Nunzio has shared what he witnessed when Brock Lesnar and Kurt Angle tested their amateur wrestling skills inside a WWE ring. He said their friendly contest became increasingly competitive until Vince McMahon stepped in and ordered them to stop.
Lesnar and Angle were two of WWE’s most decorated amateur wrestlers. Angle won an Olympic gold medal in freestyle wrestling at the 1996 Games, while Lesnar became an NCAA Division I heavyweight champion before joining WWE.
Stories about their real wrestling contest have circulated for years. Angle has previously claimed that he took Lesnar down twice while Lesnar was unable to take him down. Nunzio, however, did not remember either man being declared the winner. Speaking with Chris Van Vliet, Nunzio said he was near the ring when Angle and Lesnar began wrestling before a WWE show.
“Kurt Angle and Brock Lesnar started playing around,” Nunzio recalled. “They were feeling and playing around in the very beginning, and then things got a little tense. They started to really go at it.”
Nunzio clarified that the tension did not come from personal dislike. The two wrestlers simply became more competitive as other WWE performers gathered to watch.
“I don’t mean not liking each other,” he explained. “It was in a professional way, amateur wrestling—who was better. As time went on, all the boys were watching, all the eyes were watching, and all of a sudden things started getting tense.”
McMahon became concerned because Lesnar and Angle were two of WWE’s leading wrestlers at the time. An injury during an unscheduled contest could have affected the company’s television and event plans.
“I remember Vince McMahon coming down yelling, ‘Cut that out! Cut that out!’” Nunzio said. “These are two top guys shooting and trying to go at it, and Vince has millions of dollars in these guys.”
When asked who was winning, Nunzio refused to choose between them because McMahon ended the contest before he saw a clear result.
“As soon as it started going, he came out, so it wasn’t like anybody was winning,” Nunzio said. “They were just going at it. Nobody was giving up anything. You saw it getting tense.”
Lesnar and Angle later carried their rivalry onto WWE television, including championship matches at WrestleMania 19, SummerSlam 2003 and a 60-minute Iron Man Match on SmackDown.
Wrestling
