Kurt Angle's Timeline" From Gold Medal to his WWE Debut

 While most of todays wrestlers came to wrestling through loving it as a fan, this isn't the case for everyone. In fact some wrestlers famously didn’t love it before they gave it a go, and one of those wrestlers, maybe one of the most successful wrestlers, is Kurt Angle. A while back I made a video about an appearance Kurt made on the March 3rd ‘99 episode of Sunday Night Heat, several months before his in ring debut in November. It’s since bothered me that I wasn’t more thorough with my research, and so in this video I’m going through the timeline, from Kurt winning his gold medal at the ‘96 Olympics, to his WWE debut in ‘99. I’m going to be using a few sources, one being Kurt’s 2001 autobiography, which I’ve had since the man himself had hair. I’ve also scoured every Wrestling Observer from July ‘96 to November ‘99, as well as interviews I found too. I’m sure you’ve seen that this is a long video, so I’ve put time stamps underneath.

Life after the 1996 Olympics

After Kurt won his Olympic Gold Medal on July 31st 1996, his life completely changed. In his book he notes “For six months my gold medal was an industry. Everybody wanted to rub elbows with a gold medalist, and they were happy to pay for the opportunity.” Kurt decided to make the very most of this, taking on as much as possible including commercials, sponsorships and motivational speaking appearances. He notes that he loved the speaking gigs that he did in high schools, saying “I spoke at two hundred and sixty schools and I enjoyed that. I had a message I wanted to get out to kids. I was proof of what you could do if you dedicated yourself and made sacrifices.”

Kurt then talks about doing TV appearances, from appearing on the late night shows with Jay Leno and Conan O’Brien, to appearing on Beach House on MTV with Jenny McCarthy. He took on more TV work becoming a reporter covering sports for Fox, but found that by doing this he was distancing himself from his former world. “I found out pretty quickly that once you cross that line and become part of the media, a lot of pro-athletes never look at you in quite the same way. The more I worked, the more I would go to games, the more I realised that athletes didn’t respect me as much.” He says he found this transition hard, going from feeling like one of them, to being a guy with a microphone asking them questions. In later Wrestling Observers, Dave Meltzer writes that Kurt wasn’t any good as a sportscaster, but to be fair to him, from what he says in his book he never seemed to like it anyway.

1996

As far as wrestling of the professional kind, the first mention of Kurt in the Wrestling Observer comes in the September 9th ‘96 issue. Dave Meltzer reports that Kurt had “received an offer from Linda McMahon. Angle has also received offers from at least two Japanese promotions, at least one of which was either RINGS or UWFI.” In the next week’s issue, it is noted that on September 5th, he had a meeting with Vince McMahon at the WWF’s offices, and they must have felt fairly confident in signing him as it was even mentioned on television. Dave also adds that silver medalist Matt Ghaffari was also approached. He would receive an offer from WCW, and would even be introduced on television as joining the company, but wouldn’t in the end. On September 23rd, it’s is said that Nikkan Sports in Japan was claiming that Kurt had signed with WWE, but also that this wasn’t the case. By the end of the month, it seems that Kurt was turning down offers, as the Observer says, “It appears right now that Kurt Angle is interested in continuing until the 2000 Olympics and won’t be taking the offers thrown his way by both WWF and WCW.”

Around this time, Kurt would make his infamous appearance at ECW, the night that nearly put Kurt off pro-wrestling entirely. In his book Kurt explains that what he was sold on ended up being nothing like an ECW that anybody would recognise. “Someone from ECW called me and gave me this pitch about how they were a new organisation, trying to make pro wrestling more legitimate, and they were hoping I would give them some credibility. I thought they meant they were trying to be more like amateur wrestling, so I agreed.” It’s hard not to have the feeling that Kurt is partly to blame here, as had he tuned into the previous week’s episode of Hardcore TV, he would have seen a brutal weapons filled match between the Gangstas and the Eliminators, and maybe gotten a better idea of what ECW was.

The person who called him turned out to be former ECW World champion Shane Douglas, who reached out to Kurt based on their mutual links to Pennsylvania, with the two growing up not far from each other. In a 2020 interview with PWInsider, Kurt offered more information on this, actually naming Shane as he doesn’t in his book, and reiterating that Shane sold him on ECW being quote, “structured more like amateur wrestling, more like your sport than WWE.”

On October 26th 1996, Kurt Angle would arrive at the ECW arena for High Incident, named after the main event of the night, where Tommy Dreamer would meet Brian Lee in a scaffold match. Kurt left before this match would take place, but I’d love to know what he would have thought about that given his views on the rest of the show. Matches from the night would air on the following week’s episodes of Hardcore TV, including a shoot fight rules match pitting Taz against Little Guido, which was no doubt put on to give Kurt an idea that ECW wasn’t all about violence and gore, just mostly.

The October 29th episode of Hardcore TV would begin with Joey Styles welcoming us to the show in the ring. He takes some pretty savage shots at WWE, and the olympian they had recently signed, Mark Henry. By this time Mark had already had his first televised match, defeating Jerry Lawler at In Your House Ten in a less than popular effort. Styles uses the fact that Mark is not a medalist to introduce Kurt to the crowd, as he comes out, gold medal and all. They are clearly pulling everything to try and impress Kurt, and Little Guido is introduced while Styles notes his amateur background. Guido takes the microphone and calls Kurt his idol, perhaps laying the praise on a bit thick. Next out comes Taz, accompanied by his team of cornermen, to the tune of War Machine by Kiss. taz shows some respect to Angle, shaking his hand and calling him the best amateur wrestler around, but Taz also tells him that he is the best professional.

Kurt then joins Joey Styles on commentary for the Taz vs Guido match, where he notes that he would be excited to get five minutes in the ring with him. Kurt would eventually almost get his wish, having a three minute match with Tazz at the 2000 Royal Rumble, but no doubt ECW wished it would have happened sooner in their ring. Throughout the match a graphic is displayed on the screen letting you know that Kurt is still there. While he seems impressed by the wrestling holds, he doesn’t sound at all familiar with pro wrestling, with Joey at one point explaining the rope breaks to him. In the relatively one sided match, Taz wins with his Tazmission. Post match Taz gets on the mic and tells Kurt that he just had a gold medal performance, and we get one last shot of Kurt from the crows nest. In the next segment, Joey claims that Kurt had offers from WWE and WCW, but chose to endorse ECW, and once again tells us what an honour it was to have Kurt there, but Kurt does not appear again.

Later on the same episode of Hardcore TV, the Sandman would retain the ECW world title in the main event, defeating Too Cold Scorpio. After the match Tyler would enter the ring, and give his Dad a hug, only for this to be a trap, leading Raven to attack from behind. The show would go off the air here, but in the building the segment ended with Raven and his lackeys Stevie Richards and the Blue Meanie producing a wooden cross from under the ring, and proceeding to depict the crucifixion with Sandman, complete with barbed wire as a crown of thorns.

The following week’s episode begins with more of what happened, with Raven hitting a piledriver off the apron through a table. The crucifixion would never actually air on ECW TV, likely because Kurt threatened to sue if it was associated with him. As Kurt says in his book, “I left the arena thinking how badly my image would be damaged if people saw or heard me being a part of that match. Fortunately, Paul E. decided to not even show the match, and I just tried to forget that I’d ever agreed to be there.”

After the crucifixion happened, later that night Raven would be sent out to awkwardly apologise to the crowd. It was later reported that this was largely due to how angry Kurt Angle had been by what he saw. “Angle was so upset about it because he does so much work in the community and has a certain image and felt that it would reflect negatively on him being a part of a group that did something like this.” A couple of weeks later Heyman would claim to the Observer that Kurt’s reaction was part of the reason for the apology, but not the whole reason. It’s worth noting that around this time wrestling as a whole was under scrutiny for it’s over the edge content, as on November 4th the Brian Pillman and Steve Austin gun incident happened on Raw, creating a lot of media attention.

