Original subtitles

This whole job, technically it's really all built on emotion.

If we can just get nothing else in the world to exist for the two of us, I'm

pretty sure it'll go well.

He said, I'm not scared of you.

And I was like... Shawn Michaels versus Kurt Angle, that was

my dream match.

The lead -up to WrestleMania was among the best we've ever done.

Sexy Kurt.

I'll make your ankle hurt.

Ankle hurt.

It's just a bat.

It's a bat.

And then when they got in the ring, the match went nearly 30 minutes and

completely stole the show.

No, no, yeah!

Oh, my God!

It was the greatest match I ever had.

My generation is molded by guys like Shawn Michaels and Kurt Angle. Shawn is

first man in the history of the company to win every major championship.

The icon, the showstopper, the wrestler of the decade, the first and only

gold medalist in WWE history.

Ladies and gentlemen, a two -time NCAA heavyweight champion named to the NCAA

all -time team.

You can see that when you watch any takeover.

You could see that when you watch NXT.

We're molded by them.

Shawn Michaels, who was the greatest sports entertainer, performer of all

and one of the greatest amateur wrestlers of all time in me, it was a

story to tell, and we knew the fans would buy into it.

Kurt Angle, he's as good as they come, man.

Nothing else compares to Kurt Angle in that ring.

Growing up as a wrestler, Going to the Olympics and winning a gold medal for my

country as a wrestler, I never thought that I would have anything that could

fill the void of retiring from amateur wrestling and never being able

to win a gold medal again.

When people ask me how I feel about WrestleMania, I tell them the same exact

as when I went to the Olympic Games.

The WrestleMania is that big.

And of course, Kurt was one that before I was back in the WWE, that's

one of those ones that people were talking about.

And then one that you as a competitor in this line of work, you sit back and you

go like, oh my goodness, if I were never to be able to get back in the ring

again, he'd be a guy I'd love to be out there with. Back in 96, 95,

Shawn Michaels would ping pong around that ring.

He was as quick as they come. He was as fast as they come. He was just a

charismatic enigma. He was just everything I ever wanted to be as a

wrestler. But for a time period, Shawn Michaels left.

He was gone. He injured his back. He was having back surgery, and he wasn't

around for a while.

And then when Shawn Michaels came back, his style changed, but it's almost like

he evolved, and he got even better.

It was all about the art of making it look as physical and as rough as

but not hurting one another. And when I came back, it's just like, man, them

boys threw that out the window.

We're just beating the piss out of each other out there.

When you're the greatest of all time, you could always live off what you've

done, but he didn't do that. I was doing my best to establish myself.

As the guy that any time a pay -per -view or, in this particular case, a

WrestleMania came around, I performed at a level that was unlike maybe everybody

else. It was just so different and so unique.

He created his own kind of Shakespearean art.

You've got to respect that.

are always exciting because you almost always see kind of a blueprint for what

could potentially happen at WrestleMania.

I remember hearing or reading about a potential Kurt Angle versus Shawn

match at WrestleMania.

And this is all hearsay at this point. You don't know. You can't confirm

anything. You can hope for it. You can hope it comes.

But the 2005 Royal Rumble, when they finally interacted, when Shawn finally

eliminated Kurt Angle, when Kurt Angle came back and got his retribution on

Shawn,

As a fan, I was over the moon because these were my guys. These were my two

guys. And then when they finally interacted, that flower bloomed, man,

so pumped.

So clearly you begin to then say, okay, how are we going to do this? We're on

two separate shows.

We've got X amount of weeks to build to it. We want to build to really just sort

of a dream.

That's the first time I threw out the phrase Mr. WrestleMania.

You have never had the chance to go to the biggest stage of them all

and display your ability against Mr.

WrestleMania.

This whole job, it always winds up in the wrestling ring in a wrestling match

a fight, but...

Technically, it's really all built on emotion.

If the audience can feel more in tune with the

competitors involved, the match is going to mean more. I always tell people,

look, you can hit a chair on the stairs and the people go, whoa, and then you

can hit a guy in the back with a chair and they go, whoa.

The difference between the two is the emotion that's conveyed in the

the hurt, the agony, and the pain.

So if you can tie emotion in with this stuff, it's more fun to do.

So much has been said about Shawn Michaels being the best in -ring

performer. ever in WWE.

