Kurt Angle

Kurt Angle is a professional wrestler who currently wrestles for TNA, but made his name during a seven-year tenure in WWE, where he was referred to as "professional wrestling's only Olympic gold medalist" (which is legit; he won gold medals for wrestling at the 1996 Summer Olympics WITH A BROKEN FREAKIN' NECK!).

You can read an extensive article on his career over at That Other Wiki, of course. -

Tropes associated with Kurt Angle include:
"Triple H: "Now Kurt, forgive me if I'm wrong - that was very emotional for you, I understand that - but Kurt, maybe it's time, y'know? Maybe it's time for you to come to terms with your true feeling - maybe it's time for you to admit it to yourself, Kurt - maybe it's time to open the closet door, Kurt...""
 * The Ace: Oh it's true! It's damn true!
 * All-American Face: Played straight when he's a face, subverted when he's a heel.
 * Ambiguously Gay: Kurt's had... strange interactions with a lot of wrestlers, namely Rey Mysterio, who he called a boy and said he was going to manhandle, and Brock Lesnar who actually kissed him.
 * Arch Enemy: Chris Benoit, Brock Lesnar, Stone Cold Steve Austin, The Rock, Eddie Guerrero, Sting, Jeff Jarrett.
 * Ax Crazy: Combined this with Trash the Set.
 * Bald of Awesome / Bald of Evil: This depends on his status as a face or a heel.
 * Catch Phrase: "It's true, it's (DAMN) true!" in the WWE, which he changed to "It's real, it's (DAMN) real!" in TNA.
 * Cloudcuckoolander: His interviews in 2006, after he joined TNA, which is why he was known as "Krazy Kurt" by fans. Among his outrageous claims at the time was that he claimed to carry Hulk Hogan to a five-star match in 2002.
 * One bizarre segment had Kurt Angle stumbling upon his then-wife, Karen, canoodling on a couch with AJ Styles. Angle jumps to the conclusion that Karen has come to try to win him back. She denies this but Angle angrily tells her that so long as he's with Samoa Joe (as tag team partners opponents at Lockdown, that is) that their marriage is on hold. He then chases Karen into Styles' arms. The whole thing comes across as Angle leaving his own wife in the tender loving care of AJ Styles until such time as he can be bothered to be a husband to her! See for yourself.
 * Companion Cube: His gold medals. In 2001, Chris Benoit stole his medals and challenged him to a two-out-of-three falls match at that year's Judgment Day PPV for them. In a 2003 promo on Smackdown Angle interrupted Benoit's promo, when he referred to his medals as "his kids" and the WWE Title as "his wife".
 * A bit Funny Aneurysm Moment considering what happened to him about seven years later (see the Love Triangle entry.)
 * Determinator: Here are some events that he's able to do with a broken neck:
 * Winning a gold medal at the 1996 Olympics.
 * Endured several brutal attacks from Stone Cold Steve Austin, including kicking out of three Stone Cold Stunners at Summer Slam 2001 and taking a piledriver on the concrete floor on the SmackDown before Unforgiven 2001.
 * Holding off neck surgery to compete at Wrestlemania XIX.
 * Eagle Land: Type 1 as a Face, Type 2 as a heel.
 * Face Heel Revolving Door: It helps that he's good at pulling off both.
 * Fan Nickname: The "Uber-Release German Suplex" from the aforementioned match with Benoit. Normally, when doing a German Suplex, your target lands on the back of the neck and/or shoulders. Thanks to Angle's timing, Benoit landed face down on his stomach.
 * And Angle has taken it the same way when Benoit gave him the same move.
 * Game-Breaking Injury: His Ankle Lock Finishing Move. Though he did not invent it (Ken Shamrock used that move during his WWF run between 1998-1999), he made it popular. He would fall victim to the Angle Lock himself during a Wrestlemania match with Chris Benoit, although he in turn caught Benoit with the Crippler Crossface, which was Benoit's Finishing Move.
 * Gosh Darn It to Heck: Early in his career, and whenever he's face.
 * A Hero to His Hometown: of Pittsburgh, always.
 * Hoist by His Own Petard: Whenever Kurt attempts a moonsault, it's practically guaranteed his opponent will move out of the way.
 * When Kurt attempts a spear, it's practically guaranteed he will miss and go shoulder-first into the ringpost.
 * Horrible Judge of Character: Trusted Hulk Hogan when he said that Dixie Carter was aware of his wife's cheating ways. Yeah, that's right, he's trusting the Manipulative Bastard who screwed Dixie out of her company, has a vendetta against Sting, kept Kurt Angle away from the title and employed the Jarretts to aid in his conspiracy, and is the present Big Bad of the company who'd have every reason to make him hate Dixie Carter (who it's been acknowledged on-air suspended Jeff Jarrett from power upon learning about the affair) and join Immortal. Well, since Sting became Dangerously Genre Savvy, someone has to be Genre Blind...
 * Hot Dad
 * How Much More Can He Take?: King of the Ring 2001 - Kurt wrestled three matches in one night, including a 26 minute Street Fight match with Shane McMahon that was more violent than expected thanks to a Special Effects Failure or two. (The reason he wrestled three matches in a single night? Shane, who intentionally interfered in Kurt's King of the Ring tournament matches to ensure that he would both move on to the finals and lose the tournament to weaken him up for the Street Fight.)
 * As Kurt's building neck injuries reached the point of being acknowledged on live TV, this has become a larger element of his matches.
 * Important Haircut: Combined with Growing the Beard after he stopped wearing wigs to hide it.
 * Love Triangle: Between Triple H and his then-Kayfabe wife, Stephanie McMahon, in 2000.
 * If not a triangle, the storyline between Kurt, Jeff Jarrett, and Karen Angle-Jarrett is similar.
 * Before that, Kurt and Karen had an on-screen triangle-like situation with AJ Styles.
 * Memetic Mutation / Memetic Badass: Angle can do anything "with a broken freakin' neck!"
 * "Where's your gold medals? Oh, that's right--you don't HAVE any!"
 * Made of Iron: Kurt Angle the man and the character. For the uninitiated, he was in the summer Olympics with a broken neck. No, he didn't get it during the wrestling tournament, he had it before the tryouts. Not only did he convince them to let him compete, he won the gold medal. While he's at times injury prone, his neck at least is made of titanium.
 * This is an understandably large point of pride both for his character and in real life.
 * In-universe, this trope manifested in his ability to take multiple finishers and still kick out. He has taken three Stone Cold Stunners in a row, multiple choke-slams, multiple F 5 moves from Brock Lesnar, and so on.
 * Manly Tears: His gold medal celebration at the 1996 Olympics. On the September 18, 2000 episode of Raw, Triple H (who is later joined by Mick Foley) made fun of Angle's crying.

