heyman could not ignore, even if he was reserved about approaching Angle for further services in ECW.
Taz vs. Little Guido was next on the runsheet. Joey Styles hit the ring first, and began to crack on the WWF's signing of Mark Henry. He then claimed that ECW had someone better. Kurt Angle came down to the ring, shook a few hands, and hopped into the ring. Styles then introduced him to Little Guido, referring to Guido as a "amateur wrestler himself". Guido said in his gimmicked Italian accent that he respected Angle, and then the two shook hands as Angle wished him luck. Guido's opponent was Taz, along with Bill Alfonso. Taz also says that he respects Kurt Angle, and tells the fans that "he's the man!" He even watched Angle during the Olympic games - although he does watch a lot of himself on TV, too. He says he could have tried out for the American Olympic wrestling team, but he would rather make money. Taz them asks Kurt Angle to commentate on his match with Guido, so he can tell the world for himself how good he was. He then adds the line "you're a great amateur, but I'm a professional."
Joey Styles announces the match will be a shootfight, ending only by knockout or submission. Oh, and he's doing commentary with an Olympian. Angle comments that he would love to have five minutes in the ring with Taz, a comment which no doubt moistened the interiors of the underwear of many a smart wrestling fan, or even just an ECW fan. Angle provides standard commentary while Taz dominated Little Guido. Guido barely got in any offense as Taz had his way with him, ending it with a Tazmission. After the match, Taz gets on the microphone and lets Kurt Angle know that "hey, that was a gold medal performance!" He then went on to talk about Sabu before kneeling in the ring, doing his treademark point in the air. Kurt Angle's involement with the show ended right there as he left the commentary position after the match.
Later on in the night, Sandman was victorious to retain the ECW World Heavyweight Championship against a departing Too Cold Scorpio. After the match, Tyler Fullerington, the Sandman's son, entered the ring. Unlike the previous times he had been seen on ECW television dressed as Raven and emulating him, he was dressed like his father. When Sandman knelt to hug his son, Raven hit the ring along with Sandman's ex-wife Lori and the Blue World Order. Sandman recieved a vicious shot to his eye with a Singapore cane. Blood flowed almost immediately. The bWo was directed by Raven to retrieve an object from underneath the ring. But before anything could be extracted from underneath the ring, Too Cold Scorpio and Tommy Dreamer came racing out to the ring, steel chairs in hands. Raven escapes into the crowd while Meanie and Richards eat a pair of sick chair shots. As Raven and entourage escaped through the crowd taunting all the way home, Scorpio taunted them while Dreamer stood over his prey, holding the chair tightly. Sandman struggles to make it to his feet as the fans cheer for the trio. The three make their way to the back, Tommy helping Sandman down the aisle and through the curtain. The concern for Sandman's eye is more than obvious, but nobody ever did find out what was under the ring or what Raven had planned to do. Only years later, long after ECW's bankruptcy in 2001, did Raven speak of it in a shoot interview in 2006.
"What we were going to do, was I had this cross that Sandman made. He went through the trouble to make this big cross out of wood. And the reason was, this thing had been going on for some time between Jim and me. We had been feuding for a long time, had all kinds of matches and all kinds of angles, we knew that we had to keep the heat on and do something interesting. So I came up with this idea that we were gonna hang Sandman up on this cross and show him off to the crowd, crucified. When I told Meanie and Stevie this, they both didn't take it too well. Well, no shit, they were both Catholics or something like that...anyways, I went to Paul with it, and he was cool. Until Kurt Angle came into the picture. Then Paul, before the show, he comes to me and he said no. He said that he had put too much into getting Kurt into ECW to risk doing something like this, which would be the exact opposite of Kurt's all-American gold medal bullshit. Well, the ECW fans had already had their choice between tradition and cutting edge, and they chose cutting edge. Philadelphia is an ECW town, and ECW isn't the kind of place Kurt Angle wanted to be in. Paul Heyman stepping on my toes, on Sandman's toes, him cutting us off at the ankle like that was bullshit. We had usted our asses for ECW for years, and it was the risky, offensive, we don't give a shit what you think about us kind of attitude that was getting us noticed. So yeah, we felt betrayed a little bit. Especially when all that Paul did by trying to fix what wasn't broken when he changed ECW to suit this one guy...all he did was delay the inevitable, you know? ECW and Kurt Angle aren't gonna mix."
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November 16, 1996
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It was a month later, and at first it was difficult to see an immediate impact of Kurt Angle's ECW appearance. The fans were as rabid as ever, but the numbers hadn't spiked sharply enough to get the attention of anybody who was paying attention to ratings and ticket sales. Behind the closed doors of the locker room, Kurt Angle had approached Taz about making the leap to professional wrestling. After just his second time backstage at an ECW show, no less than five wrestlers had spoken with Angle on assisting in training him and working with him: Lance Storm, Chris Candido, Mike Awesome, Taz, and of course Shane Douglas. Paul Heyman as well had Kurt Angle seeing the dollar signs in pro wrestling, as well as keeping the sport and competition aspect of the game. And at November To Remember 1996, Kurt Angle would perfectly mest these two concepts together...as soon as Joey Styles, backstage in front of the classic ECW backdrop, gives him his cue.
"Ladies and gentlemen, Joey Styles here, and before we get to our next match...I have a surprise for you. Now, last month here in ECW we were graced by the presence of a real American hero. The 1996 Olypmic gold medal wrestling champion, Kurt Angle. Now it seems as though Extreme Championship Wrestling has made quite an impression on him...one of our wrestlers in paticular. So here he is, he's got something to say...Kurt Angle."
Kurt Angle, his gold medal around his neck and shining like he just stepped down from the pedestal, steps into the view of the camera next to Styles, holding the microphone.
"Mr. Angle, it's great to have you back."
"Well, thank you Joey. Great to be back. I can appreciate a place like this. This place has respect...it has tradition...I'm going to tell you something, Joey Styles. Soon after I won this gold medal I was offered a contract with the World Wrestling Federation. I said no. I said no because I saw their 'wrestling', if you can call it that...I saw guys in clown suits and I saw sumo wrestlers throwing salt at their opponents, I saw a dead man who turned the lights on when he raised his hands! I've wrestled men over a hundred pounds bigger than me, I have wrestled the toughest men in the world. Never once did somebody turn the lights on and off by raising their hands. I thought to myself, this isn't wrestling! It's a freak show!"
Kurt's polite smile fades a little bit. Now he talks into the camera with a look of dire seriousness. His words are more and more stern by the syllable. His eyes telegraph the intensity (as well as the integrity and intelligence) of his message.
"Then...I get approached by Extreme Championship Wrestling. And I see THEIR wrestling. I see men who give everything their bodies have and then still keep going. I see men who can break bones, shred flesh, pound muscle...and barely be affected by it. I have seen men do things that I didn't think were possible in a wrestling match. And despite how much of an arrogant punk Taz may be...he is right. This is a profession. This is a level of dedication that I haven't seen before, in all my years of amateur competition. But it's something that I think I might want to try. I think I have that level of dedication. I just might have that level of talent. And then I will really and truly be able to take loud mouths like him and put them in their place. I hope the fans liked seeing me, Joey Styles...because they will be seeing much more...real soon!"
The fans in the arena were practically melting the chairs underneath their butts to the floor. Once this hit the airwaves, the aforementioned dollar signs could be practically counted and stuffed in somebody's wallet. Every ECW fansite (tand in 1996, this was a limited quantity) was red-hot over this. Little by little, people were reaching out to see what this little promotion that could was all about. Even ESPN did a small snippet on SportsCenter about the transition for Kurt Angle, stating that "Angle could be the next Frank Gotch or George Hackenschmidt, a man in that vein of greatness." Mark Henry was only mentioned and shown for a brief three-second cameo of a mention in the six-minute piece. No formal contract was signed up, of course. That wasn't how Paul did business. And Kurt Angle was far removed from ready to step in the ring, so it wasn't like they had to pull the trigger immediately. There were other ways to keep Angle's face fresh in people's minds. After this night, Kurt Angle and Paul Heyman came to the understanding that Kurt Angle was going to become a wrestler all over again, most likely with Heyman's wrestlers, and debut and work for Heyman. Kurt Angle had started a buzz in pro wrestling that got people talking, both fans and non-fans. Nobody knew what to expect next, so everybody just expected anything.
But nobody could have possibly expected what actually did happen.