In the years since, the question has been posed many times, even by the Sandman in the ECW documentary Forever Hardcore, why Kurt had such an issue with what ECW did, but seemingly had no issue with The Undertaker using a cross- ahem, symbol a few years later on. There are some differences that you can point to, like the use of barbed wire to symbolize a crown of thorns, or the overall grittier presentation of it. In Kurt’s book he notes that aside from the cross, he didn’t like the aspect of Tyler Fullington, the Sandman’s young son being included in the storyline rooting against his father. Kurt has also stated many times that his understanding and tolerance of pro wrestling was much different back then, and this coupled with feeling like he had been sold up the river won’t have helped matters. 

1997

1997 is going to be a fairly short chapter, as following the ECW experience, Kurt was pretty down on pro wrestling, but his manager and friend, a bodybuilder named Dave Hawk, was persistent in trying to get him to consider WWE. Dave had interacted with Kurt through approaching him to promote Ostrim, an Ostrich meat based product that is still around today. Dave also had made contact with WWE, as he “was also trying to sell the World Wrestling Federation on the idea of endorsing Ostrim.” In his own words, “Dave kept working on me, telling me that the World Wrestling Federation was the top organisation in the business, and I could be a star there.” It was at this point that I realised who owned the copyright for this book. Fair play to Dave though, he was right about Kurt becoming a star.

For the sake of thoroughness, in the March 17th ‘97 Observer, it’s mentioned very briefly that Kurt worked at an indie show in Pittsburgh on February 15th. I tried to find anything else about what this event might have been or what Angle might have done but I found nothing at all other than the Observer noting it a month later. This is the only mention of Kurt relating to wrestling in the whole year, except in October, where he was announced as one of the judges for a grappling event put on by IWF, a short lived MMA style company.

1998

From here we jump to August 24th 1998, when the Observer makes its first mention of Kurt Angle attending wrestling training. Remember that reporting job I mentioned earlier, Dave Meltzer says that “After doing poorly as a TV sportscaster, he contacted WWF and they wanted him to train for a week under Dory Funk before offering him any kind of deal. His marketability after two years of being an unknown on a national basis is way down from what it would have been had he started right after winning the medal.” Kurt Angle has actually told a similar version to this on his podcast, saying that it took him several attempts to get through to anyone. His book also says that they didn’t seem to take him seriously, especially when he told them that he wouldn’t be losing to just anyone. Kurt puts this down to not understanding the business yet in hindsight.

Kurt’s training would take the form of WWF endorsed training camps, led by Dory Funk Jr. and Dr. Tom Prichard. In Kurt’s book he explains that these training camps were “one week a month in Stamford Connecticut, where they’re always looking for new talent.” On his podcast, he offers more detail about what these were like, and it sounds nothing like the performance center of today. *Pod clip*

Also attending Kurt’s first training camp were Shawn Stasiak, Christian Cage, Andrew Martin, the future Test, Teddy Hart, as well as the Hardys. Kurt goes on to say that he got cold feet nearer the time of his first camp, so Dave Hawk went with him as his room mate. Kurt says that “Dave didn’t stay long though, Even though everything was new to me - the bumps, the falls - I picked it up so quickly that I blew them away with my tryout. On my second day there, Jim Ross signed me to a five year deal. I’ve been told that they’ve never done that with anyone else.”

In the next week’s newsletter on August 31st, just days into his training, Kurt's first matches would be reported. “He worked some matches with Dory Funk in his corner as a manager and was put over on all the house shows and got a big babyface reception.” His first match took place on August 20th in Salem Massachusetts for the World Wrestling Alliance. According to Cagematch this was against one of his trainers Tom Prichard. On his podcast Kurt recalls his memory of this match. *Pod Clip* With one of his trainers across the ring from him, and another in his corner, it feels like Kurt was being put in a strong position to make a good first impression.

Video actually exists online of his second match, which took place the day after in Quincy against Shawn Stasiak, the same man he would have his WWE debut match against. One thing that’s interesting about this match is that on commentary it is noted that Kurt has already signed a five year deal with WWE, though this wouldn’t make it to the Observer until September 14th, nearly a month later. Kurt says in his book that “It’s unheard of for someone to be put into a match after only three days in the business, but they let me do it because I picked up on everything so quickly.”

On the third night of WWA’s Summerslam Fest a day later, Kurt would win a battle royal, and win a singles match against a man he would come to know well in WWE, Christian Cage, who is described in the Observer as a “Chris Jericho look alike”. Kurt was described as having a strong training camp, and it seems like he stood out among his class early on, as in the September 7th issue he, Test and Christian were noted as being the most impressive.

On September 28th, Kurt’s second training camp is reported on. Many of the same names are with him, but with Matt Bloom, the future Prince Albert among many other gimmicks, and Giant Silva are added to the list. Just look at that trio for a second. “Angle is apparently the star of the camp and is again being compared with Ken Shamrock as far as how quickly he picks everything up. He’s not going to debut that soon because plans are to give him a major push and they don’t want him shown on television until he’s ready to carry the push” On November 16th it would be reported that he was again the star of a training camp, and that they had high hopes for him debuting early in 1999.

On October 24th, the National Wrestling Alliance would present it’s 50th anniversary show. On that card a “WWF dojo battle royal” would be presented, with many of the wrestlers I’ve listed in the match. Dr. Death Steve Williams would win, but Kurt Angle would also take part, making it to the final four of the match. Afterwards, he and Williams would have a staredown, but as best I can tell a match between the two never happened.

Remember when I told you Kurt’s autobiography jumps ahead in time a bit? We rejoin it in October ‘98, as Kurt begins to have an epiphany. “Finally, one night in October 1998, I turned on Raw is War and nobody was being hung on a crucifix or anything. It was great entertainment and more athletic than I ever realised.” I don’t think I have to tell you that this doesn’t match at all with the timeline of his early matches, or the reporting on him, so instead I’ll point out that on the October 5th episode of Raw McMahon got attacked by Steve Austin in the hospital. The week after Austin fills Vince’s brand new Corvette with cement and destroys it. On the 19th Austin held a fake gun to Vince’s head, who pissed himself in the middle of the ring. This is just McMahon and Austin, other messed up stuff was happening up and down these shows as well. Perhaps Kurt caught the October 26th Raw, on which Shane McMahon denounced his father in the ring, but as we established earlier, Kurt doesn;t like sons turning on their fathers in storylines.

To close out 1998, Dave writes in the December 14th issue that Kurt had been training a lot with Steve Williams, who he interacted with in the ring at the NWA 50th show. “They had Steve Williams and Kurt Angle train together and wrestle each other a lot at the last camp. It appears that they are targeting March or April to start Angle off, with a big push, possibly as a heel.” It’s interesting how much of this would remain the case when Kurt would eventually debut later than thought he would here. He did in fact start with a big push, and would be a heel, though a heel who thought he was the face.

In this same issue it’s also reported that Steve Bradley, who had also been attending the training camps around this time, had just been signed to a developmental deal. This feels like a good place to talk a bit about Bradley, as Kurt on his podcast refers to Steve as his “best friend” around this time. Bradley would never make it to the main WWE roster, eventually being released in 2002. His only appearance that I’m aware of on main roster television was at Wrestlemania Seventeen, as a bloke pulled from a golf cart in the Hardcore title match. Steve would pass away in 2008, just thirty-two years old. In his podcast Kurt calls Steve “the greatest wrestler to never make it”, and in 2017 when he was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame, he made sure to thank Steve, calling him an “unsung hero.”

1999

In the early months of 1999, Kurt would continue to take part in WWE training camps. Dave Meltzer would repeatedly note that Kurt was the highlight, with more familiar names coming and going. In January, Glamour Boy Shane, known to TNA fans as Shane Sewell would join, as well as Rasta the Voodoo Man, who looks like a Papa Shango knock off, but actually predates him. Again, get a look at that trio. In February, former Truth Commission members Luc Poirier and Barry, later known as Bull Buchanan are brought in, as well as Carl Oulette, PCO, long before he ran on car batteries. Many of the names come and go off these lists, but Kurt as noted earlier was a special project, and they wanted him ready for his debut, and the push they had planned.

