Kurt Angle reveals that his character in the WWE was modeled after the Rock. The WWE Hall of Famer had a fantastic first run with the company.
Kurt Angle’s first run in the WWE was legendary and a lot of that had to do with how his character was presented. The Olympian quickly rose to the top of the mountain and by the time he was done, he had already established himself among the greatest.
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Speaking on the The Kurt Angle Show Podcast, Angle spoke about his character and how Vince McMahon booked him when starting out. Despite all the attributes of a white meat babyface, he was booked as a heel. Angle debuted during the Attitude Era. This was when the fans wanted edgy characters and Angle’s character was well out of place.
“Olympic gold medalist, I take care of my body, I do all the right things. I have medals and trophies and I’m the kid that your parents want you to date. Just all the white meat crap that goes with it. Because of characters like Stone Cold Steve Austin, it broke the mold. The bad guys became the good guys.
“My character in WWE when I started, it was a bit white meat baby face but there was that little thing where you were like, is this guy for real? Is he feeding me bullshit or is he the real deal? I preached all the time, it was Vince’s idea to have that.”
Kurt Angle reveals his character was modeled after the Rock
Having seen how the fans reacted to the Rock’s early run as a baby face, Vince was convinced that the fans would react the same way to Angle and ‘it worked extremely well’ for him.
“When The Rock was trying to be a baby face the first time and it backfired, Vince used the same mold for me but he knew it was going to backfire on me. He didn’t know it was going to backfire on The Rock, so he used that same mold to make me who I was. It worked extremely well, I became the top heel in the business within my first year.
“It was pretty quick and I couldn’t be more excited about it. I looked forward to going to T.V. every week. My character when I started, I loved doing it. I loved making an ass out of myself, I loved the crowd booing me and not respecting me. I loved having these matches and cheating to win and preaching that I don’t cheat to win. It was a really cool thing to do and I was a bit overwhelmed my first year.”
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