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November 23, 1996
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Improvisation is key in pro wrestling. Despite the fact that there is a general plan, shit happens sometimes. Axl Rotten's no showing of an ECW house show in Revere, Massachusetts was a prime example of shit happening. With only a mere couple of hours before belltime, Paul Heyman was in a jam. His call was answered by a young aspiring grappler named Eric Kulas. Kulas brought along his father, Stephen, and provided false docmentation of his age and fabricated his wrestling credentials. He claimed to be trained by Killer Kowalski, a man whose list of proteges included ECW familar Perry Saturm as well as the WWF's Hunter Hearst Helmsley. Kulas, weighing in around 360 pounds, was not in the same category and it showed from the beginning.
A fan cam caught the action as D-Von Dudley and Mass Transit (Kulas' well known ring moniker that became the title of the whole transpiring of events) came to the ring. Their opponents were the Gangstas, New Jack and Mustapha. During the match, the Gangstas isolated Kulas in the ring and kept D-Von on the floor. Mustapha mostly guarded the ropes while New jack committed legal felony assault in a wrestling ring. A guitar, a toaster, chairs, and chains were all used as if they were headlocks or clotheslines. Kulas barely got in one offensive move the entire six minute match, if that. The spectacle ended with New Jack producing a blade and cutting Kulas' forehead, which was agreed on in the locker room beforehand. Eric Kulas did not agree with the artery in his forehead thsat was severed, forcing a sick fountain of crimson literally spraying into the air from his head, laying on the canvas with the rest of his battered body. The boy's father bedded and screamed for mercy. New Jack claimed he was simply protecting the business from a stupid mark. It would take years before the courts, criminal and civil, would determine that neither Paul Heyman nor New Jack were responsible, due to Kulas' misrepresentation of age and credentials. However, a good portion of the backlash was immediate in two forms. The first was the cancellation of ECW's inaguaral Pay Per View event on Christmas Eve.
The second was Kurt Angle ending his verbal agreement with Paul Heyman and ECW. Angle heard about the incident through Lance Storm, one of only two men he kept contact with afterwards. The other was Shane Douglas. Kurt Angle approached Paul Heyman and did not beat around the bush. Kurt Angle talked about it himself for an ESPN interview in 1998.
"I asked Paul, what happened? And he told me. He didn't lie, he didn't play around either. But the part I felt uneasy about was when I said, so why did it happen? He said that the kid lied about his age and lied about his wrestling training. I began to wonder that it mattered less and less he was only seventeen, and it mattered more and more that he wasn't a wrestler and he was going to wrestle. Paul came off to me like he felt New Jack only did what he was supposed to do, and that the kid didn't know what wrestling was all about. It was more important to protect the business than protect the people in it, that was the vibe I got from it all. When I asked him how he could let someone cut a guy and let him practically bleed to death while he screams on the microphone, he said it was just part of the show. And at that point, I ended my affiliation with him. I continued to talk to Shane Douglas and Lance Storm, that was it. I was friendly if I was approached, but I didn't send the ECW locker room Christmas cards or anything like that."
When asked why he didn't continue to work for ECW, he said this.
"At first...I did see what the guys were trying to do. There were guys in there who were true warriors. They were hard working, dedicated, tough as steel and hard as a rock. Real men and women, real people. But for every guy there who did work hard, who was an athlete...there were just a bunch of thugs. ECW was relient on blood and guts, on hardcore violence, just as much as it was wrestling. Maybe more. And I saw a lot of people who I just couldn't trust in that kind of work environment. There were people there who have killed somebody. And I'm supposed to let that person into close range with me in a wrestling ring? With a weapon, no less? I was green and naive to pro wrestling back then, I didn't quite understand that their style of wrestling did have its place. But it wasn't what I wanted to do, it wasn't my goal in coming there. I felt that eventually, I would have no choice but to find myself surrounded by barbed wire and tables. It scared the crap out of me, especially when I heard about the Mass Transit deal."
Angle did remain active in training, however. Lance Storm continued to work with him, and was astonished by how quickly Kurt Angle adapted from amateur mat-style point wrestling to professional one-fall matches and storytelling through working. Storm brought Kurt with him on a trip to Calgary one day early in the winter of 1997, introducing him to a certain legendary clan in the city that was deeply rooted in the same things Kurt Angle was: tradition, competition, sportsmanship, dedication, and strength. Before Lance and Kurt left Calgary, it was all but official.
Kurt Angle was invited to train in the Hart Dungeon.
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July 28, 1997
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In the World Wrestling Federation thing were at a crossroads of creative direction. In the words of Dewey Cox, there was a change a-happenin', and you definitely could feel it. The set was redesigned with a ramp and larger entrance area, as well as the ring ropes being all red instead of the classic red, white, and blue setup. Monday Night RAW had been renamed RAW is WAR, with the second hour of the program christened the War Zone. And above all, the fan reactions were the opposite of history. Steve Austin had been a classic heel who won over the fans with his classic Austin 3:16 promo, a line which was just too cool to dislike. Despite his antics, which many would consider way beyond the boundaries of sportsmanlike or commendable, Stone Cold was the man the fans were paying to see. And the ultimate irony of the hemisphere turning upside-down was that a heel was turned face by the comany's biggest and longest-running perennial face turning heel: Bret Hart.
Bret Hart was always a guy who thought wrestling should be for the kids, but also be realistic and thorough in its action. He was a family man and always taught his fans good morals. He was also an accomplished athlete and both his amateur and professional wrestling careers were successful. His days in Stampede Wrestling working for his father Stu in Calgary made him a Canadian icon. Stampede's purchase by the WWF made Bret an international superstar. Every country in the world, it seemed, met Hart with the most thunderous ovations of the entire show most nights. But a change of pace and direction caused him to be asked to turn heel, to be the bad guy. Despite how uncomfortable Bret was with the idea, he realized that it was possibly the better business decision, and came about an angle to get the fans against him. The solution was simple: disrespect America, be a heel in America while maintaining face status in the rest of the world including his home country of Canada. Bret Hart turned heel for the first time in a decade. He reformed the Hart Foundation with his brother Owen, who had the exact same upbringing as Bret and exhibited his same strong morals and character, and his former partner slash brother in law Jim "The Anvil" Neidhart. The group also included brother-in-law Davey Boy Smith, the British Bulldog, and Brian Pillman...for some reason. The quartet established dominance and captured every title available in the WWF save the big one, the World Heavyweight championship. And Bret was scheduled for a title shot against the Undertaker at Summerslam, even if it was shrouded in the controversy of a guest referee by the name of Shawn Michaels. Shawn Michaels, as documented, had a very persuasive hand in the change of creative direction. Unlike Bret, however, Shawn was not above bending the rules of good sportsmanship for personal gain. Well, at the time anyway. In any case, Bret was stuck being the whiny foreigner. Even if it wasn't what he wanted to do, he still did it well and the Hart Foundation was a cornerstone of the WWF in 1997.
On the night of July 28, 1997, Bret Hart was asked to use a line in which he compared the city of that night's RAW broadcast, Pittsburgh, to an anus. That, in turn, would set up a confrontation with his surprise opponent for that evening. As Bret Hart stood in the ring, he swallowed his pride and his dignity for a few seconds and blurted the words out into Jim Ross's microphone.
"Last week, I said that the United States was one big giant toilet bowl. Well, if you were to give the United States of America an enema...you would stick the hose right here in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania!"
The crowd, of course, jeered and booed left and right. However, before Bret's next words could escape his throat a new theme hit the arena's PA system. It was a patriotic anthem, trumpets blaring and bells sounding with drums pounding and guitar strumming. The Pittsburgh crowd recognized their native as soon as he came onto the ramp, with a very rare and prestigious necklace on and a nicrophone of his own in hand. Vince McMahon, in his distinct excited utterance called commentary, identified the man as if he really needed an introduction.
"That's Kurt Angle! That's Kurt Angle! The 1996 Olympic gold medal winner in freestyle wrestling at the Summer Games in Atlanta! Kurt Angle is in the World Wrestling Federation!"
Indeed, Kurt Angle was in the WWF. He had taken the Hart family up on their offer, and whatever talent and skills Angle showed with Lance Storm showed fivefold with the Harts. Later on, in an interview years later, Bret had said that Kurt Angle was the only man he had ever worked with who he felt was "truly better than I was." Angle appreciated the Hart dynasty and what it stood for. Kurt stated in later interviews that "Bret Hart would have been a great Olympic champion. He had the body to do it, but more importantly he had the mind to do it. He was a class act. The whole family is class act all the way. The man went way out of his way for me." Despite Kurt's refusal of a WWF developmental offer in 1996, Bret approached Vince about allowing Kurt to wrestle him on RAW from Kurt's hometown of Pittsburgh. Vince remembed his brief stint with ECW and the reaction, as well as the recently failed ECW on RAW experiment, and granted Bret's request. And here Kurt Angle was, on the stage in front of twenty thousand of his hometown fans, with a live microphone getting ready to set the tone for his professional wrestling debut against his teacher, a living legend of the sport.
