September 22, 2003 Observer Newsletter: Iron Man match, decline of popularity in early 90s

The attempt by Kurt Angle and Brock Lesnar to make modern television wrestling history with the most widely viewed 60:00 match ever in the U.S. turned into an emotional experience in the days before the match that took place on 9/16 in Raleigh.

Lesnar blew out his knee while wrestling a tune-up match in Richmond on 9/14, and the next night in Greenville, NC, he and Angle only did about a 1:00 match, with much interference, to protect him. The exact nature of the injury hasn’t been determined. The first diagnosis was floating cartilage in the knee, which caused it to lock, but there was some fear by the next night that it was a torn ACL. The company was going on the belief that the injury was not that serious since the original plan of Lesnar going over to win his third WWE championship wasn’t changed. Then, on 9/15, Angle’s older sister died from heart problems. The Angle family has had a long history with angina, to the point Angle himself has done TV commercials for angina awareness.

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