How Good Was Kurt Angle Actually?
Presence/Look/Presentation
Angle’s look was brilliant. He was ripped and thick and tall. He looked almost literally like a sports entertainer, with an athletic build hulking enough to pass the fabled airport test.
His attire was excellent. He wore the singlet once synonymous with Mr. Perfect, instantly conveying both a technical majesty and his elite-tier amateur legitimacy. The red, white and blue colour palette was inspired on multiple levels. It was authentic, the obvious means by which to present Angle as somebody who had genuinely achieved the highest accolade in the field of athletics. Beyond that, the patriotism element was a deliberate anachronism in 1999, when American family values were something to be attacked by popular artists in the alternative scene. It was an ingenious, zeitgeist-grabbing approach; if Mr. McMahon was the evil boss you hated at your job, the heel Kurt Angle was the disingenuous politician who only pretended to live a clean, wholesome life.
His theme could not have been pitched any more perfectly. It was recycled from the short-lived Patriot babyface character of 1997. Back then, it was shockingly out of date, when the Patriot’s dud run coincided with the rise of anti-hero Stone Cold Steve Austin.
In 1999, it was, again, intentionally out of date. It was the corny, anthemic soundtrack of Angle’s comical internal delusion. It was aural triumph, what he expected to barely hear as his adoring fans, drowning it out, screamed in hysterical admiration for their hero. When they instead started to chant “You suck!” during the conveniently timed pauses, this forced him to lose it - and nobody was funnier when they were pissed off than Kurt Angle.
Angle was packaged so brilliantly that you could argue he was Vince McMahon’s greatest ever creation. Hulkamania ran wild in the early 1980s American Wrestling Association before Hogan headed back to New York. Steve Austin had to pitch the ‘Stone Cold’ character, since Vince had burdened him with the dry ‘Ringmaster’ technician bit. The Rock developed his own egomaniac heel character across 1997 and 1998; it was his ad-libbed decision to refer to himself in the third person. Angle was a perfect character out-of-the-box, but it would not have worked without Angle’s incredible comedic timing. He knew exactly when to explode into fits of rage.
In 2002, Angle, who had already displayed his intense side to startling effect, was forced to shave his hair off after a match against Edge at Judgment Day. After refusing to honour the stipulation by wearing a preposterous wig and amateur headgear combo, Angle eventually debuted a look that accentuated his unreal intensity. Angle remained a laugh riot when the material suited him, but this new look informed his terrifying Wrestling Machine persona. This is when Angle became a goddamn animal between the ropes.