10 Wrestling Matches With Backstories You’ll NEVER Believe
1. Kurt Angle Vs. Brock Lesnar
When: WWE SmackDown (18 September 2003)
What Happened: Brace yourselves for this.
One night before he was set to wrestle Brock Lesnar in an hour-long 'Iron Man' on SmackDown, Kurt Angle received a grim phone call from his brother. Their sister had died of a heroin overdose aged 40. Worse, Kurt had told her months earlier he'd never talk to her again if she didn't get clean.
Distraught, Angle understandably struggled to cope with the pain of losing his sibling. All over the place mentally, he grabbed around 20 extra-strength Vicodin, put them in his mouth then "chewed up and swallowed them". Kurt didn't wake up until 5pm the following day, and he was meant to be inside the ring with Brock four hours after that.
The Olympian told Joe Rogan that WWE had been calling him, but there was no answer because he was out cold. Mere hours after coming to, Angle hit the ring and worked one of the best free TV bouts in company history. He reasoned that wrestling for 60 minutes helped block out the pain of losing his sister.
For context, Kurt estimates he was consuming approx 65 Vicodin per day at one point.
Which other wrestling matches have insane backstories? For more WWE, check out 10 New Directions For WWE After Crown Jewel 2023 and 15 Wrestling Pics So Strange They Look AI Generated!