For everyone who followed pro wrestling from childhood, there was always a lingering question: How would certain guys, not necessarily the biggest stars but the ones who are known by fans as real-life tough guys, do if the battle was real?

The question was more on people’s minds during old-school pro wrestling’s heyday than in recent years, largely because the Ultimate Fighter has answered a lot of questions about putting guys with different backgrounds into an arena and seeing what styles come out on top.

In the early days of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, many amateur champion wrestlers fared well simply through takedowns and the ability to control and keep opponents on their back.
But in today’s mixed martial arts, you have to be a well-rounded fighter, with knowledge of wrestling or judo for balance, jiu-jitsu for submission awareness and avoidance, and both boxing and kickboxing techniques.
Brock Lesnar isn’t coming to UFC to answer any age-old questions. He’s coming because it’s a sport he’s watched since its inception, and now after more than a year of full-time training, after trying pro wrestling and pro football, he feels that it’s the sport he was put on earth to participate in.

Posted at the Wrestling Talk forum…

Olympic gold medalist and professional wrestling star Kurt Angle was charged Friday with driving under the influence.

Moon Township police said they received a call from a motorist at 1:49 p.m. complaining that someone driving a white Cadillac nearly struck his vehicle in a restaurant parking lot.

The motorist, who gave police the vehicle’s license plate number, also said the Cadillac was driving erratically on Beaver Grade Road and almost hit a traffic sign. Police tracked the Cadillac to Angle’s residence, which they did not identify.

Angle, 38, who has admitted an addiction to painkillers, told police he had been at the restaurant and driven home. He failed a sobriety test but refused a blood test. He was charged with driving under the influence of alcohol or a controlled substance and careless driving. He was released to appear in court at a later date.

Angle, a Mount Lebanon native, is the current Total Nonstop Action Wrestling world champion. He could not be reached for comment.

A standout athlete at Mount Lebanon High School, Angle was a two-time NCAA Division 1 wrestling champion at Clarion University of Pennsylvania. He also won a gold medal at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta.

What Would Happen if Two of the Greatest Olympic Teams Ever Went Head-to-Head? Read Below to Find Out

By Kyle Klingman – TWM Columnist
Please send comments, questions or replies to: info@thewrestlingmall.com

When conversations arise about great United States freestyle Olympic wrestling teams the athletes who competed at the 1972 Munich Games are usually at the top of the list. Not only was it one of the best teams but it was a unique team, a rare combination of differing personalities that ranged from devout Christians (John & Ben Peterson and Gene Davis), a training fanatic who revolutionized the sport (Dan Gable), a radical hippie (Rick Sanders), the heaviest Olympic athlete ever, (Chris Taylor), a 17-year old high school student (Jimmy Carr), and a wrestler who was studying for the bar exam while training for Olympics (Wayne Wells).

But was this the greatest Olympic wrestling team ever? Certainly the medal count from the 1972 freestyle squad lends credibility to those who make the claim that this often-talked about team stands alone at the top. In an era of Soviet wrestling domination (their teams won seven out of eight world team titles from 1962 through 1971) the United States put up an impressive medal count that year. In all, the U.S. freestyle team won six medals, including three golds, two silvers, and a bronze.

“A good book is the purest essence of the soul” – Thomas Carlyle, Scottish historian and essayist

“When a new book is published, read an old one” – Samuel Rogers, British poet

By Kyle Klingman – TWM Columnist

The history of wrestling in books is fascinating. From the beginning, wrestling held a prominent place in writing. The Epic of Gilgamesh, considered by many to be oldest surviving piece of literature, features a wrestling match between Gilgamesh and Enkidu. The story of the ancient Sumerian ruler predates the Bible and the Homeric epics (both of which include wrestling) by over 1000 years.

Through the ages books have been viewed as both good and evil. Perhaps the greatest holder of books was the Royal Library of Alexandria. The Egyptian library was formed in the 3rd century B.C. during the rule of Ptolemy II. It is estimated that over 500,000 scrolls were kept there at its zenith.

Upon arrival to the great city of Alexandria all books were confiscated. Ptolemy III ordered that all visitors were to give up any writing in their possession. The scrolls were taken and copied by scribes with the original being placed in the library and a duplicate copy given to the original owner.

