On the latest Kurt Angle Show podcast, Kurt Angle talked about his time in WWE’s developmental program circa 1998.
Angle shared an interesting story about Shawn Stasiak:
“I want to tell you a story about Shawn,” Angle said. “This also affected his career, and I hate to say this, but I have to let the cat out of the bag. Shawn was losing his hair just like I was. He decided to get a hair replacement surgery and it was a week before he was called up. He called the WWE and said, ‘Hey, I can’t be called up right now. I’m getting my hair done’, and they’re like, ‘Oh, okay. All right. We’ll take care of you then.'”
Angle continued, “He didn’t lose his confidence because of that, but I think that painted him in a corner where, okay, this guy’s not going to be a team player. They were like, ‘We want you to debut right now’, and he’s like, ‘I can’t. I have to wait about two months.’ I was like, ‘Okay, you can wait two months. Let’s see what happens then.’ When I look at it, I just wonder if that might have affected his career a little bit. I don’t know.”
While that story may be accurate and may have played a role in his career being derailed, Stasiak has said in shoot interviews that he felt that there was a stigma attached to him because someone saw that he had a tape recorder in his bag. Stasiak has said that while in developmental, he was told to keep a tape recorder on him so he could tape himself doing promos but that was frowned upon when he got to the main roster and that may have been why he derailed his career.
After his wrestling career, Stasiak became a chiropractor and he received a certificate in manipulation under anesthesia from the Academy of Physical and Manual Medicine in New York. He has also worked as a motivational speaker.
If you use any portion of the quotes from this article please credit AdFreeShows.com with a h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription.
