WWE Hall of Famer Kurt Angle recently spoke on his podcast, “The Kurt Angle Show,” about a variety of professional wrestling topics including an interesting story about Shawn Stasiak:
“I want to tell you a story about Shawn,” Angle said. “This also affected his career, and I hate to say this, but I have to let the cat out of the bag. Shawn was losing his hair just like I was. He decided to get a hair replacement surgery and it was a week before he was called up. He called the WWE and said, ‘Hey, I can’t be called up right now. I’m getting my hair done’, and they’re like, ‘Oh, okay. All right. We’ll take care of you then.'”
Angle continued, “He didn’t lose his confidence because of that, but I think that painted him in a corner where, okay, this guy’s not going to be a team player. They were like, ‘We want you to debut right now’, and he’s like, ‘I can’t. I have to wait about two months.’ I was like, ‘Okay, you can wait two months. Let’s see what happens then.’ When I look at it, I just wonder if that might have affected his career a little bit. I don’t know.”
While that story may be true and may have contributed to his career being derailed, Stasiak has stated in shoot interviews that he felt stigmatized because someone saw him with a tape recorder in his bag. Stasiak has stated that while in developmental, he was told to keep a tape recorder on him so he could tape himself doing promos, but that this was frowned upon when he reached the main roster, which may have contributed to his career derailment.
Stasiak went on to become a chiropractor after finishing his wrestling career, and he received a certificate in manipulation under anesthesia from the Academy of Physical and Manual Medicine in New York. He’s also been a motivational speaker.
You can listen to the complete podcast below:
(h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription)