In Mid February, the Associated Press ran a story with the headline “Olympian Insists He Hasn’t Sold His Soul to WWF.” The article which is now no longer available but is described in the Observer sounds quite derogatory towards wrestling of our kind, referring to it as “fake wrestling,” and suggesting that he will end up with a silly gimmick. I don’t know what you mean. “The story says that amateur wrestling people are troubled by Angle going to WWF claiming that “Angle’s abandonment of his amateur roots probably shouldn’t be a surprise in an era when once-legitimate wrestlers such as Mark Coleman and Dan Severn make their living in fake wrestling or the Ultimate Fighting Championships, a bizarre mix of street fighting and martial arts.” The article also predicts that he will bring his wife into the business, which he eventually did many years later. On the Heat episode that happens in March, Kurt can be seen sitting next to Karen in the crowd long before her TNA debut.

On March 1st, a note was made that Kurt is scheduled to be at a WWE event on March 3rd. “Kurt Angle is going to appear in some form at the Pittsburgh Raw taping. He may not appear on the live show. The Weekend Today show is doing a series on Angle starting out in pro wrestling and they have training footage and indie matches and they wanted a big-time match, so they figured the best place to tape it for the show was Pittsburgh since that’s his home city and he’s got a name locally” This would end up being the Heat appearance where Kurt would best Tiger Ali SIngh, another wrestler who he had already worked with in developmental. I won’t go over the whole segment here as I detailed it in my last video, but Dave said of it in the Observer that “The pop was said to have been disappointing for Angle, said to be the reaction of a mid-level face.” He had previously noted that Kurt wasn’t the same local celebrity as he would have been had he signed in 1996, and this might be why the reaction wasn’t as big as expected.

On March 20th Kurt would make his debut for Memphis based Power Pro Wrestling, defeating the Yellow Jacket, otherwise known as Kevin Lawler, in just twelve seconds. Kurt would wrestle regularly for Power Pro right up until his main roster debut. According to Kurt on his podcast, he requested more in ring time, as the couple of matches he was having a month weren’t helping him get any better. Initially, they started Kurt out by having him beat all of his opponents in thirty seconds or less, which Dave compares to how Dusty Rhodes got Magnum TA over, and more recently how Goldberg started in WCW. Later on Baron Corbin would do a similar gimmick when he started in NXT. Aye, that Baron Corbin who nobody wanted as Angle’s last match. Sorry. It turns out that the real reason for Kurt wrestling these short matches, as claimed by Angle on his podcast, was that Power Pro’s promoter Randy Hales didn’t see much in Kurt, only booking him in opening matches. If this is true, and again it comes from Kurt’s words, Randy clearly wasn’t looking in the right direction. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9UI4tlfyMsQ )

In his first few appearances for Power Pro, he very much played an early version of the character he would eventually debut as, but with a bit more babyface self-awareness. In his debut he would cut an impassioned promo talking about the other wrestlers not wanting him in the big leagues, and threatening to show them all up by defeating them as quickly as possible. The following week he would address his brashness from the week before, explaining that his words were so harsh because of the other wrestler’s opinions of him. Kurt Angle here, displaying more character development in his second ever week on television than some wrestlers do in an entire career.

While on his podcast about developmental Kurt says that he had a blast in Memphis. However, in his book he details some issues that it caused back in Pennsylvania. He was newly married to Karen at the time, but living in a small apartment with Steve Bradley, leaving Karen back home. “The Pittsburgh post gazette sent a reporter and a photographer to do a story on my new career. And they took pictures of me at the wrestling arena and at my apartment too. I found out later that they decided not to run any pictures of the apartment complex because they thought it looked like a crack den or something. That’s how bad the place was.” He then notes that the conditions didn’t bother him though. He said that many of the other wrestlers lived in the same complex, and it was all about wrestling for them. It was all they talked about and focused on.

On April 11th, Kurt would start wrestling in WWE rings, defeating Brian Christopher in a dark match he would wrestle on a fairly regular basis in dark matches including one notable match against Owen Hart. Kurt claims in the pod that this was again at his request, wanting to gain more experience on Mondays and Tuesdays while still wrestling in Memphis for the rest of the week. A lot has been made online of Kurt’s match on May 10th ‘99, where he would wrestle Owen Hart less than two weeks before his passing. Kurt said of Owen that he was the first person to make him feel comfortable in his transition to WWE. Of their time in the ring, Kurt says “It turned out to be my best match to that point by far, and it was because Owen was such a pro. He put the match together, how it would go, then he carried me through it, and made it look so easy.” Ever since footage of Bret Hart vs Tom McGee was found, this might well be the Holy Grail of wrestling matches. We’re unlikely to ever see it, as the WWE Vault channel recently reminded us.

As time went on Kurt would receive some mixed reviews for his dark matches. A match he had with Terry Taylor on May 15th was described as “anything but positive”, while his effort against Bob Holly on June 7th had Dave writing that he looked ready for the main shows. Later in June, he worked his first house show tour, defeating Tiger Ali Singh on every show including in Pittsburgh, following up from the Heat appearance. The Observer notes that he was added to the shows because it was a North-East tour which passed through his hometown.

On June 29th, the first reported Olympic Slam, later known as the Angle Slam happens. I’m only mentioning it here because Dave Meltzer describes it as a “a torture rack dropped into a death valley driver which was a totally sick move the few times I’ve seen Kenta Kobashi do it.”  What he’s actually describing is the Burning Hammer, the long protected move of Kobashi, which the Olympic Slam looks like a much safer version of. To be fair, the match took place in Fayetteville North Carolina so Dave’s description is likely based on a fan report sent in to the Observer. Still, leave it to Dave to make what is essentially a spinning samoan drop sound as lethal as a piledriver through eleven tables. Kurt tells us on his podcast that the Olympic Slam wasn’t originally meant to be his finishing move, but when he used it on the main roster dark matches, he was told that he should have been using it all along.

On July 27th, Kurt would defeat JR Smooth for the Power Pro Wrestling championship. You might not recognise that name as I didn’t, but JR Smooth had previously been on the main WWE roster as Fatu and as The Sultan. He would return from development later in the year under perhaps his most famous name, Rikishi. Kurt would say on his podcast that Bruce Prichard would oversee what he was doing in Power Pro, and had to get involved to get Kurt some experience at being higher up the card *pod clip*

In the August 9th Observer, Dave notes that Kurt is now set to debut in October or November, “because they don’t want him exposed nationally before he’s ready.” On August 7th Kurt would lose the Power Pro championship to Steve Bradley, perhaps a sign that they were beginning to wind him up in Memphis, though it would take a little while longer until he would be ready. Speaking of winding up, a several week story that starts on October 18th revolves around Kurt potentially being sent to a promotion called Seikendo for a show in Yokohama on November 5th. This appears to be a response to a company called Dream Stage Entertainment attempting to make a deal with WWE to bring wrestlers to Japan. Dream Stage would eventually be the company behind HUSTLE.

On November 1st, it is mentioned that the deal with Kurt Angle fell through, and the Seikendo card with go on without him. The Observer says that the promotion claimed it was a visa issue, but disputes that a deal was ever finalized. Dave also says the idea that Kurt failed to get a visa was doubtful given that he would have had to do this in his amateur background. Ordinarily I might not have included this story, but how fascinating would it have been if WWE had sent an about to debut Kurt Angle to go and wrestle in Japan. Later in November more talks with Dream Stage would happen, but this would again end up fruitless. “DSE wants WWF to send them someone like Kurt Angle to make a personal appearance at the 11/21 Pride show or send some people to the 1/30 Pride show to basically show the Japanese public they are involved in some form with the WWF to start building interest, although at this point no plans are for anyone to attend the shows yet.”

On November 1st, the first vignette teasing the arrival of Kurt Angle aired on Raw. The Observer says “He was playing such an old style babyface that it looks as though they are planning on setting him up for a quick heel turn when it doesn’t go over.” Dave also made note of him being referred to as “the most celebrated real athlete in WWF history,” which would end up being the line that told us the viewers that he is a little full of himself on his arrival. Kurt says “I’d talk about how all my life I’d gone after this dream, and I reached it, which makes me an American hero - a role model for kids. But right away they were giving me kind of an odd twist. Vince wanted me to rub people the wrong way. He wanted them to say "there's something about this guy, he’s always talking about himself.”” Kurt also tells us here where his trademark catchphrase early in his career, it’s true, it’s true, came from.. “That was something I used to say to people when I was doing motivational speaking after I won the gold medal…. …I’d say that if you put your mind to it, dedicate yourself, you will succeed eventually. And I’d always say “You will. It’s true. It’s true.”