"Angle: I won a gold medal with a broken freakin' neck!"
 * He would also cry again in 2001, on the Raw after Judgment Day (in which he regained his gold medals that were stolen by Benoit), when he would re-enact his Olympic gold medal ceremony.
 * After being relieved of his duties of General Manager of Smackdown by Mr. McMahon, Kurt Angle got on his knees and begged and cried for his job back.
 * Politically-Incorrect Villain: Quite common:
 * At the 2003 No Way Out pay-per-view (which was taking place in Montreal, Quebec), he insulted Canadians in general and Chris Benoit and Edge in particular, mocking their French heritage (although Edge is Anglo-Canadian, and has insulted French Canadians himself) in the Cheese-Eating Surrender Monkeys idiom. Extremely common at the time.
 * While feuding with John Cena in 2005, he made the point that he could say whatever he wanted and still get cheered, and proved it by remarking: "I don't really care for... 'the black people.'"
 * Also in 2005, he threatened Booker T's wife, Sharmell Sullivan, by saying he wanted to have "bestiality sex" with her. Sharmell, like her husband, is black. Bestiality is having sex with animals.
 * It's possible that he meant to say "bestial sex"; i.e. hugging like wild animals.
 * Popularity Power: Whether he's a face or a heel, he'll always be cheered by the fans.
 * It even carried over into his WWE entrance music. Fans of his WWE tenure know that his music starts with a mid-tempo series of horns, and then eventually bridges into a series of two-note intervals, which fans punctuate by chanting "You suck!" in sync with the two notes. The chants started when he was a heel and continued during his face turns as an odd show of respect. Angle once Lampshaded this in one of his promos.
 * During one of his face runs, he would point at his opponent during his entrance as the fans chanted "you suck" at THEM.
 * Power Stable: TNA's Main Event Mafia. Team Angle in WWE
 * Real Life Writes the Plot: He suffered a legit neck injury during the 1996 Olympics, and his opponents would exploit that.


 * Introducing then wife Karen to TNA in 2007. Whoops.
 * The Rival: His favorite rivals are Chris Benoit and Brock Lesnar.
 * In TNA, his most prominent rival has been Samoa Joe.
 * In-ring, and out, Jeff Jarrett has taken that role.
 * Role-Ending Misdemeanor: He was released from the WWE in 2006 (allegedly) due to his refusal to go into drug rehab...
 * Shocking Swerve: ...and then he jumped to TNA in a move that shocked practically everyone.
 * Smug Snake: Angle's first gimmick in the WWF/WWE was a really, really arrogant heel that managed to put his foot in his mouth wherever he went. His first few months were undefeated which he bragged non-stop about in between oblivious swipes at the crowd. He went undefeated until he started losing tag matches wherein he would simply declare it was his partner that lost, not him. Then Taz defeated him at the Royal Rumble. Kurt whined that it didn't count since Taz used a choke (it was the Tazmission). Then Taz beat him again. Kurt would then finally shut the hell up... until he won the Intercontinental and European belts.
 * Spotlight-Stealing Squad: The Angle Alliance and the Main Event Mafia in TNA.
 * There's a reason why a derogatory nickname for TNA used to be Total Nonstop Angle.
 * Stalker with a Crush: In 2005, when he was obsessed with Booker T's Real Life-wife, Sharmelle. There were some negative implications in this, as Angle said he wanted to have "bestiality sex" with her. "Bestiality" is copulation with animals. Booker T and Sharmell were both black.
 * The Starscream: Angle was this in both the Alliance and in the Sting-led Main Event Mafia.
 * Villains Never Lie: Oh sure, Kurt, why shouldn't you believe Hulk Hogan about Dixie Carter? He's only the Big Bad of the biggest Heel faction in TNA, has a vendetta against your opponent, screwed Dixie out of her company, and has been working with the Jarretts. I'm sure there's no reason he'd lie to you!
 * Wearing A Flag As A Wrestling Attire
 * Worthy Opponent: Chris Benoit and Brock Lesnar.
 * Wrestling Psychology: Fans go back and forth over how good he actually is at this. He's technically brilliant, but his more formula matches devolve into reversal-fests.