Everytime I go out there I try to do the best that I can do, I try to have the best match I can possibly have with whomever I'm working with. It's been limited, but I enjoy it. Everyone says oh I do it for the fans .. I do it for the fans yes, but I also do it for me, I do it for the guy I'm working with, I do it for a personal satisfaction also.
Kurt and I have a great chemistry so we knew we were gonna go out there and hopefully give our best, and that's exactly what we did. We apologised before we went out there and we knew it was gonna be rough. Is Kurt dangerous? Absolutely, and that's the truth. He will take any man down and stretch him all over the place and make you scream in pain. That's who Kurt Angle is, he's a bad motherf**ker. He won the '96 Gold Medal. From a sheer, we call it a shoot, standpoint, he's the best in the world.
You go out there and you get the adrenaline pumping you know, and the fans are feeding you and you know what? It's a battle, it really is, it's two gladiators going at it. If you can pull that off and you have that appreciation, I get goosebumps just thinking about it, you have 20,000 people rocking, you know the whole world is watching, you just .. you're feeling it, you can't help but just come out there and go at it, go at it, you know.
Things hurt like hell, I'm seeing stars, wham, I come back with a shot, Kurt's eye is split open, he's bleeding, you know Kurt he's pissed off now, because it's natural, pain will do that to any animal, especially a person. And here we go, rewind the tape I watched it back the other day and just me and the appreciation for me was like whew, I was like wow, that's, that's stiff. It's a competition, you know as much as everyone says it's not, it's a competition. I wanted to see how good Kurt was, I know he's the best in the world but I wanted to see just how good, that's .. I have that in me, I want to challenge the best.
Kurt was pissed you know Kurt was extremely pissed. I cost Kurt King of the Ring, Kurt had to compete two other times before facing me, I'm not dumb, I'm not gonna get in there with Kurt, he's a thoroughbred. You know, so how do you weaken a thoroughbred? You make him run a race a couple of times, so that's exactly what my plan was and that's what I did. With that I wanted to throw Kurt off his game, cause I never just want to face him one on one, straight up, it's suicide, anybody.
We started amateur wrestling, I was goin boom as fast as I can, he was just right behind me everytime. I truly have an appreciation, even moreso now, being in that situation with Kurt, man this guy is just a bad SOB, he's just, that's why he's the best, that's why he has an Olympic Gold around his neck. Um, not to say that I'm a great amateur wrestler, little experience, but to have someone just dominate you like that, is, you're just like whoa, absolutely blows you away.
Kurt came in right in the beginning and killed me, all over, I was like forget it, there's no way I can do this. Then Kurt got comfortable because he got right back in that game, I know if I can get Kurt comfortable, then I'd have the advantage. Kurt was comfortable, he was amateur, he was gonna embarass me again and slap me all over the place but then I, you know, I heard the 'oh!' I heard the big gasp and I was like forget it, I went back to what I know, I was like obviously I'm not gonna wrestle the guy, I just started pounding on his face. Whatever your natural instincts are you always revert back to your natural instincts, so I knew Kurt would rely, if I was able to rock him a little, Kurt would go back to his natural instinct, and his natural instinct is to grab a guy and pick him up and slam him to the ground.
Believe me, everytime that tight waist takedown he'd slam me into the ground, my whole face'd pop off my shoulder, I was able to block it then I just started running. I knew Kurt would hold on cause there's no way he's gonna let go of me, thank God, you know this is not an amateur mat this is a ring and we got to the ropes I just, everything I had, I hit the ground and Kurt went flyin', hit the ropes, flew out and hit the cement which slowed him down a little bit more and then he was real mad. (laughs) Then he was real mad, I was like uh-oh, I better get on my horse here. Kurt flew in, came after me, I was like phew let's get the hell out of here, boom, I ran out of dodge, you know I'm running for my life trying to think on my feet. I just, this guy is gonna kill me. I knew I had a couple of things planning but we'll see, so I jumped up, I got behind JR, I figured maybe I'll take a quick breather here, I know I have to get to that kendo stick, cause that's my equalizer. There's one way to slow, you know the best in the world the down.
So that's what happened, I just leaped right off the top, off that barricade, I remember jumping over JR and then wham came down with everything I had and knocked Kurt down, that gave me enough time to get that kendo stick. Then I was the bad boy on the block at that moment, kendo stick's made of bamboo, it's the hardest wood in the world. You know they use it in Singapore to punish people when they do crimes and things, I mean that's a serious weapon, you can call it whatever you like, that's a serious equalizer. So crack I nail Kurt, oh it broke on the first shot, I was like, his ribs are busted. He bent over and I just started going to town on him. Boom, boom, boom, boom, just going to town. I gotta put him down, I have to put this guy down, I gotta put him out now. And Kurt he charged back at me and nailed me into the ring post, smashed my head, and Kurt charged me one more time, I barely got out of the way and poof I knocked Kurt over the barricade.
We were both exhausted, I mean I can't even imagine how tired Kurt is, he had two other matches prior to this, which is again part of my strategy. I think Kurt's down for the count for a while but you know he's a tough bastard, he comes right from behind, grabs me. I was able to turn him around and then just ran him into everything I could. But you have to remember everytime I did something it took air outta me. It took energy out of me, every single thing, everytime you throw a punch, you know, I don't know if people at home ever tried to do that, just try shadow boxing for thirty seconds, throw your hands as fast as you can for thirty seconds and see how tired you are. Try running up a flight of stairs and imagine, you really have an appreciation for when you get those jelly legs and everything hurts and aches and you can barely throw a punch.
You have to continue, you have to keep going. Shot a half nelson on him, just drove him as fast as I could in the back off the head, now I'm off the stairs, rolled him back in and I was just like forget it, this guy's gotta be done, covered him 1-2, and then the amateur again he neck-bridged. He's got a neck like this anyway, and he neck-bridged and I was like what the hell is this? Get back down there, wham! Nailed him, rib again, drove him again, third time it was like okay hotshot, you know Kurt's bridging for everything he has and that's all he's thinking about is no pin, no pin, and he's bridging, all of a sudden I was like forget it, I just dropped an elbow, boom, take that. I'm like alright I got something for you.
I went outside, started throwing in everything I could find under the ring, then I started wearing him out. Kurt's down and I go that's it he's done, I covered him tight, like really sinched down, next thing I know Kurt somehow neck-bridged, spin out, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, Kurt's kneeing me, giving me everything he's got, oh every shot just took every breath out of me, I was just like forget it. I was about ready to say no mass, I grabbed his leg, Kurt went to kick me, I ducked down, and then I don't know it just came to me, ankle lock, that's it, no way near as effective as Kurt's obviously, boom Kurt spun around kicked me right in the face and that's where he almost knocked me out. One more time he almost knocked me out. Boom! Play that back, and you watch my head snap back, boom, I held on, because I was going out, I was unconscious, then just as I was about to came back, bang, I got one more shot and finally fell down.
After that I'm blurry. I'm just doing everything I can, til I get my senses back. But the sharpshooter, he hit me and then I knew I had to wear Kurt out. Now I hit him, you go back, watch how hard I hit him with that shot with the right hand. I cracked him it was like, it felt good, you know when you hit a baseball just right? When he kicked out of that I was like this is the toughest man on the planet and I go, he's just tough. We'd been beating the crap out of each other so I said forget it and then I went to the trash cans. Uh, and then I was like this still isn't gonna work, then I went to the top rope and I'm like I'm finishing him, so I'm flying up there, and went for a shooting star and wham! I ended up, right there on my left side, on the trash can. I'm pretty much numb by now.