Victory at all costs.
That was the mindset during Pearl Harbor. It was also Kurt Angle’s mindset when he won a gold medal — with a broken freakin’ neck.
The WWE and IMPACT Wrestling Hall of Fame legend had to unlearn some of these traits when making the transition from legitimate athlete to sports entertainer.
Angle did that as well as anyone in the history of the business, and as fast as anyone, something Ronda Rousey was able to do in similar fashion when she made the same transition, coincidentally enough, alongside Angle in her first high-profile squared circle showdown on “The Grandest Stage of Them All” at WrestleMania 34 back at 2018.
Great year for pro wrestling. Great year for many reasons, and also the prelude to one of the biggest years to alter the globe and every piece of land on it.
COVID-19 was soon to follow.
Rewind back to the turn of the century. Y2K is in the rear-view mirror, as is one of the most savage attacks on American soil was the back-drop for a star-studded film about the Operation Z sneak-attack that led to the second World War.
“A date which will live in infamy,” was the quote about the unannounced attack on Pearl Harbor, which was considered by the Tokyo Trials to be a “war crime.”
Kurt Angle didn’t get to be part of this, even though he was given the opportunity to do so by the producers of the film.
Unfortunately for the decorated amateur wrestling and pro wrestling legend, he wasn’t given the opportunity to add major motion picture legend to that list.
Why?
Vincent Kennedy McMahon.
Kurt Angle reflected on the latest installment of his official podcast, The Kurt Angle Show, about the former WWE CEO and Chairman refusing to allow him to accept what Angle claims was one of the “leading roles” in the film that was released in 2001.
The significance of that time period?
Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson was emerging as someone who would go on to become a major motion picture legend.
Vince didn’t want to lose any other top guys to Hollywood because of that, and as he learned in the Monday Night Wars between WWE and WCW, if you have a significant talent, you hold onto it and you try and feature it as best as you possibly can.
You go ALL OUT with someone like that.
“It was a blockbuster movie,” Angle stated when talking about the situation on his podcast. “I was one of the leading roles. They wanted me and WWE said no. It was Pearl Harbor. It was a guy that was the hero that died at the end. I didn’t see the movie, but I was told who it was gonna be.”
Angle continued, noting that it was very difficult for anyone in WWE to convince Vince McMahon or the company to allow themselves to accept the warm embrace offered by the major motion pictures filmed in Hollywood.
“Unfortunately they said no, and the reason, and I totally get it, Rock just left and Vince was putting everybody on lockdown,” Angle added. “He wasn’t going to lose another wrestler to Hollywood. So for the next several years, five or six years, nobody was allowed to do anything after Rock left.”
The former Olympic gold medalist would also mention how he was like many of the talents in WWE, doing what he was told because for all intents and purposes, that’s what you had to do at the time whether you wanted to or not.
“So it was very difficult to get any type of movies because WWE was controlling you and you had to do what they told you to do,” he said. “But eventually, thank God, you know, it loosened up and then John Cena and Edge started getting movie roles, Batista, and everything started opening up.”
And open up it did.
Big time.
The film simply titled, “Pearl Harbor,” which featured a loaded cast of Hollywood royalty such as Ben Affleck, Jennifer Garner, Tom Sizemore, Kate Beckinsale, Josh Hartnett, Dan Aykroyd and many others, had an opening weekend of $59,078,912 after airing across 3,214 theaters.
After a solid opening weekend and negative reviews from a large number of media outlets, the overall business generated by the movie was a success story, nearly doubling its’ budget when all was said-and-done. “Pearl Harbor” would gross a $198,542,554 at domestically in North America as well as an additional $250,678,39 overseas for a worldwide total of $449,220,945.
Check out the complete episode of The Kurt Angle Show where the WWE and IMPACT Wrestling Hall of Fame legend and former Olympic gold medalist talks more about this topic, as well as many others with ties and connection to the world of pro wrestling, by visiting AdFreeShows.com. H/T to WrestlingNews.co for transcribing the above quotes.
