Kurt Angle Was Worried Brock Lesnar Was Paralyzed After WWE WrestleMania 19 Botch

At WrestleMania 19, Kurt Angle put his WWE Championship on the line against Brock Lesnar in the main event of the pay-per-view.

Many fans regard the match as an instant classic, but the match is arguably better known for the scary botch that almost ended Brock Lesnar’s career.

While speaking to the Wrestling Perspective podcast, WWE Hall Of Famer Kurt Angle recalled his match against Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania 19. Prior to the match, Angle was injured and required neck surgery; so he wanted to drop the title to Lesnar.

The ending of the match saw Brock Lesnar performing a Shooting Star Press off the top turnbuckle, but landing directly on his neck. Angle revealed his reaction to the scary botch during the match.

“The first thing I thought when he landed on his head, I said, ‘S***! I’m gonna have to hold the title for another month.’ The reason why I lost to him, I was supposed to have a good title run for a while and I broke my neck again and I had to have surgery.”

“With Brock, I thought, ‘God, he’s not gonna be able to get up.’ I covered him for the pin and I’m like, ‘Please kick out, you have to kick out. Please don’t get pinned.’ I didn’t want to keep the title. He kicked out and I said, ‘Can you get up?’ He said, ‘I don’t know.” and I said, ‘Well try to get up.’ I actually pulled him up, I got him up and I said, ‘Can you F5 me right now?’ He said yes and he got me up, F5’ed me and that was it.” 

Kurt Angle went on to have a solid career in both WWE and TNA and ended his in-ring career at WrestleMania 35.