The next week, the full card for the upcoming Survivor Series ‘99 card was published, including the debut of Kurt Angle against Shawn Stasiak. Dave Meltzer suspected that the goal was to “debut Angle against the most boring wrestler in the promotion in a match actually designed to get fans to think Angle is boring to lead to his getting mad at the fans not respecting his talents and going heel”. To be fair to him, he wasn’t that far from what would end up happening that Sunday at Survivor Series.

On Sunday November 14th, the day would finally arrive for Kurt Angle’s debut. He and Shawn Stasiak had a pretty serious wrestling match for the first few minutes, which in the peak of the attitude era was bound to get Kurt booed, but would probably have done him well in 2025. After a few minutes, the crowd began reacting very poorly, even chanting “boring”. “That’s the one chant you never want to hear because it means you’re not entertaining the fans. But Vince had prepared me for this type of reaction and he had given me a plan of attack if it happened.” Kurt would follow this plan, and leave the ring. He would take the microphone and proceed to chastise the audience, telling them “you do not boo an Olympic gold medalist”. He would get back in the ring, and proceed to handily defeat Stasiak. The match was just under six minutes long, but might have been the perfect debut to get across Kurt’s past achievements, his character and how you are supposed to feel about him. Vince gave Kurt the plan to deal with any fan backlash, but what was his reaction? “Vince was waiting for the response, and it was exactly what he wanted.” This might have been made even better by the vignettes that had aired leading up to the night, as it was very clear that Kurt had achieved a lot, but also that he wasn’t shy about it either. As Kurt walked to the ring that night, it felt like the crowd weren’t sure if they were supposed to like him or not, but by the time he pinned Stasiak, everybody knew.

About his debut, Kurt makes one more very interesting assertion about where the inspiration for his character came from. “My character development stemmed from what happened with the Rock a few years earlier… … They thought he was a natural as a babyface, a guy the fans would love. But at the beginning the fans turned on him- they couldn’t identify with him. These fans aren’t idiots. You have to work to gain their acceptance, their approval.” Kurt also acknowledges that the fans in that era were into the rebellious stars, he jokingly notes that he wore plain black trunks while in development to resemble Stone Cold Steve Austin, which is about as close as he could get to emulating Austin, with so much about their personalities being like oil and water.

On the next night, Raw would take place in Pittsburgh, Kurt’s hometown, where he would defeat the Godfather. Despite him being the local hero, he would still get a negative reception from the fans, a testament to how well his debut had gone in making sure everyone knew he was to be booed. “The Kurt Angle character will continue to be built around annoying people by always saying “I” about himself. Even though WWF did have Angle insult Pittsburgh before Raw started to make sure he wasn’t cheered in his home town, everyone was surprised that even before he started talking he was already getting booed.”

After Survivor Series, Kurt would go on to have quite possibly the most remarkable debut year ever. It’s impressive in itself that I’m still able to call it that twenty five years later. He would win the Intercontinental and European titles and defend both successfully. He won the King of the Ring tournament on his first try, and for once, it actually helped that he looked like a geek in the crown and cape. At No Mercy in October, eleven months after his debut, he would defeat the Rock for the WWE championship. None of these things were groundbreaking, or anything that nobody else had ever done, but he was the first to put them all together his rookie year. Kurt would continue to be detested by crowds until the Invasion storyline in 2001. Of all of his three I’s, irritating being the important fourth one, and the key to his success. It’s true, it’s true.

Sources:

It’s True! It’s True!, Kurt Angle, 2001, Collins Willow p159, 167, 171, 170

Tonight Show August 13th 1996 https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2315803/ 

WON Sept 9th 96 First pro offers https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/sept-9-1996-wrestling-observer-newsletter-giant-joins-nwo-davey-boy/

1996

WON Sept 16th Meeting with Vince https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/sept-16-1996-wrestling-observer-newsletter-american-pro-wrestling/ 

WON Sept 23rd Nikkan Sports 1999https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/sept-23-1996-wrestling-observer-newsletter-welcome-wcw-1996-fall-brawl/

WON Sept 30th 2000 Olympics https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/sept-30-1996-wrestling-observer-newsletter-wcw-beating-wwf-handily/

PWInsider interview, October 6th 2020, https://411mania.com/wrestling/kurt-angle-shane-douglas-ecw-wwe/ 

WON Nov 11th Raven Apology https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/nov-11-1996-wrestling-observer-newsletter-infamous-angle-where-austin/

WON Nov 25th Not whole reason https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/nov-25-1996-wrestling-observer-newsletter-sid-wins-wwf-title-curt/

1997

WON Mar 17 97 Pittsburgh indie https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/march-17-1997-wrestling-observer-newsletter-dennis-rodman-hired-wcw/

1998

WON August 24th 98 Early training https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/august-24-1998-wrestling-observer-newsletter-warrior-makes-wcw-debut-wo-hof/ 

WON Aug 31st 98 First matches https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/august-31-1998-wrestling-observer-newsletter-death-terry-garvin-look/

WON Sept 7th Early standouts https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/september-7-1998-ric-flair-legal-battle/

WON Sept 14th Kurt signs https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/september-14-1998-jim-duggan-diagnosed/

WON Sept 28th Second training camp https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/september-28-1998-wrestling-observer-newsletter-raw-overtakes-nitro/

WON Nov 16th third camp, high hopes https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/november-16-1998-wrestling-observer-newsletter-more-ventura-winning/

WON Dec 14th Training with Steve Williams https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/dec-14-1998-wrestling-observer-newsletter-2-biographies-works-about/

1999

WON Jan 18th Jan camp https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/january-18-1999-wrestling-observer-newsletter-giant-baba-retires-ecw/

WON Jan 25th Feb camp https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/january-25-1999-wrestling-observer-newsletter-shawn-michaels-has/

WON Feb 15th AP article https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/february-15-1999-wrestling-observer-newsletter-reaction-death-giant/

WON March 1st Will be at Pittsburgh taping on 3rd https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/march-1-1999-wrestling-observer-newsletter-wcw-ratings-cause-panic/

WON March 8th Heat segment https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/march-8-1999-wrestling-observer-newsletter-wwf-faces-backlash-being/

WON Apr 5th 30 second gimmick https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/april-5-1999-wrestling-observer-newsletter-wrestlemania-15-review-espn/

WON Apr 19th Dark match debut https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/april-19-1999-wrestling-observer-newsletter-davey-boy-smith/

WON May 24th Terry Taylor match https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/may-24-1999-wrestling-observer-newsletter-ecw-hardcore-heavenwwf-no/ 

WON June 14th Bob Holly match https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/june-14-1999-wrestling-observer-newsletter-sable-sues-wwf-140000000/ 

WON June 21st First House show tour https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/june-21-1999-wrestling-observer-newsletter-hart-family-files-lawsuit/ 

WON July 5th First Olympic slam https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/july-5-1999-wrestling-observer-newsletter-wwf-king-ring-review-njpw/

WON August 9th Set to debut in Nov https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/august-9-1999-wrestling-observer-newsletter-wwf-goes-public-hall-fame/ 

WON Oct 18th Seikendo 1 https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/october-18-1999-wrestling-observer-newsletter-death-gorilla-monsoon/

WON Oct 25th Karelin https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/october-25-1999-wrestling-observer-newsletter-wwf-no-mercy-review/

WON Nov 1st Seikendo falls through https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/november-1-1999-wrestling-observer-newsletter-mick-foleys/ 

WON Nov 8th First debut tease https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/november-8-1999-wrestling-observer-newsletter-life-and-death-owen-hart/

WON Nov 15th Debut announced https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/november-15-1999-wrestling-observer-newsletter-ecw-november-remember/

WON Nov 22nd Debut review and more with DSE https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/november-22-1999-wrestling-observer-newsletter-wwf-survivor-series/

Memphis debut, March 1999 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gv41brLK4Ps 

NWA 50th https://www.oocities.org/smokyrobmoore/jp110298.htm 

Power Pro debut https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tSfVDaPSj84 

The Story of Bob Backlund's ECW Appearance in 2000

Over the years that ECW was around, some very surprising faces made appearances. Some you could totally see fitting in had they stayed longer like Scott Hall or Sid, and others like a knock off Kamala who used the name “Uganda” were a bit of a bizarre sight. The likes of Jimmy Snuka and Don Moraco were around in the promotions early days, but in 2000, some might say one of the peak years of the attitude era, Bob Backlund of all people would turn up for one night. Yes, the squeaky clean Bob Backlund, turned up at an ECW show in July 2000.

