Kurt Angle recently recalled having to kiss Stephanie McMahon on WWE television, describing the scenario as “ridiculously weird”.
During a recent episode of the ‘Kurt Angle Show’, the WWE Hall of Famer recalled the feud between himself and Triple H in the summer of 2000. During this time, the duo were involved in a love triangle storyline, featuring Stephanie McMahon.
Recalling the infamous moment in which he had to kiss Stephanie during a backstage segment, Angle recalls the moment being an uncomfortable one. Not only was he kissing the real life girlfriend of his bitter rival, but her father and WWE Chariman Vince McMahon, was directing the scene:
“Oh, this was ridiculously weird. I mean, to come backstage with Stephanie and to have to do a pre-tape that was going live, so we weren’t going to tape it. It was going to be one take, I think Vince did that on purpose so we only had to kiss once. I also don’t know if we had the time to pre-tape it, so that was probably the real issue. We got backstage and Vince wants to direct it. I was like, ‘holy shit!’ Vince McMahon, Stephanie McMahon’s father is going to direct me kissing her during a pre-tape. I was nervous as hell. Vince was four feet away and his eyes were this open [opens eyes as wide as possible]. He’s just looking. I’m like, ‘this is so weird, man.’
I don’t know how I’m going to do this, so I went down to kiss her and we caught eyes and then we went to kiss and I stuck my lips out like this [puckers lips] because I didn’t want to go with an open mouth because Vince was there and I didn’t want to disrespect Triple H or Stephanie. But I kissed her like this [puckers lips again] and after the pre-tape, she goes, ‘hey, you kiss like a fish’ [laughs]. I was like, ‘what did you expect Stephanie, your dad’s here watching. He’s directing. Your dating Triple H. What do you want me to do?”
The storyline between Helmsley, McMahon and Angle would conclude at Unforgiven 2000. In the main event, Triple H would defeat Kurt Angle in a No Disqualification match. When recounting the rivalry, co-host Conrad Thompson questioned Angle on rumours that, at that time, Triple H didn’t believe the storyline was a believable one, as someone like ‘The Game’ wouldn’t lose a girl to someone such as Angle. Kurt summarised that, although he wasn’t privy to these rumblings, he would not have been surprised by that fact:
“Maybe he thought from a business perspective, but I really don’t know. I wasn’t in the meeting, and I don’t know what Triple H had said or didn’t say. I wouldn’t be surprised either way, but you know, that’s not my choice […] It was relatively new to me, I never heard that before, so I’m actually surprised, but again, I’m not surprised.
You know, I understand why Hunter didn’t want the program to continue. It’s kind of hard to have another wrestler kissing your girlfriend or fiancé, you know, rubbing up against her and stuff. It can get a little offensive. I understand if he had problems with it. He never told me that he did. He never showed me that he did. So, I don’t know”
The feud would end following Triple H’s victory at the pay-per-view. However, Helmsley and Stephanie would face Kurt Angle, alongside Ronda Rousey 18 years later, at WrestleMania 34.
Credit for Interview: The Kurt Angle Show