10 Backstage WWE SummerSlam Facts You Probably Didn’t Know

9. Steve Austin Bladed Kurt Angle During 2001 WWE Title Match

There is an art to blading and 'getting colour', something that Kurt Angle found out firsthand at SummerSlam 2001. 

At the event, the Olympic Hero was challenging for Steve Austin's WWE Title. The two had a classic bout full of intensity and drama, and it ended up being one of the very best matches of the year. 

In order to add to the drama, it was decided in advance that Angle would be busted open during the course of the action.

The trouble was that Angle (still less than two years into his full-time in-ring career) didn't know how to do it effectively. 

Austin had made him the blade himself and told him how to do it, but when it came time to pull it off in the match, it wasn't working, as Kurt explained during an episode of the Kurt Angle Show podcast: 

"One of the first times I had to bleed, I believe it was SummerSlam ‘01 against Stone Cold Steve Austin, Steve made me a blade. I had it. I put tape around my wrist and put the blade inside of it.

When the time came to do it, I kept slicing my head and nothing was working. I was barely getting a scratch in the surface, and it was hurting. It starts getting painful when you keep trying to gig yourself.

Austin said, 'Sh*t kid, give me that razor!'. He dug it in my head and twisted it. I bled like a sieve. I didn't stop bleeding the whole entire match. It was horrible. He taught me how to bleed.

From then on, that's how I did it. I just didn't do it as hard as he did. He dug it in real hard, and twisted it really hard. He probably got the blade in there a good half inch right into my skull. I bled profusely. That's how I learned how to bleed, how to gig, and Austin taught me the hard way".