WWE Hall of Famer Shawn Michaels was recently interviewed by Sports Illustrated and spoke about his experience working with Kurt Angle. The two squared off at WrestleMania 21 in a ‘dream match’ that is still talked about to this day. Ahead of Angle’s WWE Hall of Fame Induction in less than two weeks, Michaels reveals Angle was the only opponent he ever faced that he felt he had to specifically train for.
“There was never even a possibility that someone could have more gas in the tank than me, but Kurt was different,” Michaels admitted. “I confessed to myself that Kurt was that guy, and I knew that match had to live up to extremely high standards, so I made sure I prepared extra. Kurt was the one guy I wondered if he could actually blow me up, so I had to work to make sure that didn’t happen.”
Michaels says he and Kurt Angle were on different brands at the time and their matches were usually ‘special attraction’ affairs, since they didn’t work long programs together. He says no matter what Kurt Angle did ‘in other places’ over the past decade, he’s a WWE guy and his best matches were on the WWE stage.
“I’m so amazed that he could go from this gold-winning Olympian and transition so flawlessly into our line of work. Nothing was out of the ballpark for him. He could wrestle, he could be silly, he could out-wrestle guys. Kurt adapted to the world of the WWE unlike anybody with his unbelievably legitimate credentials behind him.”
Head over to SI.com to read the full interview.
