Professional wrestling legend and WWE Hall of Famer Kurt Angle who is a former six times world champion in WWE and a former six times TNA World Heavyweight Champion recently talked about his match against Hulk Hogan from King of the Ring 2002.
It was a normal one on one match, and in that match, Kurt Angle defeated Hulk Hogan by submission. Angle revealed that Vince McMahon was scared that Hulk Hogan might not tap at the end of this match as it has been booked.
Kurt Angle Looks Back At His Match Against Hulk Hogan From 2002
The fear was quite legit for Vince McMahon. Not even five years ago than this event, the infamous incident of Montreal Screwjob took place where “The Hitman” Bret Hart refused to lose a match against Shawn Michaels and Vince McMahon had to call for the bell even when Bret Hart did not tap.
Hulk Hogan was a pretty big name, better say he was the biggest name in professional wrestling back in that time. The fear was quite legit for Vince McMahon that he might not tap. You cannot order anything to someone like Hulk Hogan.
Besides Hulk Hogan had Aa terrible reputation in such cases as well. Who can forget the infamous Bash at the Beach pay per view event of WCW from 2000. The management wanted to book a world heavyweight championship match between Jeff Jarrett and Booker T. But Hulk Hogan wanted the championship and there was a terrible mess at the event.
King of the Ring 2002 at the end of the day did not become famous for the match between Angle and Hulk Hogan. It is mostly remembered as the last ever King of the Ring pay per view event where the tournament was won by one of the newest wrestler of the promotion Brock Lesnar.
Kurt Angle who is a former six times world champion in WWE and a former six times TNA World Heavyweight Champion recently spoke to AdFreeShows.com where he talked about his match against Hulk Hogan from King of the Ring 2002. He said;
“Well, they are three of the top stars, and possibly you can be pushed underneath them. You heard stories that they were really political and they were always trying to fight for themselves and fend for themselves, always wanted to get tight with the boss and weasel their way to the top. I didn’t see that when they came there. I think Vince kept them under wraps or their attitudes changed, but there was no problem with them at all.”
“The first night they were there, Vince messed with them big time. They had to do pretapes until 3 o’clock in the morning. Vince kept them after the show. He pushed the pretapes back until the show was over and made them do it over and over again. I guess he was making them pay for leaving WWE back in the ‘90s.”
“I didn’t have a problem with them. I don’t think anybody had a problem with them. I will tell you this. There was one time when Vince was really concerned because I had to make Hogan tap out at the King of the Ring. He wanted to make sure, and he told me Hulk Hogan would talk him out of it, so he wanted me to be in the room with Hulk Hogan when he told Hulk that he was going to tap out to me.”
“I was really nervous. It’s Hulk Hogan, the biggest name in the history of the business, and here I’m going to make him tap out for the first time in his career, and Vince wants me there to make sure that he abides by it. It just blew my mind.
“I was nervous and scared. I was inexperienced. I didn’t know what to think or expect, and here Vince wanted me to be there just to make sure Hulk Hogan didn’t talk him out of it. I guess there were times when Hogan was political in the past, but he wasn’t at this point in time.”
“In TNA, Hogan was great to work with. Nash was great to work with. Scott Hall was great to work with. I didn’t have problems at all with them.”
H/T to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription