Kurt Angle Reveals Why WWE Booked Him As A Weak Champion In 2000
Kurt Angle squeezed through a number of WWE Title defences in 2000
Dec 22, 2023
Kurt Angle capped off one of the most impressive rookie years in WWE history by defeating The Rock to win the WWE Title at No Mercy 2000, eleven months after his televised in-ring debut.
The Olympic gold medallist had already won the European and Intercontinental titles, as well as the King of the Ring tournament.
Despite being the champion, Angle was often pinned on television and barely eked out title defences against the likes of The Undertaker and Triple H.
Speaking about how he was booked during this reign on a recent edition of his The Kurt Angle Show podcast, the WWE Hall of Famer said:
"It kind of made me into a really sh***y heel. Where I was, I didn't get a lot of offense. Yeah. And I'll talk about that later on in the podcast. But it was, it was one of those things where Vince thought, he has the credibility of an Olympic gold medallist. So we can, kind of have him, not shine as much as he should. So he figured with my credentials, I'd be able to lose here and there or get pinned and in a non-title match or a tag match, and I'd be okay. So they're trying to make other wrestlers while I was champion".
Continuing, Angle noted that he wasn't exactly a fan of his character's direction, but had to go along with it:
"I didn't like it, but Vince wanted me to do that. And like I said before, he just felt that I had so many credentials going into the company that I could do that kind of stuff and get away with it, but you can't do that stuff forever. And eventually, he changed it".