"I don't think I heard you correctly. Did you just say that Pittsburgh is a butthole? Because the only one around here who's talking crap is...you, Bret!"
The crowd pops loudly, as Bret looks down at Angle.
"You see this? It's a gold medal! You don't get these from cereal boxes, and you don't get these wrestling around in your parents' basement! I had to earn this, fight for it! I wasn't just fighting for myself, you know. I was representing my country. I was there to say that the United States of America was home to the finest and best wrestlers, and when the dust settled, I backed it up! You just come out here and you whine about how it's America's fault. This country is screwed up, and that's why you're not getting your way. You crybaby!"
Angle finally remembers to pause so the crowd can cheer for him in between zingers.
"I want to represent my country again tonight! You and me, Bret! One on one, in that ring tonight! I want to show you, Bret, that you don't come into my backyard and just sing it...you bring it! You're gonna see what being an asshole is all about tonight!"
The match was set for the main event slot later on in the evening. Angle was wearing the exact same tights he had worn when he won his Olympic gold medal. The Hitman was wearing all-pink, a rarity. When the match began, Hart pounced on Angle before the bell from behind. Hart smashed into Angle with several forearms, but when he paused the beating to slap Angle in a waistlock, Angle surprised him with a quick go-behind and put Hart's back on the mat. Bret would again try to go to the mat with Kurt by way of headlock takeover from the collar and elbow tie-up, but he would be overtaken after a brief chain sequence. Bret would sitout and spin behind Angle, Angle would go low and take Bret's leg from underneath him. Bret, mad as hell, came back with a low kick to the midsection. Finally, Bret sends Kurt to the floor. Bouncing off the ropes, Bret sails through the rioes with perfect precision in a suicide dive...only Angle falls back with Bret and crashes him into the steel railing. The War Zone cuts to a commercial break with both men on the floor.
Back to live action, Bret has Angle in the ring in a chinlock. The crowd desperately tries to stir up Kurt with chants of "U-S-A! U-S-A!" as Tim White, the referee, checks the hand of Angle. One drop. Two drops. Thr...Angle gets his arm up. Bret is in disbelief and goes to recinch the hold, but it is too late. Kurt Angle has broken free, and zips around the chinlock into a very high German suplex. Bret Hart is flipped completely around, and lands face flat on the canvas. As Hart lies still as a log, Vince and Lawler ponder loudly if Bret is okay after such a move. A replay shows the dreadful impact and force behind the massive German suplex. Kurt covers without hooking a leg, and only gets two. A frustrated Kurt pulls Bret back up to his feet. He is sent to the ropes, but ducks a Hart clothesline. Rebounding back off the opposite ropes. Kurt catches Bret with a beautiful standing Hart Attack. Kurt again covers, and only gets the two count. Bulldog, who is at ringside, slips Bret a pair of brass knuckles, which everybody in the arena save Kurt Angle and Tim White notices. As Bret plants Kurt while the referee is distracted by Bulldog, Steve Austin comes in out of nowhere and stuns Bret Hart. The crowd goes insane as Angle is placed on top of Hart, and White turns to make the three count. Tony Chimel announces Kurt Angle as the winner, and is barely heard. Austin leaves while Tim White tries to revive Kurt Angle, who is still unconscious from the brass knuckle shot. Hart is being attended to by British Bulldog and Owen Hart, who comes down after the bell. The show ends with Kurt Angle awakening to having his hand raised on the floor by Tim White once again, and Kurt nodding while holding his head, staring down Bret Hart and the rest of the Hart Foundation.
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November 9, 1997
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Three months after Kurt Angle's debut in the World Wrestling Federation, he had yet to sign a contract. He had yet to participate in another match. It wasn't that he was hurt or that he had performed poorly, oh no. Jim Cornette, good ole' JR, Vince McMahon, and everybody else who had witnessed the match were quick with praise. For anybody else, it would be very improbable to believe that a person with less than one year of training in the sport could perform so well. But this wasn't anybody else. It was Kurt Angle. And it wasn't that he was done with wrestling. He trained nearly every day. The reason for Kurt's non-appearance? Simple: they had nothing for him.
Bret Hart's influence in the company was dwindling, and once he was asked to take an offer to jump to World Championship Wrestling it was clear that Kurt Angle's future in the company was the exact opposite. As a close friend to Hart, Kurt felt that it was Bret who he wanted to work with to start his career. Bret was also very privy to working with Angle and putting him over, as Bret did feel Angle would be the future of the business. However, Bret was the world champion at the time, having won the title less than two weeks after losing to Angle. He was not in any kind of position to put anybody over. And the only person who the WWF wanted him to put over was Shawn Michaels: a man who Bret Hart did not want to do any favors for. Close to Hart throughout the tumultous times, Kurt Angle was getting a crash course in the backstage proceedings of professional wrestling. Contracts, competition, personal issues between workers, and overall duplicity. Shawn Michaels had sort of looked down his nose at Kurt Angle, not viewing him as highly as others in the company. Shawn felt that Angle was way too green for any kind of push, or to even have been on television. The combination of Bret being phased out and Shawn being phased in gave the impression the WWF was no longer interested in Kurt Angle.
Angle was invited by Bret to come to his last match with the WWF in Montreal, at the Survivor Series. There, he would be facing Shawn Michaels for his WWF title. Angle accepted. In a previously mentioned interview with ESPN, Kurt Angle would talk about the stigma and the haze of foul play that was in the air even before the show started.
"Bret and I talked the Monday before Survivor Series. I said I would be there as his guest. On Wednesday, I get a call from Vince McMahon. He says he wants to use me, maybe get me signed into a deal. Vince told me that he didn't want me to just vanish simply because Bret was. He said he had great respect with me and that I had impressed him tremendously. He then invited me to the show also. It kind of felt like when two friends invite you to the same party and you don't know which one to go with. I agreed to speak with him about further opportunities with his company. I had just thought it was weird for a man who had barely spoken to me up until that point - the most we ever talked was before my match with Bret - to be conversating with me and being so friendly. But, I thought nothing of it and I went to Montreal."
When Kurt arrived backstage, he felt the tension. Bret's children were sad at having to say good-bye to a lot of the people they had grown up with in locker rooms around the world. Every time Shawn or Triple H would walk by, the conversation would just stop until they had walked out of range. Even when Angle met with Vince, he could see Sgt. Slaughter and Pat Patterson scurrying around, obviously stressing out over something. Here's some more Angle talking about this last meeting with Vince.
"He wanted me to do the American Hero character, what I had done against Bret. He talked about me working with a veteran or somebody who could help me out if I needed it, like Vader or Jeff Jarrett. We shook hands and I decided to come to RAW the following night in Ottawa to talk with both Jarrett and Vader, or anybody else he would like me to meet with. The overall feeling was that all he was concerned with was getting me signed and working for him. I tried to make a comment about Bret, but he blew me right off. I thought it was so strange. The way Bret had talked, Vince and he were pretty close. Wouldn't he have at least wanted to say good-bye to Bret?"
Angle had then been talking with Bret in the dressing area when Bret was approached by Vader and Davey Boy Smith. Kurt Angle had never been exposed to the terms like "double-cross" and "shoot" in the context of a professional wrestling match.
"Vader and Davey Boy were telling him to protect himself, watch out for a shoot. I didn't understand it all. I asked Bret about it. I wanted to know why Bret would have to worry about Shawn doing something. I said if it was a problem, I would come down to the ring if I needed to. He told me that if I did, it would instantly bury everything that he and I had done to establish my character. Then I said I would talk to Shawn if he had a problem. He told me to stay out of it, that it wasn't my problem. That was the last I heard of it. He went down to the ring, I watched from the curtain on the monitors set up. Owen and Davey were there waiting. I was just trying to soak everything up. I was just as clueless as the rest of the world was. I didn't have a clue what was supposed to happen. I don't think anybody had a clue what was going to happen."
While Kurt Angle tried his best to get a first person view of the wrestling business, Shawn and Bret were tearing each other apart. But all good things must come to an end, and the end to this match will be burned in the minds of wrestling fans forever.
"The match was unbelievable. Incredible. But what I remember was talking to Owen, then Davey Boy saying "here's the ref bump. Get ready, Owen." Then we all watched the monitor. Shawn locked Bret in the Sharpshooter, looked at Earl Hebner for half a second and then turned his head away, almost in shame I think. The bell rang, the match was over, Owen and Davey looked like they had just seen a ghost. More than a couple people cursed loudly backstage. Julie (Bret's wife) screamed at the monitor. People were panicking, saying this wasn't supposed to happen. Earl Hebner blew by me so fast, he could have spun me around in circles like a Bugs Bunny cartoon. Shawn Michaels stormed backstage and accidentally stepped into me with his shoulder. I simply said 'excuse me.' He actually had the nerve to turn and yell at me. 'Watch what the f*** you're doing!' And he disappeared, Chyna and Hunter right behind. I looked back at the monitor and I saw Bret destroying the announcer's position. I knew that defintely wasn't in character. When he started making the WCW gestures to the crowd, I knew then that something went way wrong."
