Kurt Angle wrestled in only one Elimination Chamber match in his WWE career — the WWE Championship match at New Year’s Revolution in 2006. That match saw Angle get eliminated first as John Cena went on to retain his title against the Olympic Gold Medalist, Kane, Shawn Michaels, Chris Masters and Carlito (all before Edge cashed in his Money in the Bank contract to pin Cena for the gold). But why was Angle the first man to lose? According to him, it came down to a game of Rock, Paper, Scissors.
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“The reason I got eliminated early was because I won Paper, Rock, Scissors. John Cena was the champion and he was going to retain the title at the Elimination Chamber, so the other 5 of us wanted to get eliminated early,” Angle said on The Kurt Angle Show. “They didn’t want to last the whole match because they weren’t going to win. I won Paper, Rock, Scissors so I got eliminated first. That doesn’t happen very often but we did it that night.”
During a SmackDown house show on that same night, World Heavyweight Champion Batista suffered a torn tricep that resulted in him relinquishing his championship. WWE opted to move Angle from Raw back over to SmackDown and booked him to become the new champion via a 20-man battle royal. He’d hold the title up until WrestleMania 22.
“The reason why they chose me is because they went to the other top wrestlers on Raw and none of them wanted to leave Raw,” Angle explained. “Vince called me and said, ‘I need a favor from you. I know you were on SmackDown for years. You just came over to Raw recently, but I need you to go back to SmackDown.’ I said, ‘Vince, I’m a team player. I’ll do this. Whatever you need’, and I did it.
“Vince told me on the phone the night before (the battle royal) when I talked to him. I knew I would win the World Heavyweight Title in a Battle Royal,” he added.
WWE announced earlier this month that this year’s Elimination Chamber pay-per-view will take place in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia on Feb. 19.