In this video, We’ll look at Bob Backlund’s career in wrestling in the 2000’s, we’ll look at how and why he came to be at an ECW show, and we’ll look at a couple of other places that Bob turned up. We’ll get to ECW in a little bit, including fan filmed footage of what didn’t air on TV, but there’s a bit of context to get to first.

Having not been seen on a regular basis in WWE since his mid-90’s run where he won the WWE title and attempted to run for President, Bob would make a brief return at the start of the next decade. He would wrestle two matches in his odd 2000 run, first entering the Royal Rumble match where he would last two minutes. We tend not to think of Bob Backlund when we think of the greatest Royal Rumble entrants, but in 1993 Bob lasted sixty one minutes in the match, beating Ric Flair’s record in the previous year for the longest entry ever. Bob would keep the record for a decade, until being surpassed by Chris Benoit in 2004, and Rey Mysterio two years after that. Today he still has among the longest entries ever all these years later.

Bob would also take part in a tag team match on the March 16th 2000 episode of Smackdown, where he would lose by DQ to Tazz and Chris Jericho when Chris Benoit would interfere. Bob would team with the man that he was managing at the time, Kurt Angle. In the match, Bob would take one punch from Tazz, then leave through the crowd wanting no more. Bob would actually end up being the person responsible for Kurt losing his first two championships on the same night at Wrestlemania 2000, as he would defend as he called it the Eurocontinental title against Chris Jericho and Chris Benoit. On the episode of Sunday Night Heat prior to Wrestlemania, Backlund would reveal that Kurt defending both titles was his idea, and so Kurt would apply Bob’s famous move to him, the crossface chicken wing. On screen, this would be the last we would see of Backlund in this run. There seems to have been no bust up or release made public, so it may well just be that the storyline with Angle had run its course, or it may have been felt that Bob was holding Kurt back on what would become an incredible rookie year. When asked about this in his shoot interview with RF Video in 2008, his comments were interesting.

During his appearance in the Royal Rumble, Jim Ross noted Bob’s congress run on commentary which we’re absolutely getting to another time by the way. Post his elimination Bob would exit through the crowd, perhaps attempting to campaign on his way out. On March 16th, Bob’s campaign manager noted publicly that they were opening up an office for his operations in East Hartford New York, about a hundred and sixty miles from East Hartford Connecticut, where he was actually running for Congress, but more importantly, about a hundred and thirty miles from Poughkeepsie New York where the ECW event we’re going to talk about took place. That might be the most convoluted way to change the subject that I’ve ever done on this channel.

On July 7th 2000, ECW held a TV taping at the Mid-Hudson Civic Center in front of around nineteen hundred fans. On this night, “They did a strange deal with Bob Backlund that everyone was swearing wasn’t an angle. Backlund was invited to the show, although the word was given that he came on his own.” On this night Kid Kash would face CW Anderson, a match mainly notable for what Bob Backlund was doing during it. According to the July 17th 2000 Wrestling Observer, “During the Kash vs. Anderson match, he started jawing with fans, doing his gimmick, right in the middle of the match and it took heat away from the match. He was thrown out of the building by security. I don’t believe this was taped for TV, but I guess if it airs, then it’s an angle.” While the match itself did air on the July 15th episode of Hardcore TV, the Backlund situation wasn’t given any attention, leading to a very awkward moment where you can absolutely tell something is happening that we can’t see.

In the next week’s newsletter, Dave Meltzer elaborates a bit on what happened, with a little bit of what Heyman had told him. “Paul Heyman said that he never invited Backlund to the Poughkeepsie show. He said if Backlund was invited, it wasn’t by himself, Steve Karel or Dreamer.” Steve Karel, not that one, was the General Manager for ECW, who would go on to found the incredibly niche Urban Wrestling Federation in 2011, and would be an investor in Combat Zone Wrestling as well.


Paul Heyman then offered his side of what actually happened. “He said Backlund arrived and came in the back and wanted to shoot an angle. Heyman said he’d consider it after the tapings were over.” Heyman made a final point of noting that the incident was “never mentioned on the ECW web site or pushed on television, although on the hardcore TV show during that match, you can tell when it was all happening. He said Backlund wanted to apologize about it afterwards. Those close to Backlund said that security apologized to Backlund afterwards”

While the incident might not have aired on television, fan filmed footage of Backlund in the crowd while the match was taking place exists. In this short clip that I found on YouTube channel Lou Gregory, you can clearly see the match going on, then the camera pans to show Backlund getting into an altercation with a fan, who Heyman told the Observer was “a plant brought by Backlund”. At the end of the footage, we can see that one recognisable bloke from Atlas security talking to Bob before he was led out of the building.

When I was looking for more information on Backlund’s appearance, I found that Tommy Dreamer talked about it on a 2014 episode of Steve Austin’s podcast. Tommy refers to the incident as a quote ”shoot run in”, and tells us this when Austin asks for clarification.

There are a couple of holes in Tommy’s recollection, like where he mentions a “vote for Bob sign, but there's every chance we just didn’t see that. Then there’s the part where he claims that he was watching from the crowd, and somehow was also in the gorilla position to tell Paul what was happening. Despite these, the timeline of what Tommy says matches what else we have seen.

I kept digging a bit, and managed to find Bob talking about the incident himself, in an interview he did with Camel Clutch Blog in 2015. I’ll let you hear Bob’s explanation in his own words. *CLIP* So Backlund claims that he was told then would be a good time to collect his friends who were on the front row, only to discover that a post match angle was taking place. In the fan footage we can see the match taking place, and by the end of it we also see the run-in is happening, so his timing is accurate, but the motive remains a bit unclear. A fan account found on a forum from a couple of days after the event also mentions that Bob was raising money for his political campaign, which I suspect but can’t prove, might have been the real reason.

Following his congress run which concluded in November 2000, time Bob kept his toe in wrestling, or should that be his wing. He would continue to be involved with wrestling in the years after, turning up in some surprising places. In 2001 he completed a short tour with New Japan Pro Wrestling, where he would wrestle four matches, all involving Tatsumi Fujinami. The two would have a seven minute exhibition match, before teaming together on the next two events, and would be opponents again on the last. While on the surface these matches might seem unusual, Backlund and Fujinami had first met in the ring in 1978, and they would meet for the final time in Bob’s last matches in Tokyo and Osaka forty years later, when Bob was at the age of sixty eight years old. In post match comments he made on August 10th, where he and Tatsumi had teamed up against Terry and Dory Funk Jr, Bob noted that the Funks recommended that he go to Japan in the early 70’s, and so he seemed to have personal connections with most of the wrestlers he interacted with on this tour, including Steve Keirn, perhaps better known as Skinner, who he was in a tag tea with in the mid-70’s.

Making this video made me wonder though, what if Paul had allowed Bob Backlund to shoot an angle that night? What if the financial problems ECW was struggling with, and an ever declining relationship with TNN had driven him over the edge enough to bring Bob back for a program the way he had with Dusty Rhodes and Terry Funk?

Unfortunately Taz had left by that point, so we couldn’t see them clash, but what about Bob versus the likes of Steve Corino, who at this time was becoming a more serious heel character having just feuded with Dusty. Or even Paul’s next project, his last world champion Rhino? One of Paul’s biggest stars at the time was Raven, but he was on his way out of ECW again, this time heading for WWE. Can you imagine if they had interacted, the squeaky clean Bob versus the counter culture of Raven? Do you think Bob even knows what a Pearl Jam is? All of these questions will remain unknown, probably where they should be.