“First, let me say to our talent and our staff, congratulations on our move to primetime. Each of you have worked so hard for this and deserve all the great things that will come with the move. To our fans, none of us would be here without you. Your belief in our product has made all of this possible, and from all of us, thank you. This is just the beginning.

I hope the hype of our announcements last night lived up to or exceeded your expectations. In this industry, it is very hard to keep anything quiet. We are thrilled to have Kurt Angle join our team. Just like with all of our wrestlers, Kurt’s family and health will always come first. I’m sure you will be hearing from him in the coming weeks.

I asked Kurt’s agent to provide me with a quote for our announcement release. Most times a publicist, manager or agent will prepare a statement for the talent. But after a long film shoot in Nashville last week that ended at midnight, Kurt sat down and hand wrote his heartfelt comments on a hotel note pad. Instead of just pulling a small part from that to use in the press release, I thought his fans would love to share in his full emotions from that night:

Wrestling legend Kurt “The Machine” Angle, who recently left the WWE after seven years, told Real Fighter magazine that he is in strong discussions to compete in a professional mixed martial arts bout sometime in 2007. In the coming weeks, the former Olympic Gold medalist will reveal his plans. Will Angle step into a cage, Octagon or ring? RealFighter.com will give you all the details as soon as they become available.

Real Fighter magazine will carry an exclusive feature on Angle in the November/December 2006 issue, (on newsstands 11/24) in which the former Olympic Gold Medalist wrestling great will explain what motivated him to jump into the challenging sport of MMA. You won’t want to miss it — and you won’t read it anywhere else.

BY MIKE MOONEYHAM
The Post and Courier

Kurt Angle didn’t even follow pro wrestling until he joined World Wrestling Entertainment - then known as the World Wrestling Federation - in 1998.

He was a 1996 Olympic gold medalist who had never really shown an interest in the professional side of the sport until WWE came calling with a lucrative offer.

But he took to pro wrestling like a duck to water, and his love affair with the game blossomed.

He showed the same intensity and determination in the pro ranks that he had displayed during an amateur career that included two NCAA Division I titles as a three-time NCAA All-American at Pennsylvania’s Clarion University.

Angle, who combined technique with credibility and charisma, was on the fast track to superstardom the first night the Pittsburgh native stepped into a WWE ring, adding virtually every major title to his collection.

In eight relatively short years Angle went on to win the WWE heavyweight title on four occasions and became one of the most celebrated performers in company history. For much of the time, though, he couldn’t pop pills fast enough to mask the pain in his rapidly deteriorating body.

By Michael Cole

“My body is so beat up and run down, I can’t even think straight,” Kurt Angle tells WWE.com in an exclusive interview Saturday concerning his early release from his contract with World Wrestling Entertainment. Angle and WWE officials mutually agreed to end Angle’s relationship with the company on Friday.

Angle says seven years of non-stop wrestling has taken a major toll on his body, his mind and his family. “I need my body to reheal and rehab, I have done this for too long without a break. I haven’t been able to really enjoy my life. I haven’t seen my family, I’ve had problems with medication - I’m just fried physically and mentally.”

Angle’s business manager David Hawk claims, “Kurt’s in a tremendous amount of pain, he’s used prescription medication to deal with it. Kurt has come to the conclusion that unless he can get in the ring without the use of pain medication then he doesn’t need to be in there. He realizes he was just endangering himself and his opponents.”

Due to personal issues, Kurt Angle has been granted an early release from his contract. WWE looks forward to establishing a new relationship with Kurt in the near future.

The only Olympic gold medalist in WWE history, Kurt Angle arrived in 1999 and quickly became one of the most decorated champions in sports-entertainment history. “The Wrestling Machine” is not only a six-time World Champion, but also held the Intercontinental Championship and WWE Tag Team Championship; he also won the 2000 King of the Ring tournament. Recently joining ECW, Angle’s unmatched intensity was rivaled only by his technical and athletic in-ring prowess.

Angle was a two-time NCAA heavyweight champion (1990 and ‘92) and Olympic gold medalist at the 1996 Atlanta Games. 

Brock Lesnar, the former NCAA heavyweight wrestling champion who became a professional wrestler, will announce this in Las Vegas his plans to become an “ultimate fighting” competitor.