Once Hart got backstage, Kurt Angle got to witness the fabled confrontation between Bret Hart and vince McMahon.
"Bret was heated. He told me what had happened. I was heated. I wasn't the only one, either. Vince had other guys pounding on his door, cussing him out. They basically had to force him to go and explain himself to Bret. Bret didn't have any of it. He said that if Vince didn't just get out of his face he was gonna knock him out. Well, Vince didn't listen to Bret and Bret hit him with a right hand that knocked him into the next decade. Shane tried to come at Bret, but before I could step up and do anything Davey Boy had thrown him halfway across the room. While Jerry Briscoe and Shane dragged Vince out, Bret was telling them he'd do the same to them. Shawn was scared to death to even be around Bret. I thought Bret was going to knock him out, tell you the truth. Vince tried to stop me on the way out, but I couldn't even look at him. I just thought to myself, how could you do that to him? All the guy ever did was what you asked him to do, even if it wasn't what he wanted to do. And all of a sudden, if he decides to put his foot down and say no, then he's the one who made the mistake and deserves to be punished. No, not punished - executed on public television for the world to see. That's basically what Vince and Shawn tried to do to Bret's character. Bret's credibility. Bret's legacy. They took everything he stood for and smeared their cheapskate attitude all over it. "
Kurt Angle never spoke to Vince McMahon again.
---
The Aftermath
---
In a mid-1998 interview with ESPN for a half-hour special, Kurt Angle discussed his time in both ECW and the WWF, as well as his Olympic gold medal win. Along with the quotes randomly scattered throughout this piece, he also said the following during the interview.
"I always thought it was just some kind of show. Pro wrestling to me was a collection of sideshow freaks and wannabe tough guys. I didn't realize that there were two sides to this equation. For all of the gimmicks and all of the stupid storylines and all of the flash bang and all of the makeup, there was also a diehard work ethic and a burning desire for competition - to be the best. It wasn't the same as amateur wrestling or the Olympics, but there is definitely athleticism and I have a lot of respect now for it."
"When I first turned down Vince and the WWF, I thought about it and I realized that I had let my pride get in the way. Maybe I was being too critical. Then I saw what ECW was doing. It felt a lot more mature to me, a lot more realistic. Soon I began to see that they were more centered around the hardcore brawling then they were with pushing pure wrestling. I didn't win the gold medal in chair swinging, I won it in wrestling."
This comment garnered a snicker from his interviewer.
"I disagreed with the overall product. They had good wrestlers and good wrestling, but I knew it wasn't for me. But I did see the attractiveness of wrestling, and I inquired around about getting properly trained and in the ring. Thankfully, the guys in ECW and in the WWF were mostly supportive of me. They wanted to help me. I met a guy in ECW by the name of Lance Storm. He worked with me for three months, and then he introduced me to the Harts. I trained in Stu's dungeon for six more months, and after that short period of time Bret felt I was ready. So Bret set it up so that I could have a debut fitting for a guy of my stature. I'm coming into the sport of professional wrestling as an amateur gold medalist. Even though I am the best in the world and this little piece of gold says so, in the eyes of those fans I was nothing because the guys they were used to seeing, those were professionals. They were the ones who made the money, had their names out there. I guess I saw the money and the marketability in it, too. Bret had this perfect set up for me: an American hero, an Olympic gold medalist, coming in to shut the Canadian crybaby up. The Canadian crybaby who just so happens to be regarded as Canada's best wrestler, I might add. If that were the mats at Atlanta instead of a ring in Pittsburgh, imagine how much people would be talking about it. It's not just who's the best, it's who can sell it the best too. Bret Hart was the guy who gave me the chance to succeed."
At the end of the segment, Kurt Angle went on to talk while clips from his match with Bret and his one or two ECW appearances played over his voice.
"But what happened was, I was there in Montreal the night that Bret Hart lost the title without losing. I saw the cheapest ending I had ever seen to a wrestling match, real or not. When I learned the story behind it, I found out that pro wrestling is not fake in the least. It's very real. The pain is real, and sometimes so is the emotion. Bret and Shawn honestly didn't like each other one bit. Bret's kids were crying because they didn't think they were going to get to see their friends in the WWF ever again. And when Vince and Shawn decided to change the story without telling anybody, they steamrolled over everyone in their path. Pro wrestling is very real, but the reality of it is that it's a scummy business. You have to put way too much trust in way too many people, and eventually your trust will be broken and taken advantage of. Just like Bret was. The reason I left pro wrestling was I didn't want to be a part of that. I didn't want to be either the nice guy who gets pushed around like Bret, or the obnoxious politician who kisses ass and double crosses to get his way like Shawn or Vince. I just wasn't going to do it. It may have been a legitimate sport at one time, but it's nothing now but a freak show. I guess I was right all along about pro wrestling."
When asked what he would do next, Angle replied with the following. "Ken Shamrock told me about a little place called the UFC. Ultimate Fighting Championship. It's mixed martial arts. What that means is, anybody can use any style of fighting with free form and very little rule restriction, yet the fights are safe with medical staff, security, and referees. I've been giving a lot of thought to that."
Eventually, Kurt Angle did find his way into the UFC...
...but that's a story for another time.
Two, Simon and Neil, won. Two did not. I am Jeremy Cundiff, one of those two who did not win.
And while I am not bitter over losing, I do wish to put up my entry. I wrote in more of a column form than an actual story form, which was probably the reason I lost. And given the stories I have gotten to read, I'm glad I lost. But I know several people were interested in the topic I chose, which was...
"What if Raven didn't crucify The Sandman?"
Good question. Let's find out.
---
In the year of 1997, wrestling was going through the second half of a gargantuan transformation known as the Attitude era. In 1996, the New World Order came into World Championship Wrestling in a story we've all heard so many times you can all say it in your sleep. In 1997, D-Generation X, Steve Austin, and other programs and angles run by Vince McMahon and the World Wrestling Federation also pushed the envelope and the line, turning wrestling from the cartoony gimmick-laden Saturday morning alternative to Captain Planet and Mighty Morphin Power Rangers into the edgy adult oriented programming that was crash TV at its finest, the highest-rated programming in the history of televised pro wrestling. A lot of the edge in both companies can be traced to early Southern territories, specifically Memphis wrestling. But when we talk about attitude and edgy...too late. You already said it before I had the chance.
ECW.
Extreme Championship wrestling was light years ahead of its time in terms of content. It was where the line didn't just get crossed, it got jumped over three or four times before Sandman poured the foam at the bottom of his empty beer on it before crushing the can on his forehead. Maybe it was too edgy. It was deifnitely too edgy for Kurt Angle, as we found out on the night of October 26, 1996. Kurt Angle was brought in to bring some real wrestling credibility to a promotion that quite frankly was the most athletically demanding style in America at that time. Immediately, fans dreamed for a Taz/Angle matchup, or other possibilities such as Japan or the Big Two. An Olympic gold medalist turned professional wrestler in a company touting the best wrestlers in the country? The possibilites could have been endless. And because of the company's adjacent policy of extreme, the possibilites were cut short in their tracks with one makeshift cross, some barbed wire, and the twisted ingenious of Scott Levy.
Raven, assisted by the Blue Meanie and Stevie Richards, participated in a mock crucifixion of the Sandman after interfering in a match. They has fastened him to the makeshift cross with barbed wire. In The Rise & Fall of ECW DVD, Richards has said, "the whole time I was telling Meanie, this is fucked up. And he said, I know." Simple, but all that you could say. It hushed the normally bloodthirsty and occasionally manic crowd into the most uncomfortable silence you could ever imagine in a packed arena of wrestling fans. This would have just been another typical bad angle bombing if not for one simple detail: ECW had a very special guest on this evening who had already happened to be in the show earlier in the evening. 1996 Olympic gold medal winner in amateur freestyle wrestling, Kurt Angle. Angle was so offended by what he saw that he immediatelythreatened legal action with a lawyer if he was shown in connection with the angle on any ECW broadcast, and his affiliation with ECW ended on the spot. Kurt also gave many a wrestler and backstage worker, regardless of job or rank, a small piece of his mind on how he felt about the crucifixion.