Sources:

WON Feb 15th 99 Bob announces Congress run https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/february-15-1999-wrestling-observer-newsletter-reaction-death-giant/

Hartford Courant article: https://www.courant.com/2016/02/23/all-american-boy-with-bob-backlund/

WON Nov 13th 2000 Political commercial and result https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/november-13-2000-wrestling-observer-newsletter-wwf-not-buying-wcw-ecw/

WON Mar 27th 2000 East Hartford CT https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/march-27-2000-wrestling-observer-newsletter-more-wwf-leaving-usa/

Fan Footage: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKvGMMfVtSA

WON July 17th 2000 Show report https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/july-17-2000-wrestling-observer-newsletter-wcw-bash-beach-big-angle/

WON July 24th 2000 Heyman’s side https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/july-24-2000-wrestling-observer-newsletter-ecw-heatwave-review/

WON July 31st 2000 - 21st TNN TV report https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/july-31-2000-wrestling-observer-newsletter-wcw-does-big-business/

Forum post from 2000, quoted in 2014 http://wrestlingclassics.com/cgi-bin/.ubbcgi/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=next_topic;f=1;t=144294;go=older#google_vignette

Camel Clutch Blog Shoot Interview, November 5th 2015 1:04:41 https://youtu.be/J9HDS3QpYhE?si=nEWRDozqSE-2MGzv&t=3881

Timeline: Mistico's Six Year Journey to WWE

Well there seems to be a lot of talk about Lucha Libre these days, I wonder why that could be. I’m not much one for comparing WWE and AEW, but it has been fascinating to watch the two biggest companies compete against each other using entire other companies. Look out TNA! It inspired me to look into a star that AEW has been focusing on lately, who had a pretty noteworthy WWE run. In reading about Mistico, I learned that his journey to WWE was far longer than I knew before, and so this video will cover his six year journey from being at the top of CMLL to just barely making it over the ropes on Raw. We’ll also get a little bit into the mastermind behind Sin Cara’s eventual WWE debut.

In this video, we’ll look at Mistico, his success before WWE, how he came to be signed, and the point at which things started to go wrong, his WWE debut.

Mistico’s success in Mexico.

There are plenty of other channels more equipped to give you a detailed biography of Mistico, but to get us into the timeline, here are some metrics that really show how popular and successful he actually was.

To get a grasp of how successful Mistico was before WWE signed him, let’s start with his championship achievements. He would win his first major title, the NWA World Middleweight championship in 2005, and hold it for nearly five hundred days. He was no stranger to long title reigns, a tag team champion with Negro Casas for four hundred and fifty days, and CMLL Welterweight champion for seven hundred and ten days, thats a little short of two full years. For a little context on how uncommon long title reigns were at this time, while Mistico was CMLL Welterweight champion, the WWE Championship changed hands nine times, between John Cena, Randy Orton, Triple H, Edge and Jeff Hardy. There were also thirteen World Heavyweight championship changes, adding Undertaker, Great Khali, CM Punk, Chris Jericho and Batista to that list, and the most successful of all, Vacant held it a few times in there too. Post his WWE run, he would hold the Historic Middleweight title, which is a sort of follow on from the NWA belt he previously won, which is a whole story in itself, for six full years.

While not the most accurate of measurements, another interesting story can be found in Mistico’s PWI five hundred rankings. In 2004, the year that he was given the name Mistico and began using it in June, he never made it onto the list under that name, or his former name, Astro Boy. In the following year though, he shot up from being unranked to being at number eighteen. This puts him above a large quantity of WWE wrestlers, with only four non WWE or TNA wrestlers above him. In 2006, he would reach number five behind only John Cena, Kurt Angle, Edge and Samoa Joe. In 2007 he would reach his peak success, achieving number three behind Cena and Edge again. Just think about that, of all the wrestlers all over the world, Mistico, who had barely wrestled in American by this point, was ranked number three above almost everybody else. Again, the PWI five hundred isn’t the most scientific of metrics, but it does chart the trajectory of Mistico’s CMLL tenure in an interesting way.

To get a sense of what CMLL’s business was like with Mistico as their star attraction, “At his peak he was so popular he would often work four shows on Sundays and easily 10-12 times per week, and be a license for promoters to print money even though his guarantee, as well as what the CMLL office would take, was unprecedented.” Dave Meltzer even notes that it was rumoured that Mistico’s name and likeness was so valuable, that on the house shows his younger brother would don the mask and costume and portray the character. Two Mistico’s? An insane idea surely.

Mistico was also very successful when it came to awards. In 2006, he won the Observer’s Wrestler of the year award, their top prize for a single wrestler. The award had been won in the previous three years by Kenta Kobashi, and it would be taken by John Cena in the year after, that’s some weird company to be in. Mistico was the first, and to date is the only luchador to win this award, remember that for later. In the same year, he also took the award for ‘Best Box Office Draw’, putting him in the same company as previous winners Hulk Hogan, Steve Austin and The Rock. He is also a two time winner of ‘Best Flying Wrestler,’ previously won by Rey Mysterio six times. He was proclaimed the best box office draw for the entire decade of the 2000’s. Not bad for somebody who through that entire ten years never wrestled in a major US promotion. Not in front of a crowd at least, but that’ll come later.

2005 - Junior Division

While Mistico would sign with WWE in early 2011, this story actually starts back in 2005. According to the October 25th ‘05 Wrestling Observer, WWE contacted AAA and CMLL about potentially using their wrestlers for a new concept they were planning for Smackdown. Specifically the wrestlers they wanted from CMLL were Mistico and Super Porky, for their short lived (no pun intended), Juniors division. While Porky would go to WWE and have a brief run (again no pun intended), Mistico was seemingly blocked from going by CMLL. “The story we heard was CMLL was contacted and didn’t want to send Mistico, who is one of the few guys actually under contract with CMLL.” A couple of weeks later on November 7th, it was reported that “Although the WWE tried to contact him, Mistico himself never got any word from them, so the office or whomever they went to for the connection never passed the message along. He was telling people he wanted to go, but others were explaining to him how they perceived he would be used and talked him out of it.” This was around the same time that the cruiserweight division was still around on Smackdown, but hadn’t really been the same since Rey Mysterio had been removed from it. Five months later, Rey would win the World title at Wrestlemania twenty-two, and wouldn’t look back. A few months earlier in June, the Mexicools had debuted, and were immediately pushed as a joke act, riding lawn mowers to the ring and donning overalls. As we’ll hear more about in a little while, a lot of Mexican talent were seeing this, and not wanting to become the next version of the Mexicools. Years later Dave would explain, “Because of how people like Psicosis and Super Crazy were treated, there has been a stigma among the wrestlers in Mexico that if you go to WWE, you’ll just be topped out unless you’re Mysterio so people who were stars in Mexico didn’t want to risk it.” Rey Mysterio was very much seen as the exception, not the rule.

The Junior division in reality had been the brainchild of at the time writer for WWE Court Bauer, who now owns Major League Wrestling, one of the promotions that Mistico currently works for today. In 2011 when Mistico finally signed with the company, the Observer details Court’s original plan to build a new division around him as the centerpiece. The inspiration behind it was the way Jushin Liger and Tiger Mask had been featured as junior heavyweights in the 90’s. “His feeling was they had already tainted the cruiserweight division and putting him in that division would be the kiss of death to him both in booking and with the fan base.” In Dave’s words, the plan having been pitched to an approving McMahon, was “was obscenely sabotaged”. Somewhere along the way the word ‘Junior’ appears to have gotten lost in translation, and it was likely for the best that Mistico was never involved. The division became a joke storyline that seemed doomed to failure almost by design. On screen it was pitched by Palmer Canon, the in-storyline Network executive whose character was supposed to know nothing about what worked in wrestling. As noted in the Observer on November 14th, Mistico’s US debut would end up taking place on October 26th 2005, in front of a sold out fifthteen hundred fans for Lucha Va Voom in Los Angeles, and the now entirely comedic Junior division would last only a few weeks.

