Athletes - Kurt Angle

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	Athletes - Kurt Angle

Kurt Steven Angle (born December 9 1968 in the Pittsburgh suburb of Mount Lebanon, Pennsylvania) is an American 1996 Olympic gold medalist in freestyle wrestling and now a professional wrestler performing for World Wrestling Entertainment on the SmackDown! brand, where he is the current World Heavyweight Champion. He is also the only person to have ever won the WWE Championship, the World Heavyweight Championship and the WCW World Heavyweight Championship.

Among Angle's trademarks is the audience — whether he is face or heel — chanting "You Suck!" in sequence with his entrance music.

Amateur wrestling

Angle had a distinguished career in amateur wrestling. He was a 2-time NCAA Division I champion and a 3-time NCAA Division I All-American while attending Clarion University of Pennsylvania. Angle has a tattoo of the Clarion University Golden Eagle on his upper back. He was also 1987 USA Junior Freestyle champion, 2-time USA Senior Freestyle champion, and 1988 USA FILA Junior World Freestyle champion. Before Angle won his 1996 Olympic gold medal in freestyle wrestling, he sustained amateur wrestling losses to former PRIDE and UFC champion Mark "The Hammer" Coleman and MMA legend Mark Kerr.

Angle reached the pinnacle of his amateur career at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, winning the 100 kg (220-pound) freestyle wrestling competition, becoming the only American to do this.

While Kurt Angle won an Olympic gold medal with a badly injured neck, his neck was not broken. In WWE, Angle exaggerates the severity of his injury, claiming that he won his medal with "a broken freakin' neck!" However, according to the official rule book of the Olympic Games committee, no competitor will be authorized to participate in an event if seriously injured, indicating that Angle was not seriously enough injured to warrant exclusion from the event.

Not long after his high-profile Olympic success, he decided to enter the world of broadcasting. He was hired to do sports commentary during the 10 PM nightly newscast on Pittsburgh TV WPGH channel 53. Promoted as "The Angle on Sports", Kurt was visibly nervous and had trouble speaking on camera. His news career lasted only a few short months before he turned to professional wrestling. The move brought sharp criticism from his peers in the freestyle wrestling community who regard pro wrestling as a mockery of their sport.

Extreme Championship Wrestling

On October 26 1996, Angle was convinced to attend the taping of an Extreme Championship Wrestling event named High Incident by Shane Douglas. Angle provided guest commentary during a match between Taz and Little Guido, but walked out of the building after the infamous "crucifixion storyline" (where Raven attached The Sandman to a cross using barbed wire). Angle was shocked by the controversial imagery and feared that his career prospects would be damaged if he was associated with the incident, so much that he threatened to sue ECW owner Paul Heyman if he was shown on TV in the same broadcast as the stunt.

World Wrestling Federation/Entertainment

1999-2001

After many months spent in the Memphis Championship Wrestling developmental territory and competing in untelevised Dark Matches for the World Wrestling Federation, Angle officially debuted for the WWF on November 14, 1999 at the annual Survivor Series pay-per-view event. He defeated Shawn Stasiak in his debut match. In that match, Angle introduced his finishing move, the Olympic Slam (later renamed Angle Slam), a spinning belly to back suplex. His character, touting morality and the "three I's" -- intensity, integrity, and intelligence -- was a spoof of the all-American babyfaces of the 1980s; Kurt Angle was meant to be a heel in the anti-hero, Attitude Era 1990s.

Angle initially embarked on an undefeated streak, though he suffered a loss in a tag team match when his partner, Steve Blackman, was pinned. This led to a match between the two at Armageddon 1999, which Angle won with a German Suplex. His streak continued into 2000, when he was scheduled to face an unknown opponent at the Royal Rumble. The opponent was revealed as the debuting Tazz, who rendered Angle unconscious using his Tazzmission hold. However, Angle claimed that the Tazzmission was an illegal choke hold, and his streak was therefore unbroken (he was finally beaten decisively by The Rock).

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Kurt Angle ]

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Athletes - Kurt Angle

Amateur wrestling

Extreme Championship Wrestling

World Wrestling Federation/Entertainment

1999-2001

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