It would be over two years before Angle resurfaced in professional wrestling, this time with the World Wrestling Federation. However, his debut into the company consisted not of touting his prestige and reputation as an Olympic gold medalist, but participating in an angle with Tiger Ali Singh, who was paying the American fans to do gross or embarassing things for money not unline Ted DiBiase had done in the 80's. This paticular night on Sunday Night Heat on March 7, 1999, Singh offered Angle five hundred dollars to blow his nose on an American flag. Kurt denied. Singh doubled his offer, Angle again declined. Singh doubled that offer, and Kurt finally accepted...only to actually blow his nose on Singh's native country's flag. This prompted a little bit of confrontation where Angle and Singh traded a couple of moves. The potential in Angle was still apparent, and when Angle finally did make his wrestling debut six months later his training and dedication along with natural ability and experience was shining through. Finally, his background was a factor in his on-screen presentation and the rest is jistory. Kurt Angle seemed, and even now in his aging and weary state in TNA seems, a natural fit in the world of professional wrestling. As for Paul Heyman and company, they continued to chug down the road; eventually securing a lucrative and imperative to the survival of ECW Pay Per View deal. However, we all know how that opportunity was vaporized when a young man by the name of Eric Kulas made himself famous for fifteen minutes.
However, if not for the incident in ECW, the seeds had been set for Kurt Angle to appear on television a few more times and the outcome of the negotiations would inevitably have led Kurt Angle to train and get into the ring a whole lot sooner than 1999. A lot of people would tell you that Angle would have been trained in a completely different way of wrestling and thinking; that the "extreme" sect of this little indy fed that could was the kind of style that Kurt Angle would have been introduced to instead of "sports entertainment". They would also tell you that Kurt Angle would have been muh more interested in the athletically demanding, high impact world that was ECW. Kurt Angle would have been ten times the master craftsman in the ring that he already is. The possibilities with his working in ECW compared to the WWF on whom his opponents could have been is considered to be a much more diverse list. As great as he was against Shawn Michaels and Chris Benoit, miagine the thought of Angle vs. RVD, Angle vs. Jerry Lynn, or maybe...Angle vs. Taz. the one hint of an angle that actually did go down in the hsitory books? And how about ECW? I'm sure that if Kurt Angle achieved this plateau of success in Philly, sure ECW would also feel the flow as well and maybe even reached the national popularity to compete with Ted Turner and Vince McMahon. But that's all just what some people would tell you.
Here's what I'm going to tell you.
---
October 26, 1996
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When Kurt Angle woke up on this morning, he didn't have to think about wrestling that night. Kurt Angle was three months removed from his gold medal win at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta. He had just recently turned down a contract with Vince McMahon and the World Wrestling Federation. But somehow, someway, Shane Douglas was the man responsible for convincing Kurt Angle to at least get in there and say hello to the fans of Extreme Championship Wrestling in Philadelphia, which was just down the interstate from his native Pittsburgh. There were no plans for Kurt to actually wrestle, although you have to think that it was mentioned at least once or twice. Of course it was going to be teased on television, because the appeal and the lending of legitimacy to a company that was as real as it gets for the time and the fan base that Kurt Angle posessed was tremendous. Here's a gold medal Olympian turning down the big bully in vince McMahon for ECW, a promotion which claimed to deliver the most in ring action and best wrestling on the market. There was potential that Paul Heyman could not ignore, even if he was reserved about approaching Angle for further services in ECW.
Taz vs. Little Guido was next on the runsheet. Joey Styles hit the ring first, and began to crack on the WWF's signing of Mark Henry. He then claimed that ECW had someone better. Kurt Angle came down to the ring, shook a few hands, and hopped into the ring. Styles then introduced him to Little Guido, referring to Guido as a "amateur wrestler himself". Guido said in his gimmicked Italian accent that he respected Angle, and then the two shook hands as Angle wished him luck. Guido's opponent was Taz, along with Bill Alfonso. Taz also says that he respects Kurt Angle, and tells the fans that "he's the man!" He even watched Angle during the Olympic games - although he does watch a lot of himself on TV, too. He says he could have tried out for the American Olympic wrestling team, but he would rather make money. Taz them asks Kurt Angle to commentate on his match with Guido, so he can tell the world for himself how good he was. He then adds the line "you're a great amateur, but I'm a professional."
Joey Styles announces the match will be a shootfight, ending only by knockout or submission. Oh, and he's doing commentary with an Olympian. Angle comments that he would love to have five minutes in the ring with Taz, a comment which no doubt moistened the interiors of the underwear of many a smart wrestling fan, or even just an ECW fan. Angle provides standard commentary while Taz dominated Little Guido. Guido barely got in any offense as Taz had his way with him, ending it with a Tazmission. After the match, Taz gets on the microphone and lets Kurt Angle know that "hey, that was a gold medal performance!" He then went on to talk about Sabu before kneeling in the ring, doing his treademark point in the air. Kurt Angle's involement with the show ended right there as he left the commentary position after the match.
Later on in the night, Sandman was victorious to retain the ECW World Heavyweight Championship against a departing Too Cold Scorpio. After the match, Tyler Fullerington, the Sandman's son, entered the ring. Unlike the previous times he had been seen on ECW television dressed as Raven and emulating him, he was dressed like his father. When Sandman knelt to hug his son, Raven hit the ring along with Sandman's ex-wife Lori and the Blue World Order. Sandman recieved a vicious shot to his eye with a Singapore cane. Blood flowed almost immediately. The bWo was directed by Raven to retrieve an object from underneath the ring. But before anything could be extracted from underneath the ring, Too Cold Scorpio and Tommy Dreamer came racing out to the ring, steel chairs in hands. Raven escapes into the crowd while Meanie and Richards eat a pair of sick chair shots. As Raven and entourage escaped through the crowd taunting all the way home, Scorpio taunted them while Dreamer stood over his prey, holding the chair tightly. Sandman struggles to make it to his feet as the fans cheer for the trio. The three make their way to the back, Tommy helping Sandman down the aisle and through the curtain. The concern for Sandman's eye is more than obvious, but nobody ever did find out what was under the ring or what Raven had planned to do. Only years later, long after ECW's bankruptcy in 2001, did Raven speak of it in a shoot interview in 2006.
"What we were going to do, was I had this cross that Sandman made. He went through the trouble to make this big cross out of wood. And the reason was, this thing had been going on for some time between Jim and me. We had been feuding for a long time, had all kinds of matches and all kinds of angles, we knew that we had to keep the heat on and do something interesting. So I came up with this idea that we were gonna hang Sandman up on this cross and show him off to the crowd, crucified. When I told Meanie and Stevie this, they both didn't take it too well. Well, no shit, they were both Catholics or something like that...anyways, I went to Paul with it, and he was cool. Until Kurt Angle came into the picture. Then Paul, before the show, he comes to me and he said no. He said that he had put too much into getting Kurt into ECW to risk doing something like this, which would be the exact opposite of Kurt's all-American gold medal bullshit. Well, the ECW fans had already had their choice between tradition and cutting edge, and they chose cutting edge. Philadelphia is an ECW town, and ECW isn't the kind of place Kurt Angle wanted to be in. Paul Heyman stepping on my toes, on Sandman's toes, him cutting us off at the ankle like that was bullshit. We had usted our asses for ECW for years, and it was the risky, offensive, we don't give a shit what you think about us kind of attitude that was getting us noticed. So yeah, we felt betrayed a little bit. Especially when all that Paul did by trying to fix what wasn't broken when he changed ECW to suit this one guy...all he did was delay the inevitable, you know? ECW and Kurt Angle aren't gonna mix."
---
November 16, 1996
---
It was a month later, and at first it was difficult to see an immediate impact of Kurt Angle's ECW appearance. The fans were as rabid as ever, but the numbers hadn't spiked sharply enough to get the attention of anybody who was paying attention to ratings and ticket sales. Behind the closed doors of the locker room, Kurt Angle had approached Taz about making the leap to professional wrestling. After just his second time backstage at an ECW show, no less than five wrestlers had spoken with Angle on assisting in training him and working with him: Lance Storm, Chris Candido, Mike Awesome, Taz, and of course Shane Douglas. Paul Heyman as well had Kurt Angle seeing the dollar signs in pro wrestling, as well as keeping the sport and competition aspect of the game. And at November To Remember 1996, Kurt Angle would perfectly mest these two concepts together...as soon as Joey Styles, backstage in front of the classic ECW backdrop, gives him his cue.
"Ladies and gentlemen, Joey Styles here, and before we get to our next match...I have a surprise for you. Now, last month here in ECW we were graced by the presence of a real American hero. The 1996 Olypmic gold medal wrestling champion, Kurt Angle. Now it seems as though Extreme Championship Wrestling has made quite an impression on him...one of our wrestlers in paticular. So here he is, he's got something to say...Kurt Angle."