I think that bothered Kurt. And I think Kurt, because he was so used to in his

entire career at being the best, at being the Olympic gold medalist, at

the best wrestler in college, at being considered the best wrestler in WWE. And

here comes Shawn Michaels waltzing back into the picture saying that he's the

greatest of all time. So I think Kurt had a chip on his shoulder and he wanted

to prove to the world over those couple of months leading up to WrestleMania

that anything that Shawn could do, Kurt Angle could do better.

Tonight,

I will hold the Kurt Angle Invitational, in which I will give a hometown hero

the opportunity to win my Olympic gold medal.

So now, bring out my opponent.

For what it's worth, any time in your work that you can, I don't know, put on

costume and act like an idiot. Again, for me, the job was 30 years of getting

do just that, which is why I love doing it. Do you think I'm that callable?

I know who you are.

You're Shawn Michaels.

So what's your name and where are you from?

My name is Scott Wright, and I'm from right here in Albany, New York.

So on top of being the regular idiot that I already was, I got to be even

of one in this particular situation and pretend to be the cameraman and pull all

your stuff off and jump the guy, and that's one that's always going to work.

Let's put it that way.

Shawn went back to being the guy for a moment who he was back in his D

-Generation X days. That was a stunt right out of DX's book. It felt like, oh

God, Shawn's back. This is the Shawn Michaels I remember in the ring.

The thing that people have to realize about Kurt

Angle is that he loved, loved being a heel.

Hey, Sean.

Sean.

Whoa, Sean, over here.

My issue with you does go well beyond the Royal Rumble.

It goes all the way back to 1996.

I won a gold medal.

And people are talking to me about some guy named Sean Michaels gliding down

from the rafters that year and putting on a wrestling clinic.

And that ate me up, Sean.

Because truth be told, you are one of the best of all time.

but to even suggest that you're the greatest wrestler of this generation is

insult to me and everything I stand for.

Kurt Angle could beat up anybody.

Kurt Angle was a national treasure.

This man legitimately could turn you into a pretzel in a matter of moments.

This was real to Kurt. This was inside him. That's why it came out. This wasn't

scripted. This was Kurt Angle telling the world who he was and what he was

to do to Shawn Michaels.

My favorite part of this whole story, other than the match itself, is bringing

out Sherry Martel and having sexy Kurt.

Wait a minute.

Kurt Angle.

That's what this is all about.

You know, Kurt Angle

promised to take this four weeks to accomplish all Shawn Michaels has

accomplished in his electric career, I guess.

More of that. The sexy Kurt bit was one of the funniest moments.

that I've ever experienced in WWE.

Why was it funny and why was it good?

Because Kurt Angle treated it seriously.

He believed he was sexy, Kurt. He believed that he was that guy and that

could portray that better than Shawn Michaels could.

Working with Sherri Martel.

which was brilliant. The woman was incredible. She was easy to work with.

It really came across funny, entertaining, and insulting to Shawn

I mean, Shawn Michaels thinks he's so great because he sang his own song.

Well, Shawn, as I've been telling you, anything you can do,

we can do better.

That's what this is all about.

It's so entertaining, and it furthers the story. It makes you want to see

Michaels beat up Kurt Angle.

Hit the music!

Sexy girl!

I'll make your ankle hurt!

Ankle hurt!

I'm just a sexy girl!

Sexy girl!

I'll make your ankle hurt!

Ankle hurt!

Woo!

This sexy boy thing and make your ankle hurt anyway with Sherry, it was

hilarious, by the way.

Hand out the merchandise!

Woo! That is what professional wrestling is. And...

For Kurt Angle to go out there and dance and sing, I'm just a sexy Kurt.

Sexy Kurt.

I'll make your ankle hurt.

Ankle hurt.

It's just the best. It's the best.

And I put her in the ankle lock, which was, you'll never see that today.

It was a lot of fun.

And we...

we're able to entertain the fans up until one of the most anticipated

all time at WrestleMania.

Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, around the world.

It only happens once a year, and the time is now.

We are live in Hollywood, and this...

It's WrestleMania 21!

You know you're going to get something special when it's WrestleMania and Shawn

Michaels is on the card.

For me, Shawn Michaels versus Kurt Angle, that was my dream match.

Kurt and Shawn, the lead up to WrestleMania.

was among the best we've ever done.

And then when they got in the race, completely stole the show.

I think either one of these guys are going to be intimidated.

Uh -oh!

