On this week’s “The Kurt Angle Show,” Angle talked about the 2006 Royal Rumble match, his New Year’s Revolution early elimination, and winning the world title on Smackdown.
Kurt Angle on why he was eliminated first from The Elimination Chamber at the 2006 New Year’s Revolution PPV:
“The reason I got eliminated early was because I won Paper, Rock, Scissors. John Cena was the champion and he was going to retain the title at the Elimination Chamber, so the other 5 of us wanted to get eliminated early. They didn’t want to last the whole match because they weren’t going to win. I won Paper, Rock, Scissors so I got eliminated first. That doesn’t happen very often but we did it that night,” Kurt laughed.
On the same night as the New Year’s Revolution PPV, Smackdown ran a house show where Batista tore his tricep. He had to vacate the World Heavyweight Title. Kurt Angle, who had recently moved from SmackDown to RAW, was asked to move back to SmackDown. Here is Kurt Angle explaining why he was chosen for the role:
“The reason why they chose me is because they went to the other top wrestlers on RAW and none of them wanted to leave RAW,” Angle said.
“Vince called me and said, ‘I need a favor from you. I know you were on SmackDown for years. You just came over to RAW recently, but I need you to go back to SmackDown.’ I said, ‘Vince, I’m a team player. I’ll do this. Whatever you need’, and I did it.”
Kurt on when he knew he would win the World title on SmackDown:
“Vince told me on the phone the night before when I talked to him. I knew I would win the World Heavyweight Title in a Battle Royal,” he remembered fondly.
After winning the World Title, his hand started going numb. A week later while on a house show tour in Mexico, Angle received acupuncture. Here is Angle’s account of what happened:
“My neck was broken. I had a little swelling in my neck and my hand went numb,” Angle revealed.
“I was down in Mexico and these doctors were giving acupuncture with acupuncture needles, and the crazy thing was they were using the same needles on every wrestler and I didn’t know this. Dr. Rios, the WWE doctor, came up to me and said, ‘Hey Kurt, he used the same needles on these Mexican wrestlers, on the American wrestlers, and they used the same ones on you. You’re going to have to get tested for hepatitis when you get back for a whole year.’ I had to get tested every month for a whole year to make sure I didn’t get hepatitis. It was crazy.”
After returning from Mexico, Angle said, “The numbness went away. I decided I was fine. I went to Dr. Rios and he checked me over. He gave me a physical and I passed it. I said, ‘I want to keep wrestling.’ He said, ‘All right, but just be careful because you still have broken vertebrae in your neck and that’s what’s causing the numbness in your arms and hands.’ They allowed me to continue to wrestle because I wanted to.”
If you use any portion of the quotes from this article please credit “The Kurt Angle Show on AdFreeShows.com” with a h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription.
