Kurt Angle has discussed competing in a match where the rules were so confusing he needed them explained to him three times before he got how it worked.
Over the course of his legendary 20-year career, WWE Hall of Famer Kurt Angle competed in every kind of match there is. From battle inside Steel Cages and Hell In A Cells to Hardcore Wars, I Quit bouts and gruelling 60-minute Iron Man matches he’s done it all.
However, not all of them have been as straightforward as pinning his opponent or climbing out of a cage. At TNA Slammiversary 2007, the multi-time World Champion took part in one of the most complicated bouts of his career when he entered his first King of the Mountain match.
The rules of the five-man match were as follows:
- The competitors started the match as ‘ineligible’ to win.
- To become eligible they needed to get a pinfall or submission.
- The opponent who was pinned or tapped out had to spend two minutes inside a ‘penalty box’ cage at ringside.
- Once eligible, to win the match the wrestler needed to retrieve the TNA World Heavyweight Championship from an official at ringside and climb a ladder to hook it on a rope suspended above the ring.
- However, other eligible wrestlers could try to steal the belt and hang it themselves.
- If the belt fell to the floor, it would go back to the official at ringside.
Speaking on the latest episode of his podcast, The Kurt Angle Show (available early on AdFreeShows), Angle recalled that the rules were so confusing that he needed them laid out to him no less than three times.
“Right after Slammiversary. No, not Slammiversary, No Surrender. It was a month before Slammiversary. And they came to me and told me about this King of the Mountain match. And I said, Well, what are the rules? And you know, when they explained to me the first time I said, could you repeat that? That is really complicated.
“So I was struggling to understand the rules at the beginning. So I had to be told about three times before I understood it.”
At the event, Kurt Angle was able to navigate the rules successfully and overcame Samoa Joe, AJ Styles, Christian Cage, and Chris Harris to capture the TNA World Heavyweight Championship.
If you use any of the above quotes, please credit The Kurt Angle Show with an H/T and link back to Inside The Ropes for the transcription.