Return of the Back in the day show: Kurt Angle

Welcome to the return of The Back in the day show. This show for those who don't knw is where I open up the time machine and talk about former wrestlers or wrestlers in their glory years. I talk about what i liked and didn't like about them, show their accomplishments in their career, and post a match of theirs. I had planned on doing this Friday but with UK winning and me celebrating them making the final four i put it off.

This weeks subject is one of the greatest In Ring Wrestlers in the history of the business. The only man to win both the WWE Grand Slam and the TNA Triple Crown. also the only man to ever win an Olympic Gold Medal. In case you haven't figured this out by now i'm talking about Kurt Angle.

Kurt Angle was and still is even at 42 years old an amazing and outstanding Wrestler. I will admit that i was one of those idiots that chanted You Suck! at my TV Screen whenever he came on TV on the WWE. Looking back now I’m extremely embarrassed about that as I know realize just how good the man was. I would put Kurt Angle #4 on my list of Greatest In-Ring Performers in WWE History After HBK, Eddie Guerrero, and The Undertaker. The man was simply amazing and you knew you had the chance for a classic every night with him. The only thing I don't like about Kurt is He can't figure out when it's time to say good bye (Even though he can still out wrestle 95% of WWE and TNA Wrestlers) and to leave his family issues out of his professional Business.

to begin talking about Kurt Angle you have to start with his Amateur Career.

Angle started amateur wrestling at the age of six. He attended Mt. Lebanon High School, where he won varsity letters in football and wrestling and was an All-State linebacker. He went undefeated on the freshman wrestling team at Mt. Lebanon High and qualified for the state wrestling tournament his sophomore year. Angle also placed third in the state wrestling tournament as a junior and was the 1987 Pennsylvania State Wrestling Champion as a senior.

Upon graduating from high school, Angle attended the Clarion University of Pennsylvania, where he continued to wrestle at an amateur level. He was a two-time National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I champion, national runner-up in 1991, and a three-time NCAA Division I All-American. In addition, Angle was the 1987 USA Junior Freestyle champion, a two-time USA Senior Freestyle champion, and the 1988 USA International Federation of Associated Wrestling Styles Junior World Freestyle champion.

After graduating from college, Angle continued to wrestle. In 1995, he won a gold medal at the World Championships in Atlanta, Georgia. Following this victory, Angle began preparing for the 1996 Summer Olympics under Dave Schultz at the Pennsylvanian Foxcatcher Club, training between eight and ten hours a day. In January 1996, not long after Angle began training at the club, Schultz was murdered by John Eleuthère du Pont, the sponsor of Schultz's team of Olympic prospectives. As a result, Angle quit Eleuthère du Pont's team, searched for new sponsors, and joined the Dave Schultz Wrestling Club in Schultz's memory.

Angle faced further hardships while taking part in the 1996 Olympic Trials, when he suffered a severe neck injury, fracturing two of his cervical vertebrae, herniating two discs, and pulling four muscles. Nonetheless, Angle won the trials and then spent the subsequent five months resting and rehabilitating. By the Olympics, Angle was able to compete, albeit with several pain-reducing injections in his neck. In the fall of 2006, Angle stated that he temporarily became addicted to the analgesic Vicodin after injuring his neck. He won his gold medal in the heavyweight (90–100 kg; 198–220 lb) weight class despite his injury, defeating the Iranian Abbas Jadidi by officials' decision after the competitors wrestled to an eight minute, one-one draw. The bout saw Jadidi earn a point after two minutes and 46 seconds by turning Angle, and Angle earning a point of his own with a takedown after three minutes and eleven seconds. The officials' decision was protested by Jadidi.

Total Nonstop Action Wrestling

TNA World Heavyweight Championship (4 times)

TNA World Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Sting

TNA X Division Championship (1 time)

King of the Mountain (2007, 2009)

Second Triple Crown Champion

World Wrestling Federation / World Wrestling Entertainment

WCW United States Championship (1 time)

WCW Championship (1 time)

World Heavyweight Championship (1 time)

WWF/E Championship (4 times)

WWF European Championship (1 time)

WWF Hardcore Championship (1 time)

WWF Intercontinental Championship (1 time)

WWE Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Chris Benoit

King of the Ring (2000)

Tenth Triple Crown Champion

Fifth Grand Slam Championship

WCW titles reigns were under WWE control of the titles.

This weeks match is Kurt Angle vs Chris Benoit vs Chris Jericho at Wrestlemania 2000 for both of Angle's European and Intercontinental Championships.

Part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Ivy6sNQSqs

Part 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dtj1cuwQ-yk

and that is the end of this week's show. Thank you for reading an hoped you enjoyed. Next week is The Rock.