2007 - A more serious attempt

The next time WWE would have interest in Mistico would be in 2007, this time a bit more seriously. In the March 5th ‘07 edition of Figure Four Weekly, Bryan Alvarez reports on Mistico being set to take part in a WWE tryout that week in San Jose. This would have been at the Smackdown and ECW taping that took place on February 27th at the HP Pavillion. Bryan Alvarez claims that WWE became interested in Mistico through him winning the Observer’s Wrestler of the year award in 2006. “Basically, people cannot believe that the wrestler of the year is this man Mistico, and they’re bringing him in to see what he’s got.” Bryan also comments on speculation that the tryout is taking place in San Jose as some sort of dig at Dave Meltzer who lives there. “Now before the conspiracy theories begin that the idea is to make him look like a fool on a WWE show in front of Dave Meltzer, I can tell you that the idea of having the tryout in San Jose was made on the Mexican side and not the WWE side.” Alvarez goes on to make a rather insane claim about just how much CMLL didn’t want to lose Mistico. “in fact, the CMLL office alerted border patrol over the weekend to watch out for him and not let him into the country, which is way up there on the insanity scale.” While I wasn’t sure if this was a real claim or not, it is reiterated in later newsletters, so maybe there was something to it. Not truth maybe, but something to it.

In the following week’s issue, more details would come out about Mistico’s audition for the company. “Mistico’s tryout Tuesday night was a one-on-one match before the agents with Dean Malenko. The word out of WWE was that he got a very good report, but that if he signed he probably would not debut immediately on TV, meaning a likely trip to developmental.” Bryan also notes that he returned to Mexico afterwards. He would compete in CMLL the day before his tryout and would be back working for them a few days later, and was advertised for matches for CMLL as far out as April. The March 12th Observer also notes that Mistiso did not have a US work visa at the time, and so wrestled the match, and another with Jamie Noble in front of the Smackdown roster but no fans, essentially like an audition. Dave also notes that his English apparently wasn’t great, and so time in developmental might have also been planned to help with that.

The final interesting thing of note in this Observer is one last trick CMLL may have played to get him to stay. “The plan in Mexico is to basically force him to make his choice immediately. They have planned a PPV match on 3/16 with Mistico vs. Perro Aguayo Jr. mask vs. hair, which would be CMLL’s biggest match in years. If he stays, he will win the match. If he leaves, they are going to want to unmask him, which becomes a huge risk to him because he likely won’t be anywhere near the draw or money earner without the almost next generation Santo thing they’ve pushed him as if he drops the match.” In what might be considered a spoiler, this mask versus hair bout would end up not taking place.

In the March 14th Observer, it would be reported that Mistico would not be leaving for WWE. “The Mistico soap opera of the past few weeks is over and he’s not coming. Mistico admitted to the company that had signed a five year contract with CMLL that had several years remaining. WWE lawyers decided the only way they could sign Mistico was if they worked the deal out through CMLL, who is not interested in giving him up.” Dave added that WWE wasn’t happy with this having been impressed by Mistico, but also because “Mistico never let them know he had a valid contract until Laurinatis made him the offer at the end of this past week.” Upon his eventual signing, Mistico would lament that he wished he had gone in 2007, but things would change later on in WWE that would improve his chances of success.

2011 - Misico finally signs

It wouldn’t be until January of 2011 that conversations between Mistico and WWE would resume. In the January 3rd Observer it would be reported that “Mistico has made inquiries about coming in.” On why he hadn't gone sooner, rather than the contractual and visa issues reported years earlier, Dave notes “When Mistico was super hot in Mexico, they were in talks with him and he did a tryout match behind the scenes one day in San Jose and everyone was impressed with his chain wrestling. But he was making so much money in Mexico that it made no sense to leave.” As far as him making enough money where he was, something similar has been said many times by Konnan, on why he ended up not portraying Max Moon in the early 90’s. Konnan was making so much money, even starring in a Soap Opera at the time, that he ended up deciding that he didn’t need to cart the Max Moon costume back and forth between Mexico and the US. While this may have also been a reason for Mistico not to go, his CMLL contract was also a barrier for him leaving.

As I noted earlier, Mexican talent had previously been cautious of WWE following the treatment of the Mexicool and other hispanic talent, but by 2011 the tide had changed a bit, largely due to the push of Alberto Del Rio. In the same month as Mistico was looking to come in, Alberto was set to win the Royal Rumble match, that weird forty man one that makes Del Rio’s win a bit of a trivia note. When Mistico did eventually sign, the success of Alberto was reported in the newsletters as being a significant reason for Mistico deciding that the time was now. Another reason why Mistico’s chances may have been higher now than before involve WWE’s most famous luchador, Rey Mysterio. “Upsides include continuing issues between Rey Mysterio and WWE and the likelihood of WWE needing a successor for him; the success of WWE among the hispanic demographic and the desire to hire more Mexicans; his marketability in Mexico, even with a new name; the fact that he knows how to carry himself as a superstar since he’s been one pretty much since his debut as the character in the mid-00s; and the fact that they likely paid him good money, which encourages them to make the most of their investment.” The issues Bryan is referencing are the injuries Rey seemed to be plagued by. “The company’s key Spanish babyface, Rey Mysterio, is 36, and has been wrestling with a plethora of injuries for years, is on a lighter schedule, and the company feels they have to plan for the future.” Little did they know back in 2011 that Rey would find the fountain of youth and still be going in 2025…

As far as talks between the two sides, nothing was reported for the rest of January, and Mistico would remain active in CMLL, and also New Japan. His final match outside WWE would take place on January 23rd for the joint New Japan and CMLL event known as Fantastica Mania, where he would defeat Averno, one of his regular opponents. The next time Mistico would compete on that event would be 2019, post his WWE run. Publicly there appeared to be no sign yet that he was leaving, as the night before he had competed in the main event, teaming with Prince Devitt, the future Finn Balor and Hiroshi Tanahashi, in a match that was described in the Observer as “focused on letting him shine and he was in a match filled with good workers.”

In the February 1st Figure Four, Mistico signing with WWE would be one of the top stories of the week. Alvarez notes early on that this signing wasn’t going to be straight forward though, describing him as “a younger, flashier version of Rey Mysterio, though he cannot speak good English and can’t work the traditional American style that Mysterio worked for years before coming to WWE.” This was another argument for Mistico having a stint in developmental territory FCW, which at the time had a fair few future stars on it’s roster. From Seth Rollins, to Xavier Woods, Big E and AJ Lee. Bryan Danielson had also been in FCW not long before that, but was soon set to debut on the first season of NXT.

A week later we would get some more information in the February 7th Observer about how Mistico had been trying to leave CMLL for quite a while. “He had been unhappy for the past several months, and had been in secret talks on separate occasions, once with AAA believing they had a good shot at getting him in for a major show.” Dave also notes the he was going to have to have a new name, and likely a new mask design is he was to stay masked, as the Mistico name and likeness was owned by CMLL. It also seems that CMLL were more willing to let Mistico go in 2011 too. “The company had made the decision to really push the younger La Sombra and Mascara Dorada, as the company’s long-term battle plan has been, actually based on the success of Mistico’s explosion at a time when business wasn’t strong.” I felt a bit old reading that and knowing that since that was written Mascara Dorada’s time in WWE as Gran Metalik has been and gone, and La Sombra, now known as WWE’s Andrade is on his second run.

The next major development with Mistico would be reported in late February, when the plans for him had been changed. Mistico was now no longer scheduled to go to Florida Championship Wrestling, their developmental group at the time, but instead he would head straight to the main roster. “The idea is that since it cost so much to get him, they need to make him a valuable player as soon as possible. Whether this is short-sighted thinking or not will be better viewed in hindsight.” Remember that mastermind I teased what feels like an age ago? He might turn out to be responsible for the main roster call as well. It was also noted here for the first time that Jim Ross was scheduled to be at a press event that was open to all on February 24th, which would become the press conference where Mistico was introduced under his new name. Dave astutely guesses that the purpose of the event would be “to also make sure the Mexican-Americans and Mexican fans know it is the former Mistico under the mask.” Introducing him as the former Mistico, and revealing his new identity here actually turned out to be a clever way of accomplishing this, and one that would be nicked in NXT over the years since.

