Kurt Angle stared a hole through the camera, and it went viral.
Back in 2023, Kurt Angle made his TikTok debut with a clip. The 1996 Olympic winner introduced himself to viewers with a recap of his accolades before mentioning his purpose for doing TikTok videos.
Some 24 seconds into the original clip, which re-emerged on Twitter/X a couple of days ago, Kurt makes a brief pause to ask if they’re done with his TikTok intro. We then get the infamous Kurt Angle 1000-yard stare that deserves its own place in a Hall of Memes, if there’s one.
Even the Master of the 3 I’s would not have predicted the virality of his stare back in the day. If you’ve come this far, check out Kurt Angle reacting to becoming a meme machine with his viral 1000-yard stare here.
Kurt Angle reflects on working WrestleMania 19 with a broken neck
Before he went viral for his “thousand yard stare,” Kurt Angle was know for winning Olympic gold with a broken (frickin’) neck. Angle also broke his neck ahead of facing Brock Lesnar in the main event of WrestleMania 19. He underwent neck surgery the very next day, but told Casino.org why he put the procedure off.
“I wasn’t supposed to wrestle at the event, but decided to do it at the last second. I asked my Doctor, ‘Can I go out there and wrestle if I protect my neck, will I be OK?’ – he said that he couldn’t guarantee that, but I decided to go out there anyway. You have to remember, back in 2003, you didn’t have to worry about any lawsuits. If you broke a neck today, there is no way a doctor would clear you to wrestle. They could be sued. There were no real lawsuits being held against doctors 22 years ago.”
Angle feared Lesnar broke his neck too
Angle not only delayed his neck surgery, but also feared Lesnar had suffered the same fate. Lesnar attempted his now-infamous Shooting Star Press but landed awkwardly on his neck and was concussed. Despite the injury, Lesnar finished the match and defeated Angle to win the WWE Championship.
“I put my surgery off until the day after WrestleMania. So I went in there with a broken neck and just tried to protect it as much as I could. The match was awesome, it was as good as it could have been. The only negative is that Brock missed a Shooting Star Press. I thought for a second that he’d broken his neck, too. My first thought was ‘shoot, man’ – I’m going to have to hold this title for another month, because Brock won’t win here! That was selfish of me, considering at this point, Brock could have broken his neck. Luckily he got up and finished the match, and the rest is history.”
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