Kurt Angle has looked back on the first time he knew how to bleed in wrestling.

Back in Aug. 2001, Angle challenged Stone Cold Steve Austin for the WWF Championship at Summerslam. Angle was the face while Austin was the heel going into the PPV. Angle won the match on that night but he didn’t win the title because he defeated Austin via disqualification.

Fans who remember that match know that Kurt Angle donned the crimson mask as he was bleeding quite a bit. He explained why that was the case during an episode of The Kurt Angle Show.

“Steve made me a blade. So I had it, I put tape around my wrist and put the blade inside of it. And when the time came to do it, I kept slicing my head and nothing was working. I was barely scratching the surface and it was hurting, killing me. It starts getting painful when you keep trying to gig yourself.

“Austin was like, ‘Shit, kid. Give me that razor.’ He dug it in my head and twisted, and I bled like a sieve. I didn’t stop bleeding the whole entire match. It was horrible. He taught me how to bleed [laughs]. And 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 real hard. He probably got the blade in there a good half-inch right up against my skull and I bled profusely. But that’s how I learned how to bleed, how to gig. Austin taught me the hard way [laughs].”

Angle would end up defeating Austin for the championship at the Unforgiven PPV the following month. Stone Cold won back the title back and Angle wouldn’t hold the gold again until Dec. 2002.