The Introduction

On February 24th 2011, WWE would introduce Mistico to the world, unveiling his new name. He would now be known as Sin Cara, which translates as ‘no face’. The press conference did a pretty effective job of making sure that WWE fans knew that Sin Cara was a big deal, and we should anticipate his debut. Earlier in the day, CMLL held their own press event, at which they were expected to attempt to bury Mistico ahead of WWE’s event. This did not happen in the end, with CMLL just using their time to announce many of the big matches they had upcoming. “Most of the interest was on how CMLL would handle losing the company’s biggest star. Most saw the attempt as damage control. Director/booker Juan Manuel Mar (also known as Panico, his wrestling name) said that the wrestler formerly known as Mistico had left the promotion. He said that the company still owned the name and the likeness, and that they would eventually introduce a new Mistico.” Following the press event, Sin Cara would be whisked off to Los Angeles to film promo footage for his imminent debut. On the March 7th episode of Raw, we would get our first glimpse of this footage on WWE television, featuring Sin Cara performing moves with Alex Kozlov that they shot in a warehouse. Though never having wrestled for WWE as a contracted performer, Kozlov was chosen as he had experience working with luchadors.

On March 21st, it was reported that Sin Cara was scheduled to be put the Raw brand, and so was likely to debut there. As far off as May he was being advertised for matches teaming with Evan Bourne against the Nexus, in matches that would never actually take place, so getting off to a great start then. On March 25th through the 27th, Sin Cara would have his first house show matches for WWE, wrestling Primo Colon on all three dates in Champaign Illinois, Evansville and Indianapolis Indiana. According to Figure Four weekly, “The idea, obviously, was to use a guy who could do some lucha spots with him, speak his language and try to teach him the WWE style.” When the time would come, Sin Cara’s first TV match would also be with Primo, in hopes of getting him off on the right foot. Pun intended for what is coming soon.

The Debut

On April 4th 2011, one night after Wrestlemania twenty seven, the famously well received wrestlemania twenty seven by the way, Sin Cara would make his WWE Raw debut. Following a match or the United States title between Daniel Bryan and Sheamus, the one that had been bumped from Wrestlemania the night before, Sin Cara would come to the aid of Bryan, vaulting into the ring with the use of a small trampoline that I assume the Spirit Squad left behind. For reference later as I’m going to be quoting Bryan Alvarez again soon, he would commonly refer to this in Figure Four Weekly as the “little tramp”, usually complaining that it had to go. Once Sin Cara got in the ring he looked impressive against Sheamus, but all anyone cared to remember the next day was him just barely making it into the ring on the little tramp.

On April 11th, Sin Cara would have his in ring debut, winning a short match with Primo. It didn’t help at all that there was a major botch at the finish of the match, where Sin Cara fell off the top rope, and retried the move he was going for. A reputation, perhaps unfairly gained, was beginning to form. If you’re wondering by the way, that phallic t-shirt wouldn;t come out until November, so it can’t be blamed yet.

I’m going to end this story with a report from the April 24th 2011 Wrestling Observer, as it reveals the mastermind of all of this that I mentioned at the start of this video. The man who had been pulling the strings behind Mistico’s transformation into No Face. This is of course a massive exaggeration, but let me explain a bit. During this week, WWE officially announced that Triple H was set to take on WWE’s developmental program, which according to the report was “something that has been in the works for months.” The newsletter explains “They pushed the idea (that) the signing of Sin Cara was his first move, which is why Sin Cara was rushed onto the main roster and given the push coming in.”

A day after this was published, Sin Cara would be drafted to Smackdown while Rey Mysterio, the man he was supposed to be the successor to was moved to Raw. It was thought that for various botch related reasons, he might do better on the still at the time pre-taped show. “He can still be a top star, but he’ll be a top star where they can edit out botched spots or screw-ups on the mini tramp.” In Figure Four weekly Bryan Alvarez made another very interesting point about why Sin Cara may have been moved, relating to Smackdowns strong hispanic audience. “Should also be noted that when Rey was getting pushed the Hispanic demographics for Smackdown were excellent, and with Cara being Hunter’s hand-picked first real-life draft pick, he’ll probably get a push and they’re likely hoping for similar ratings results, particularly in Mexico.”

It’s safe to say then, that based on Sin Cara’s early performances, and the limp crowd reactions to him, that Triple H wasn’t given much of a chance as head of development by the fans. Not initially at least, proving that we fans don’t know it all. SIn Cara had hoped that in 2011 the time might have been right for him to have a fair shot in WWE, but who knows what might have happened if he’d held out for a few years and joined NXT, or maybe a few years later and been a part of the Cruiserweight Classic? He might have even gotten a photo of Triple H pointing at him. He’s still wrestling today, and is back to using the Mistico name. It was considered a big deal when he made his debut in All Elite Wrestling in 2023, as it ushered in the start of AEW’s relationship with CMLL, maybe even leading to AAA’s acquisition this year.

Sources:

WON Oct 24th 2005 Juniors Division: https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/october-24-2005-observer-newsletter-wwe-changes-course-jim-ross-angle/

WON Nov 7th 2005 Mistico wanted to go https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/november-7-2005-observer-newsletter-wwe-turmoil-jim-ross-storyline/

Cagematch.de SD/ECW taping in San Jose Feb 27th 2007 https://www.cagematch.net/?id=1&nr=10322

FFD Mar 5th 2007 - Mistico tryout match https://members.f4wonline.com/newsletters/figure-four-weekly/f4w610-pride-delivers-five-star-show-march-5-2007-89511/

FFD Mar 12th 2007 Tryout follow up https://members.f4wonline.com/newsletters/figure-four-weekly/f4w611-couture-slays-giant-march-12-2007-89516/

WON Mar 14th 2007 - Mistico can’t go https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/march-14-2007-observer-newsletter-ufc-68-recap-bad-news-allen-passes-away/

WON Jan 3rd 2011 - Mistico makes inquiries: https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/jan-3-2011-observer-newsletter-jeff-hardy-situation-enormous-king/

FFD Jan 4th 2011 - Heel run https://members.f4wonline.com/newsletters/figure-four-weekly/jan-4-2011-figure-four-weekly-best-year-lucha-libre-dynamite-and-ufc-news-more/

WON Jan 31st 2011 - Fantastica Mania https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/2011-wrestling-observer-newsletter-awards-issue-92196/

FFD Feb 1st 2011 Mistico signs https://members.f4wonline.com/newsletters/figure-four-weekly/feb-1-figure-four-weekly-road-mania-and-line-rumble-report-dgusa-ippv-strikeforce/

WON Feb 7th 11 Mistico signing more info https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/feb-7-2011-observer-newsletter-royal-rumble-2011-road-mania-mistico/

WON Feb 28th 11 Early info on press conference https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/feb-28-2011-observer-newsletter-elimination-chamber-mania-build-fedor/

WON March 7th Post press conference https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/march-7-2011-observer-newsletter-wwe-biz-picking-sin-cara-ufc-127-roh/

WON Mar 21st 11 Raw brand advertising https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/march-21-2011-observer-newsletter-ufc-buys-strikeforce-victory-road/

FFD Mar 29 11 House show debut https://members.f4wonline.com/newsletters/figure-four-weekly/mar-29-figure-four-weekly-wrestlemania-27-preview-issue-fight-night-detail-tons/

WON Apr 11 11 Sin Cara Debut https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/april-11-2011-observer-wrestlemania-27-double-issue-plus-worldwide/

FFD Apr 12 11 In ring debut, trampoline and botch https://members.f4wonline.com/newsletters/figure-four-weekly/apr-12-figure-four-weekly-official-list-banned-wwe-terms-sweeney-edge-notes-more/?

WON Apr 13 11 more on debut https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/april-13-2011-observer-newsletter-edge-retires-death-larry-sweeney/



WON Apr 24 11 Triple H secret plans revealed https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/april-24-2011-observer-newsletter-lockdown-report-vinces-huge-gamble/