Hello, this is my first ever article on wrestling. I thought I should write my own after reading so many excellent ones on the site. I'm 14 years old and I live in Nottingham, England and have been a wrestling fan for 5 years. I decided to do my article on Kurt Angle because he's one of my favorites and has been in the WWE for over 6 years now. I thought it only right to take a look back over the life and career of our 'Olympic Hero' Kurt Angle.

Kurt Angle was born on December 9, 1968. He has four older brothers and one sister. His father, David Angle, a construction worker, died when Kurt was 16. He grew up in Pittsburgh, PA and graduated in 1987 from Mount Lebanon High School. Kurt's tattoo is of his high school mascot. In high school, he was an all- state linebacker, a Junior National Freestyle Wrestling Champion, and a State Freestyle Wrestling Champion. Kurt graduated in 1992 from Clarion University in Pittsburgh, where he received a degree in Geography. After college, Kurt was a 4 time Athlete of the Year on the Olympic level, a 5 time national champion on the Olympic and World level and in 1995 he was a world champion.

Kurt Angle went on to capture national attention in 1996 when he won the 220-pound freestyle wrestling competition at the Olympic Games in Atlanta when he defeated Abbas Jadidi of Iran - with a broken neck no less - in Atlanta, Ga. It was a great day for the country. From 1996 to 1997, Kurt worked as a weekend sports anchor for a Pittsburgh station. In his free time, he also gave speeches and endorsed products for Protos INC.

After his Olympic win, Kurt was offered a contract with the WWF. Kurt visited the training facilities but turned down the offer. Amateur wrestlers were taught never to have anything to do with the 'fake' pro wrestling. In October of 1998, Kurt began watching the WWF and became enthralled with the business. He then contacted the WWF and asked for a tryout. Kurt went to a training facility in Stamford, Connecticut run by Tom Prichard and Dory Funk JR. Our Olympic hero was signed to a 5 year contract on his 2nd day there. This was unheard of. On his 4th day with the company Kurt had his first match in Boston against Christian. This was another rarity. It took most wrestlers much longer.

Promos began to run on the WWF shows of a cocky arrogant Olympic champion making his debut at Survivor Series. Kurt made his official WWF debut in November 1999 at said Pay-Per-View. He defeated Shawn Stasiak in the opening match of the classic yearly event. Kurt was undefeated for quite some time until the debuting Tazz - at the Royal Rumble - 2000 defeated him. Kurt later went on to defeat Val Venis for the European championship and Chris Jericho for the Intercontinental championship at No Way Out 2000. Kurt was then a 'Eurocontinental' champion. He did then however go on to lose both championships at Wrestlemania 2000 without even being pinned!

Kurt Angle came back to his winning ways by reaching and defeating Rikishi in the King of the Ring Finals. Kurt was elevated to the main-event status with matches such as the one against the Undertaker at Fully Loaded and a triple threat match with the Rock and HHH for the championship to main event the second biggest WWF show of the year, Summerslam. This included a feud with HHH over Stephanie McMahon, which he eventually lost. By August, anyone could see that it was Kurt's time. He was the man. That was confirmed in October 2000 at No Mercy when Kurt Angle defeated the Rock to become the WWF champion. Kurt Angle, in rare fashion, had won the WWF title after debuting a mere 11 months earlier. He held onto the title until February of 2001, having defended the title against the Undertaker and Triple H in one of the greatest HIAC matches ever. It was the longest title reign since two years before.

Kurt lost the title to the Rock at No Way Out. Kurt then had a 3 month long feud with Chris Benoit which saw some of the best technical mat-wrestling to date. At King of the Ring, Kurt had the opportunity to become only the second superstar in history to win the King of the Ring twice (the other being Bret Hart). Instead of Kurt winning KOTR again, Shane McMahon cheated him out of it in the finals. Later that night Kurt went on to defeat Shane in an amazing Street Fight, which showed a whole other side to Kurt's ring style. Not only was he perhaps the best technical wrestler in the WWF at the time, but he could also stun an audience in a more 'Hardcore' style match. After the KOTR he began hanging out with Steve Austin and Vince McMahon, becoming Steve Austin's second in the WCW/ECW invasion. He began a long feud with the WWF champion, Steve Austin after he switched to the Alliance and led his team to Invasion. Kurt became the ultimate face during the Invasion angle, leading the WWF against Alliance. This surprised and upset many seeing as Kurt hadn't been in the WWF very long and shouldn't take the leading role. He defeated Austin for the Championship at Unforgiven, but was cheated out of it shortly after. He then joined the Alliance but eventually turned on them to help WWF reign victorious. Many people thought the Invasion angle was awful and could have been so much more, but it did miracles for Kurt's career at the time, seeing as the Invasion pretty much revolved around Kurt, Austin and the return of The Rock. Kurt soon turned back to a heel character the night after the Invasion and continued to feud with Austin over the Undisputed Title Tournament at Vengeance.

Afterwards he started a feud with the newly returned HHH. Kurt entered his first Royal Rumble in 2002 but sadly lost to HHH. He was the second-to-last man eliminated. Kurt got a #1 contenders match at No Way Out against HHH which he won with help from Stephanie McMahon. He then lost his right to main event Wrestlemania the following night on RAW. After all this, Kurt was lowered away from the main-event status and had a brief feud with Kane and was then the #2 draft pick for the Smackdown! brand in the brand extension. This led to a 2 month feud with Edge, who cost him his hair in a 'Hair vs. Hair' match at Judgement Day. Kurt then went on to have a poorly promoted match with Hulk Hogan at KOTR in what was called a battle of the real Americans. Kurt won the match and was the only person to have ever beaten Hulk Hogan via submission (although The Rock did make him tap to the sharpshooter when the ref was down at Wrestlemania). Kurt returned to main-event status on Smackdown! and had a draw in a controversial match to the Undertaker by making him tap out while Kurt himself was being pinned. Kurt was also the first man to make the Undertaker tap out. This led to Kurt main-eventing Vengeance in a Triple Threat Match with the Undertaker and The Rock. Kurt lost the match and then went into a small feud with newcomer to the WWE Rey Mysterio, who he beat at Summerslam.

Kurt was then moved into another technical wrestling classic with Chris Benoit. The two men had an outstanding match at Unforgiven, which saw Chris Benoit come out on top. The two men continued their rivalry and were forced to be a Tag Team and compete in the tournament for the new WWE Tag Team Championships. Chris Benoit and Kurt defeated Edge and Rey Mysterio in the final at No Mercy. This was Kurt's first and only Tag Team Title reign to date. Kurt and Chris' hatred for each other got the best of them because on November 7th, 2002, they lost the titles to Edge and Rey Mysterio. Chris and Kurt failed to recapture the gold in a 3-way match at Survivor Series and 'Los Guerreros' won the match. After this match it was unclear what would become of Kurt Angle and Chris Benoit as far as storylines go. Luckily for Kurt, he was about to have arguably his best rivalry to date...

More in Part 2.

by James Ahsan