Kurt Angle, his gold medal around his neck and shining like he just stepped down from the pedestal, steps into the view of the camera next to Styles, holding the microphone.
"Mr. Angle, it's great to have you back."
"Well, thank you Joey. Great to be back. I can appreciate a place like this. This place has respect...it has tradition...I'm going to tell you something, Joey Styles. Soon after I won this gold medal I was offered a contract with the World Wrestling Federation. I said no. I said no because I saw their 'wrestling', if you can call it that...I saw guys in clown suits and I saw sumo wrestlers throwing salt at their opponents, I saw a dead man who turned the lights on when he raised his hands! I've wrestled men over a hundred pounds bigger than me, I have wrestled the toughest men in the world. Never once did somebody turn the lights on and off by raising their hands. I thought to myself, this isn't wrestling! It's a freak show!"
Kurt's polite smile fades a little bit. Now he talks into the camera with a look of dire seriousness. His words are more and more stern by the syllable. His eyes telegraph the intensity (as well as the integrity and intelligence) of his message.
"Then...I get approached by Extreme Championship Wrestling. And I see THEIR wrestling. I see men who give everything their bodies have and then still keep going. I see men who can break bones, shred flesh, pound muscle...and barely be affected by it. I have seen men do things that I didn't think were possible in a wrestling match. And despite how much of an arrogant punk Taz may be...he is right. This is a profession. This is a level of dedication that I haven't seen before, in all my years of amateur competition. But it's something that I think I might want to try. I think I have that level of dedication. I just might have that level of talent. And then I will really and truly be able to take loud mouths like him and put them in their place. I hope the fans liked seeing me, Joey Styles...because they will be seeing much more...real soon!"
The fans in the arena were practically melting the chairs underneath their butts to the floor. Once this hit the airwaves, the aforementioned dollar signs could be practically counted and stuffed in somebody's wallet. Every ECW fansite (tand in 1996, this was a limited quantity) was red-hot over this. Little by little, people were reaching out to see what this little promotion that could was all about. Even ESPN did a small snippet on SportsCenter about the transition for Kurt Angle, stating that "Angle could be the next Frank Gotch or George Hackenschmidt, a man in that vein of greatness." Mark Henry was only mentioned and shown for a brief three-second cameo of a mention in the six-minute piece. No formal contract was signed up, of course. That wasn't how Paul did business. And Kurt Angle was far removed from ready to step in the ring, so it wasn't like they had to pull the trigger immediately. There were other ways to keep Angle's face fresh in people's minds. After this night, Kurt Angle and Paul Heyman came to the understanding that Kurt Angle was going to become a wrestler all over again, most likely with Heyman's wrestlers, and debut and work for Heyman. Kurt Angle had started a buzz in pro wrestling that got people talking, both fans and non-fans. Nobody knew what to expect next, so everybody just expected anything.
But nobody could have possibly expected what actually did happen.
---
November 23, 1996
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Improvisation is key in pro wrestling. Despite the fact that there is a general plan, shit happens sometimes. Axl Rotten's no showing of an ECW house show in Revere, Massachusetts was a prime example of shit happening. With only a mere couple of hours before belltime, Paul Heyman was in a jam. His call was answered by a young aspiring grappler named Eric Kulas. Kulas brought along his father, Stephen, and provided false docmentation of his age and fabricated his wrestling credentials. He claimed to be trained by Killer Kowalski, a man whose list of proteges included ECW familar Perry Saturm as well as the WWF's Hunter Hearst Helmsley. Kulas, weighing in around 360 pounds, was not in the same category and it showed from the beginning.
A fan cam caught the action as D-Von Dudley and Mass Transit (Kulas' well known ring moniker that became the title of the whole transpiring of events) came to the ring. Their opponents were the Gangstas, New Jack and Mustapha. During the match, the Gangstas isolated Kulas in the ring and kept D-Von on the floor. Mustapha mostly guarded the ropes while New jack committed legal felony assault in a wrestling ring. A guitar, a toaster, chairs, and chains were all used as if they were headlocks or clotheslines. Kulas barely got in one offensive move the entire six minute match, if that. The spectacle ended with New Jack producing a blade and cutting Kulas' forehead, which was agreed on in the locker room beforehand. Eric Kulas did not agree with the artery in his forehead thsat was severed, forcing a sick fountain of crimson literally spraying into the air from his head, laying on the canvas with the rest of his battered body. The boy's father bedded and screamed for mercy. New Jack claimed he was simply protecting the business from a stupid mark. It would take years before the courts, criminal and civil, would determine that neither Paul Heyman nor New Jack were responsible, due to Kulas' misrepresentation of age and credentials. However, a good portion of the backlash was immediate in two forms. The first was the cancellation of ECW's inaguaral Pay Per View event on Christmas Eve.
The second was Kurt Angle ending his verbal agreement with Paul Heyman and ECW. Angle heard about the incident through Lance Storm, one of only two men he kept contact with afterwards. The other was Shane Douglas. Kurt Angle approached Paul Heyman and did not beat around the bush. Kurt Angle talked about it himself for an ESPN interview in 1998.
"I asked Paul, what happened? And he told me. He didn't lie, he didn't play around either. But the part I felt uneasy about was when I said, so why did it happen? He said that the kid lied about his age and lied about his wrestling training. I began to wonder that it mattered less and less he was only seventeen, and it mattered more and more that he wasn't a wrestler and he was going to wrestle. Paul came off to me like he felt New Jack only did what he was supposed to do, and that the kid didn't know what wrestling was all about. It was more important to protect the business than protect the people in it, that was the vibe I got from it all. When I asked him how he could let someone cut a guy and let him practically bleed to death while he screams on the microphone, he said it was just part of the show. And at that point, I ended my affiliation with him. I continued to talk to Shane Douglas and Lance Storm, that was it. I was friendly if I was approached, but I didn't send the ECW locker room Christmas cards or anything like that."
When asked why he didn't continue to work for ECW, he said this.
"At first...I did see what the guys were trying to do. There were guys in there who were true warriors. They were hard working, dedicated, tough as steel and hard as a rock. Real men and women, real people. But for every guy there who did work hard, who was an athlete...there were just a bunch of thugs. ECW was relient on blood and guts, on hardcore violence, just as much as it was wrestling. Maybe more. And I saw a lot of people who I just couldn't trust in that kind of work environment. There were people there who have killed somebody. And I'm supposed to let that person into close range with me in a wrestling ring? With a weapon, no less? I was green and naive to pro wrestling back then, I didn't quite understand that their style of wrestling did have its place. But it wasn't what I wanted to do, it wasn't my goal in coming there. I felt that eventually, I would have no choice but to find myself surrounded by barbed wire and tables. It scared the crap out of me, especially when I heard about the Mass Transit deal."
Angle did remain active in training, however. Lance Storm continued to work with him, and was astonished by how quickly Kurt Angle adapted from amateur mat-style point wrestling to professional one-fall matches and storytelling through working. Storm brought Kurt with him on a trip to Calgary one day early in the winter of 1997, introducing him to a certain legendary clan in the city that was deeply rooted in the same things Kurt Angle was: tradition, competition, sportsmanship, dedication, and strength. Before Lance and Kurt left Calgary, it was all but official.
Kurt Angle was invited to train in the Hart Dungeon.
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July 28, 1997
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In the World Wrestling Federation thing were at a crossroads of creative direction. In the words of Dewey Cox, there was a change a-happenin', and you definitely could feel it. The set was redesigned with a ramp and larger entrance area, as well as the ring ropes being all red instead of the classic red, white, and blue setup. Monday Night RAW had been renamed RAW is WAR, with the second hour of the program christened the War Zone. And above all, the fan reactions were the opposite of history. Steve Austin had been a classic heel who won over the fans with his classic Austin 3:16 promo, a line which was just too cool to dislike. Despite his antics, which many would consider way beyond the boundaries of sportsmanlike or commendable, Stone Cold was the man the fans were paying to see. And the ultimate irony of the hemisphere turning upside-down was that a heel was turned face by the comany's biggest and longest-running perennial face turning heel: Bret Hart.
