WWE history: When Kurt Angle defeated Brock Lesnar in a real-life fight

The backstory

Back in 2003, the on-screen rivalry between Brock Lesnar and Kurt Angle had turned SmackDown into must-watch TV. The duo went on to headline WrestleMania 19, which saw Brock Lesnar defeat Kurt Angle to become WWE Champion. A rare video shows Lesnar flipping out on backstage officials after the match, who were simply trying to tend to him and look for a possible concussion.

Not many are aware that the two wrestlers once went at it in a real fight, just so that they could find out who's the best among the two.

The fight

According to Angle, he had heard Lesnar saying that he would kill Angle in a real fight, as the former Olympic gold medalist was "too small". The Beast said the exact same thing to Angle when he confronted him, resulting in Angle challenging Brock to a real-life match.

After Lesnar had just finished slamming Big Show in a practice bout, Angle took the opportunity and challenged Lesnar right there. As a crowd of WWE Superstars surrounded the ring, both Superstars jumped into the ring and kicked off the 'match'.

Angle reportedly took down Lesnar. Gerald Brisco, who witnessed the bout along with Jim Ross, has confirmed the same. Here's what Angle had to say about the match:

We had the showdown. It was close. It really was. He had 90 pounds on me, but I probably took him down into the ropes a good 7-8 times. He used the ropes to say we’re out of bounds. That’s OK. I did take him down once. He didn’t take me down at all.

The aftermath

Lesnar went on to become quite possibly the most dangerous Superstar in all of WWE, while Angle became a WWE Hall of Famer and retired from professional wrestling at WrestleMania 35.