The Undertaker Denies Fan Theory About Legendary WrestleMania Streak
The Undertaker and Kurt Angle have cleared up some confusion.
In the early months of 2006, The Undertaker set his sights on the World Heavyweight Championship and Kurt Angle. After returning at the Royal Rumble to threaten Angle, the pair finally met at No Way Out that February.
When all was said and done, Angle retained the title, and the match was hailed as an instant classic by fans, and for many, it still stands up today.
In more recent years, it’s become known that the pair actually wanted to have the match at WrestleMania 22, a little over a month later. In fact, ‘Taker and Angle approached Vince McMahon with the pitch for the match, only to have it turned down, and then scheduled for No Way Out.
Kurt Angle And The Undertaker Set The Record Straight
The story fed into speculation that Kurt Angle was originally meant to break The Undertaker’s WrestleMania streak, which at that time stood at 13-0. The idea goes that, as Angle won at No Way Out, the same would have happened at WrestleMania.
However, that’s not quite the case.
On the latest edition of Six Feet Under, Angle appeared as a guest alongside Undertaker and his wife, Michelle McCool.
The episode opened with Undertaker denying to someone off-camera that he ever wanted someone to break The Streak.
“No, I don’t want anybody to break that. We wanted to wrestle at ‘Mania, but I didn’t want anybody to break the streak.”
Angle added that while it’s true that he wanted to wrestle the legend at WrestleMania, The Streak was never part of the deal, and he didn’t think it should have ever been broken.
“We wanted to wrestle each other… I don’t think the streak should have been broken. We presented it to Vince, and Vince said, ‘No, you’re going to wrestle the month before.’ That’s what he said.”
Previously, Kurt Angle has claimed that Vince McMahon turned down the pitch because he didn’t want Undertaker to be the World Champion at that time. McMahon also didn’t want to break The Streak, at least in 2006, so that meant the match was scheduled for earlier in the year.
At WrestleMania 22, Undertaker beat Mark Henry in a Casket Match, and Angle famously lost the World Championship to Rey Mysterio in a Triple Threat Match also involving Randy Orton.
During his conversation with Undertaker, Kurt Angle said that he looked like an “old man” during his final WWE run. He said that his physical condition was made worse by spending so much time not wrestling when he first got back with the company in 2017.
By the time he did wrestle again, Angle explained that his inactivity had made his arthritis and other injuries worse, meaning he was in a lot of pain. As a result, he admitted he knew he had to retire before he originally planned.
H/t to Fightful