Bret Hart was always a guy who thought wrestling should be for the kids, but also be realistic and thorough in its action. He was a family man and always taught his fans good morals. He was also an accomplished athlete and both his amateur and professional wrestling careers were successful. His days in Stampede Wrestling working for his father Stu in Calgary made him a Canadian icon. Stampede's purchase by the WWF made Bret an international superstar. Every country in the world, it seemed, met Hart with the most thunderous ovations of the entire show most nights. But a change of pace and direction caused him to be asked to turn heel, to be the bad guy. Despite how uncomfortable Bret was with the idea, he realized that it was possibly the better business decision, and came about an angle to get the fans against him. The solution was simple: disrespect America, be a heel in America while maintaining face status in the rest of the world including his home country of Canada. Bret Hart turned heel for the first time in a decade. He reformed the Hart Foundation with his brother Owen, who had the exact same upbringing as Bret and exhibited his same strong morals and character, and his former partner slash brother in law Jim "The Anvil" Neidhart. The group also included brother-in-law Davey Boy Smith, the British Bulldog, and Brian Pillman...for some reason. The quartet established dominance and captured every title available in the WWF save the big one, the World Heavyweight championship. And Bret was scheduled for a title shot against the Undertaker at Summerslam, even if it was shrouded in the controversy of a guest referee by the name of Shawn Michaels. Shawn Michaels, as documented, had a very persuasive hand in the change of creative direction. Unlike Bret, however, Shawn was not above bending the rules of good sportsmanship for personal gain. Well, at the time anyway. In any case, Bret was stuck being the whiny foreigner. Even if it wasn't what he wanted to do, he still did it well and the Hart Foundation was a cornerstone of the WWF in 1997.
On the night of July 28, 1997, Bret Hart was asked to use a line in which he compared the city of that night's RAW broadcast, Pittsburgh, to an anus. That, in turn, would set up a confrontation with his surprise opponent for that evening. As Bret Hart stood in the ring, he swallowed his pride and his dignity for a few seconds and blurted the words out into Jim Ross's microphone.
"Last week, I said that the United States was one big giant toilet bowl. Well, if you were to give the United States of America an enema...you would stick the hose right here in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania!"
The crowd, of course, jeered and booed left and right. However, before Bret's next words could escape his throat a new theme hit the arena's PA system. It was a patriotic anthem, trumpets blaring and bells sounding with drums pounding and guitar strumming. The Pittsburgh crowd recognized their native as soon as he came onto the ramp, with a very rare and prestigious necklace on and a nicrophone of his own in hand. Vince McMahon, in his distinct excited utterance called commentary, identified the man as if he really needed an introduction.
"That's Kurt Angle! That's Kurt Angle! The 1996 Olympic gold medal winner in freestyle wrestling at the Summer Games in Atlanta! Kurt Angle is in the World Wrestling Federation!"
Indeed, Kurt Angle was in the WWF. He had taken the Hart family up on their offer, and whatever talent and skills Angle showed with Lance Storm showed fivefold with the Harts. Later on, in an interview years later, Bret had said that Kurt Angle was the only man he had ever worked with who he felt was "truly better than I was." Angle appreciated the Hart dynasty and what it stood for. Kurt stated in later interviews that "Bret Hart would have been a great Olympic champion. He had the body to do it, but more importantly he had the mind to do it. He was a class act. The whole family is class act all the way. The man went way out of his way for me." Despite Kurt's refusal of a WWF developmental offer in 1996, Bret approached Vince about allowing Kurt to wrestle him on RAW from Kurt's hometown of Pittsburgh. Vince remembed his brief stint with ECW and the reaction, as well as the recently failed ECW on RAW experiment, and granted Bret's request. And here Kurt Angle was, on the stage in front of twenty thousand of his hometown fans, with a live microphone getting ready to set the tone for his professional wrestling debut against his teacher, a living legend of the sport.
"I don't think I heard you correctly. Did you just say that Pittsburgh is a butthole? Because the only one around here who's talking crap is...you, Bret!"
The crowd pops loudly, as Bret looks down at Angle.
"You see this? It's a gold medal! You don't get these from cereal boxes, and you don't get these wrestling around in your parents' basement! I had to earn this, fight for it! I wasn't just fighting for myself, you know. I was representing my country. I was there to say that the United States of America was home to the finest and best wrestlers, and when the dust settled, I backed it up! You just come out here and you whine about how it's America's fault. This country is screwed up, and that's why you're not getting your way. You crybaby!"
Angle finally remembers to pause so the crowd can cheer for him in between zingers.
"I want to represent my country again tonight! You and me, Bret! One on one, in that ring tonight! I want to show you, Bret, that you don't come into my backyard and just sing it...you bring it! You're gonna see what being an asshole is all about tonight!"
The match was set for the main event slot later on in the evening. Angle was wearing the exact same tights he had worn when he won his Olympic gold medal. The Hitman was wearing all-pink, a rarity. When the match began, Hart pounced on Angle before the bell from behind. Hart smashed into Angle with several forearms, but when he paused the beating to slap Angle in a waistlock, Angle surprised him with a quick go-behind and put Hart's back on the mat. Bret would again try to go to the mat with Kurt by way of headlock takeover from the collar and elbow tie-up, but he would be overtaken after a brief chain sequence. Bret would sitout and spin behind Angle, Angle would go low and take Bret's leg from underneath him. Bret, mad as hell, came back with a low kick to the midsection. Finally, Bret sends Kurt to the floor. Bouncing off the ropes, Bret sails through the rioes with perfect precision in a suicide dive...only Angle falls back with Bret and crashes him into the steel railing. The War Zone cuts to a commercial break with both men on the floor.
Back to live action, Bret has Angle in the ring in a chinlock. The crowd desperately tries to stir up Kurt with chants of "U-S-A! U-S-A!" as Tim White, the referee, checks the hand of Angle. One drop. Two drops. Thr...Angle gets his arm up. Bret is in disbelief and goes to recinch the hold, but it is too late. Kurt Angle has broken free, and zips around the chinlock into a very high German suplex. Bret Hart is flipped completely around, and lands face flat on the canvas. As Hart lies still as a log, Vince and Lawler ponder loudly if Bret is okay after such a move. A replay shows the dreadful impact and force behind the massive German suplex. Kurt covers without hooking a leg, and only gets two. A frustrated Kurt pulls Bret back up to his feet. He is sent to the ropes, but ducks a Hart clothesline. Rebounding back off the opposite ropes. Kurt catches Bret with a beautiful standing Hart Attack. Kurt again covers, and only gets the two count. Bulldog, who is at ringside, slips Bret a pair of brass knuckles, which everybody in the arena save Kurt Angle and Tim White notices. As Bret plants Kurt while the referee is distracted by Bulldog, Steve Austin comes in out of nowhere and stuns Bret Hart. The crowd goes insane as Angle is placed on top of Hart, and White turns to make the three count. Tony Chimel announces Kurt Angle as the winner, and is barely heard. Austin leaves while Tim White tries to revive Kurt Angle, who is still unconscious from the brass knuckle shot. Hart is being attended to by British Bulldog and Owen Hart, who comes down after the bell. The show ends with Kurt Angle awakening to having his hand raised on the floor by Tim White once again, and Kurt nodding while holding his head, staring down Bret Hart and the rest of the Hart Foundation.
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November 9, 1997
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Three months after Kurt Angle's debut in the World Wrestling Federation, he had yet to sign a contract. He had yet to participate in another match. It wasn't that he was hurt or that he had performed poorly, oh no. Jim Cornette, good ole' JR, Vince McMahon, and everybody else who had witnessed the match were quick with praise. For anybody else, it would be very improbable to believe that a person with less than one year of training in the sport could perform so well. But this wasn't anybody else. It was Kurt Angle. And it wasn't that he was done with wrestling. He trained nearly every day. The reason for Kurt's non-appearance? Simple: they had nothing for him.
Bret Hart's influence in the company was dwindling, and once he was asked to take an offer to jump to World Championship Wrestling it was clear that Kurt Angle's future in the company was the exact opposite. As a close friend to Hart, Kurt felt that it was Bret who he wanted to work with to start his career. Bret was also very privy to working with Angle and putting him over, as Bret did feel Angle would be the future of the business. However, Bret was the world champion at the time, having won the title less than two weeks after losing to Angle. He was not in any kind of position to put anybody over. And the only person who the WWF wanted him to put over was Shawn Michaels: a man who Bret Hart did not want to do any favors for. Close to Hart throughout the tumultous times, Kurt Angle was getting a crash course in the backstage proceedings of professional wrestling. Contracts, competition, personal issues between workers, and overall duplicity. Shawn Michaels had sort of looked down his nose at Kurt Angle, not viewing him as highly as others in the company. Shawn felt that Angle was way too green for any kind of push, or to even have been on television. The combination of Bret being phased out and Shawn being phased in gave the impression the WWF was no longer interested in Kurt Angle.
Angle was invited by Bret to come to his last match with the WWF in Montreal, at the Survivor Series. There, he would be facing Shawn Michaels for his WWF title. Angle accepted. In a previously mentioned interview with ESPN, Kurt Angle would talk about the stigma and the haze of foul play that was in the air even before the show started.