Oh! Pat Patterson, who is still to this day one of the biggest fans of this

sport, Pat said that almost all the time. I mean, you're slapping me. I

right in the face. There were times when there was no reason to slap the dude.

On this particular match...

That really worked.

I remember him saying a week before, when we started meeting up for

WrestleMania, he said, I'm not scared of you. And I thought he was joking. I

started laughing.

He said, no, seriously, I'm not scared of you. I'm not afraid of you.

And I was like, I don't know where that came from, but, you know, I'm pretty

easy to work with.

But I think Shawn was trying to say, no matter how badass you are, no matter

what you did in the Olympics,

I'm going to stand up for myself. So if I get in that ring and you take

advantage of me, you're going to have a problem.

There's a lot of mind games being played. An aggressive takedown by Angle

being slapped in the face.

Angle, the consummate mat wrestler.

The first part of the match, obviously, they stuck to the mat a little bit more.

And as a performer now.

You understand why?

There's no one in the WWE that can out -back wrestle for an angle.

The decision behind having the old -style type of wrestling at the

our match was to send a message to the fans that this is our first meeting.

We're going to feel each other out.

Michael's hand, how they are locked.

Breaks the wrist and a suplex by an angle. Obviously, people expected that

things were going to be crazy in this match, and they would get crazy.

But... You also need to lay the story foundation of Kurt Angle is the

wrestling mastermind.

And now you have Shawn Michaels, who is keeping up.

Whoa! High headlock tickle with Michaels literally pulling a page out of the

Kurt Angle playbook.

Look at this! Backslide! Backslide! Backslide by Shawn Michaels and another

ball. And a back -to -the -side headlock.

I just heard Kurt Angle slap the mat and said, damn it. This was, again, a match

to where I was out there with a guy that could literally do everything, so I had

to at least, you know, lengthen or broaden my very limited moveset.

Oh,

high hip -hop.

High hip -hop.

And Michael's now applying a short -arm scissor.

I'm telling you, I haven't seen that in a long time.

One of the few ones that I can do, sort of a wrestling, pro wrestling slash

submission hold, is the short -arm scissor.

Boy, the short -arm scissor is a kind test of maneuver.

You use absolutely everything you can.

the referee, the announcers, your opponent, the people, if it's out there

you can find a way to weave it in to make this story come alive a little bit

more, man, I say nothing's off the table and you do whatever you can to help set

the table for where it is you want to go.

Oh, man.

What a strength.

The strength and power of Kurt Angle.

You're tired, a good chop will wake you back up and get you moving again.

They think pretty badly, and Sean's pretty good at it.

It didn't really hurt me. If anything, it gave me more adrenaline.

And it ticked me off a little bit. And when I get pissed, things are going to

happen. Kurt Angle going for the angle. Angle slam.

Oh, my God. Three.

Callbacks are king.

you want to reward the loyal viewer.

Because Shawn Michaels has a history of back surgery, has a history of back

problems. Shawn Michaels' spine and his lower back from the angle slam into the

steel ring post.

You know, the fact that I've got a five -inch scar in the middle of my back,

everyone knows that's real.

This was just another particular moment in that story that we were trying

to thread throughout this match.

Sean's going to hate me for saying this, but Curt may have the advantage in

every bracket.

He may have the size, he may have the speed, he may have the strength.

But I think... I think Sean would tell you that himself.

He'd say that Kurt Angle is just a one -of -a -kind athlete. He won an Olympic

gold medal. He won an Olympic gold medal with a broken freaking neck. Kurt Angle

and I both went out there with the exact same game plan.

The majority of the matches I was in had guys on that

same level, at least for that particular moment in time, to where I just needed

to be.

The most important thing in the world to you for this 15 minutes or this 20

minutes or 30 minutes or whatever it is. What the hell is Sean doing?

If it's okay, if we can just get nothing else in the world to exist except for

that, for the two of us, I'm pretty sure it'll go well.

It's an absolute glorious thing when all of it comes together.

Michael's trying to fight his way back in the ring.

to beat the referee's 10 count. There was a point in the match where I was

to give Sean a German suplex off of the apron under the floor.

Trying to angle back in this thing and angle off on the apron. Oh my God!

Sean was hanging on to the rope and he hung on there for a while and eventually

he knew he wouldn't be able to hang on much longer.

Oh no, no!

He's trying the German suplex!