"Bret and I talked the Monday before Survivor Series. I said I would be there as his guest. On Wednesday, I get a call from Vince McMahon. He says he wants to use me, maybe get me signed into a deal. Vince told me that he didn't want me to just vanish simply because Bret was. He said he had great respect with me and that I had impressed him tremendously. He then invited me to the show also. It kind of felt like when two friends invite you to the same party and you don't know which one to go with. I agreed to speak with him about further opportunities with his company. I had just thought it was weird for a man who had barely spoken to me up until that point - the most we ever talked was before my match with Bret - to be conversating with me and being so friendly. But, I thought nothing of it and I went to Montreal."
When Kurt arrived backstage, he felt the tension. Bret's children were sad at having to say good-bye to a lot of the people they had grown up with in locker rooms around the world. Every time Shawn or Triple H would walk by, the conversation would just stop until they had walked out of range. Even when Angle met with Vince, he could see Sgt. Slaughter and Pat Patterson scurrying around, obviously stressing out over something. Here's some more Angle talking about this last meeting with Vince.
"He wanted me to do the American Hero character, what I had done against Bret. He talked about me working with a veteran or somebody who could help me out if I needed it, like Vader or Jeff Jarrett. We shook hands and I decided to come to RAW the following night in Ottawa to talk with both Jarrett and Vader, or anybody else he would like me to meet with. The overall feeling was that all he was concerned with was getting me signed and working for him. I tried to make a comment about Bret, but he blew me right off. I thought it was so strange. The way Bret had talked, Vince and he were pretty close. Wouldn't he have at least wanted to say good-bye to Bret?"
Angle had then been talking with Bret in the dressing area when Bret was approached by Vader and Davey Boy Smith. Kurt Angle had never been exposed to the terms like "double-cross" and "shoot" in the context of a professional wrestling match.
"Vader and Davey Boy were telling him to protect himself, watch out for a shoot. I didn't understand it all. I asked Bret about it. I wanted to know why Bret would have to worry about Shawn doing something. I said if it was a problem, I would come down to the ring if I needed to. He told me that if I did, it would instantly bury everything that he and I had done to establish my character. Then I said I would talk to Shawn if he had a problem. He told me to stay out of it, that it wasn't my problem. That was the last I heard of it. He went down to the ring, I watched from the curtain on the monitors set up. Owen and Davey were there waiting. I was just trying to soak everything up. I was just as clueless as the rest of the world was. I didn't have a clue what was supposed to happen. I don't think anybody had a clue what was going to happen."
While Kurt Angle tried his best to get a first person view of the wrestling business, Shawn and Bret were tearing each other apart. But all good things must come to an end, and the end to this match will be burned in the minds of wrestling fans forever.
"The match was unbelievable. Incredible. But what I remember was talking to Owen, then Davey Boy saying "here's the ref bump. Get ready, Owen." Then we all watched the monitor. Shawn locked Bret in the Sharpshooter, looked at Earl Hebner for half a second and then turned his head away, almost in shame I think. The bell rang, the match was over, Owen and Davey looked like they had just seen a ghost. More than a couple people cursed loudly backstage. Julie (Bret's wife) screamed at the monitor. People were panicking, saying this wasn't supposed to happen. Earl Hebner blew by me so fast, he could have spun me around in circles like a Bugs Bunny cartoon. Shawn Michaels stormed backstage and accidentally stepped into me with his shoulder. I simply said 'excuse me.' He actually had the nerve to turn and yell at me. 'Watch what the f*** you're doing!' And he disappeared, Chyna and Hunter right behind. I looked back at the monitor and I saw Bret destroying the announcer's position. I knew that defintely wasn't in character. When he started making the WCW gestures to the crowd, I knew then that something went way wrong."
Once Hart got backstage, Kurt Angle got to witness the fabled confrontation between Bret Hart and vince McMahon.
"Bret was heated. He told me what had happened. I was heated. I wasn't the only one, either. Vince had other guys pounding on his door, cussing him out. They basically had to force him to go and explain himself to Bret. Bret didn't have any of it. He said that if Vince didn't just get out of his face he was gonna knock him out. Well, Vince didn't listen to Bret and Bret hit him with a right hand that knocked him into the next decade. Shane tried to come at Bret, but before I could step up and do anything Davey Boy had thrown him halfway across the room. While Jerry Briscoe and Shane dragged Vince out, Bret was telling them he'd do the same to them. Shawn was scared to death to even be around Bret. I thought Bret was going to knock him out, tell you the truth. Vince tried to stop me on the way out, but I couldn't even look at him. I just thought to myself, how could you do that to him? All the guy ever did was what you asked him to do, even if it wasn't what he wanted to do. And all of a sudden, if he decides to put his foot down and say no, then he's the one who made the mistake and deserves to be punished. No, not punished - executed on public television for the world to see. That's basically what Vince and Shawn tried to do to Bret's character. Bret's credibility. Bret's legacy. They took everything he stood for and smeared their cheapskate attitude all over it. "
Kurt Angle never spoke to Vince McMahon again.
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The Aftermath
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In a mid-1998 interview with ESPN for a half-hour special, Kurt Angle discussed his time in both ECW and the WWF, as well as his Olympic gold medal win. Along with the quotes randomly scattered throughout this piece, he also said the following during the interview.
"I always thought it was just some kind of show. Pro wrestling to me was a collection of sideshow freaks and wannabe tough guys. I didn't realize that there were two sides to this equation. For all of the gimmicks and all of the stupid storylines and all of the flash bang and all of the makeup, there was also a diehard work ethic and a burning desire for competition - to be the best. It wasn't the same as amateur wrestling or the Olympics, but there is definitely athleticism and I have a lot of respect now for it."
"When I first turned down Vince and the WWF, I thought about it and I realized that I had let my pride get in the way. Maybe I was being too critical. Then I saw what ECW was doing. It felt a lot more mature to me, a lot more realistic. Soon I began to see that they were more centered around the hardcore brawling then they were with pushing pure wrestling. I didn't win the gold medal in chair swinging, I won it in wrestling."
This comment garnered a snicker from his interviewer.
"I disagreed with the overall product. They had good wrestlers and good wrestling, but I knew it wasn't for me. But I did see the attractiveness of wrestling, and I inquired around about getting properly trained and in the ring. Thankfully, the guys in ECW and in the WWF were mostly supportive of me. They wanted to help me. I met a guy in ECW by the name of Lance Storm. He worked with me for three months, and then he introduced me to the Harts. I trained in Stu's dungeon for six more months, and after that short period of time Bret felt I was ready. So Bret set it up so that I could have a debut fitting for a guy of my stature. I'm coming into the sport of professional wrestling as an amateur gold medalist. Even though I am the best in the world and this little piece of gold says so, in the eyes of those fans I was nothing because the guys they were used to seeing, those were professionals. They were the ones who made the money, had their names out there. I guess I saw the money and the marketability in it, too. Bret had this perfect set up for me: an American hero, an Olympic gold medalist, coming in to shut the Canadian crybaby up. The Canadian crybaby who just so happens to be regarded as Canada's best wrestler, I might add. If that were the mats at Atlanta instead of a ring in Pittsburgh, imagine how much people would be talking about it. It's not just who's the best, it's who can sell it the best too. Bret Hart was the guy who gave me the chance to succeed."
At the end of the segment, Kurt Angle went on to talk while clips from his match with Bret and his one or two ECW appearances played over his voice.
"But what happened was, I was there in Montreal the night that Bret Hart lost the title without losing. I saw the cheapest ending I had ever seen to a wrestling match, real or not. When I learned the story behind it, I found out that pro wrestling is not fake in the least. It's very real. The pain is real, and sometimes so is the emotion. Bret and Shawn honestly didn't like each other one bit. Bret's kids were crying because they didn't think they were going to get to see their friends in the WWF ever again. And when Vince and Shawn decided to change the story without telling anybody, they steamrolled over everyone in their path. Pro wrestling is very real, but the reality of it is that it's a scummy business. You have to put way too much trust in way too many people, and eventually your trust will be broken and taken advantage of. Just like Bret was. The reason I left pro wrestling was I didn't want to be a part of that. I didn't want to be either the nice guy who gets pushed around like Bret, or the obnoxious politician who kisses ass and double crosses to get his way like Shawn or Vince. I just wasn't going to do it. It may have been a legitimate sport at one time, but it's nothing now but a freak show. I guess I was right all along about pro wrestling."
When asked what he would do next, Angle replied with the following. "Ken Shamrock told me about a little place called the UFC. Ultimate Fighting Championship. It's mixed martial arts. What that means is, anybody can use any style of fighting with free form and very little rule restriction, yet the fights are safe with medical staff, security, and referees. I've been giving a lot of thought to that."
Eventually, Kurt Angle did find his way into the UFC...
...but that's a story for another time.