Shawn Michaels off the apron of the ring.

It also has to be real to both guys in the moment. The rear is at stake here. A

German suplex from the edge of the ring through a table to bring Michaels back.

So he gave me a low blow.

The crowd booed. I think the reason the crowd booed is because they wanted

to see me complete the German suplex on the floor.

And there would be no Shawn Michaels anymore.

The most impressive move of the night was when Shawn did a springboard jump

the second rope.

I didn't think Shawn was going to make it.

He got there. He landed on me and it was very, very

stiff.

The table's always supposed to give away.

The minute they go like, oh, it didn't break, they're a little bit

but then they have a moment to think about it and they go like, dang, that

even more.

I need a good one minute to get my stuff together before I can continue on with

the match.

I looked and I saw all this blood just... coming out of my mouth. It was

out on the floor and then in the ring, and I thought, you know what, I'm going

to give these people more drama.

Nonetheless, as Angle bleeds from the mouth, you don't know what St.

Michael's back is in.

By spitting the blood out even more, so it was hanging on my chin, and it was

very dramatic.

Everybody knows what this job is.

Anybody's game. All right. Just like they know what a movie is.

Everyone

is

a willing participant in the emotion and the story.

All we have to do is make sure that we do everything we can to keep them in it,

to draw them more into it, and just be committed to doing that the whole way

through.

During the comeback, I went up to finish Shawn and I executed a moonsault.

Uh -oh.

He just rededicated himself to this match.

What's he doing now?

Oh, wait a minute.

And I went really high in the air.

Kurt Angle has the prettiest moonsault in professional wrestling. I don't

understand how that's possible.

I don't understand why it's possible.

I don't understand how he figured out he could do it. He was probably just in a

ring someday, and someone was like, hey, try this moonsault. And he did it, and

it was the best moonsault that anyone's ever seen.

Well, it was funny, too, because when Kurt first came in at WWE, it was right

around the same time that Brock Lesnar first came into WWE, and we used to

these guys try to show off who had the better moonsault.

I think Kurt does.

It's just he floats.

I don't understand how he defies the laws of physics and floats, but he

He's just, it feels like he's up there for like 10 minutes and he's just never

coming down.

Unfortunately, Sean moved and I landed right on my face and my stomach and

knocked the wind out of myself.

At the end of the match, Sean gave me the super kick.

Very, very seldomly, on very rare occasions, does anyone kick out of it.

I

remember

Sean getting up.

I grabbed his ankle.

When you look at Kurt's face and he's got that ankle lock locked in, part of

is going, he's really going to break this guy's ankle. Like, this is real to

him. This is really going to end this in a bad way.

When Shawn Michaels is putting that ankle lock, you can see the desperation.

can feel the desperation.

And you can't help but cheer on Shawn Michaels.

He is the quintessential underdog.

Make no mistake about it, there were a lot of great matches at WrestleMania 21,

and there are always a lot of great matches at every WrestleMania.

But this match was really spectacular.

The reason I say that is because when we got done, we went back to Guerrilla,

and there had to be 50 people giving us a standing ovation. That's when you know

that you mastered the business.

It went on for 30 minutes and we did not want this match to end because you are

seeing two guys at the top of their game, two of the all -time greats

it out.

There were no championships on the line. This was not about being a champion.

This was about being the best.

It was like magic.

Sean and I have never touched before in our lives.

And to have that type of chemistry that we had our very first time.

It never happens. Period.

It was the greatest match I ever had.

You go to the hotel room, you order a pizza, you're watching Polar Express

your two kids, and you turn to your wife, Rebecca, and you tell her, I'm

the greatest life a dude could ever live.

Can you paint that picture?

It's beautiful.

Yeah. So, I don't know.

As I went back into that hotel room, and I would weep like a freaking baby about

the fact that I've been, you've given this.

unbelievable platform.

I know what's inside this body and what isn't there, and it shouldn't have been

able to do the stuff it's done. It shouldn't have gone that well.

And then I come back, and I've got these kids that think, and again, now one's

20 and the other one's going to be 16, and they still think I'm pretty damn

okay. And, you know, and she's still in love with me and still married to me.

And I'm still living the life a guy shouldn't be able to live because if you

me, it's freaking perfect.

And I don't understand how in the world that's allowed to be.

Damn, I hate it when you guys do this to me.

Because I don't know why I do it.

I'm just thankful for it.