By Chris Walters on June 25, 2005 at 7:06 PM EST

The following is an interview conducted by IGN Sports.

IGN Sports: Your match against Shawn Michaels at Wrestlemania is already being talked about as one of the best ever. Do you feel any pressure heading into the rematch to try and top the first match?

Kurt Angle: I think so. I think the fans also understand that a match like that is very difficult to do again. As a matter of fact, I think Vince was thinking of having a Street Fight match to make it something different, just because the original match was so darn good. I'm more of a pure wrestler, though. I don't like to have gimmicks. I don't like to have gadgets and stuff. I just like to go out there and entertain the fans by wrestling. So we talked Vince into having the same match again. To let us go in there and entertain the fans on wrestling alone. Plus, we didn't want to take away from the Hell in the Cell match. Why have a Street Fight when there's going to be a Hell in the Cell match headlining the pay-per-view? So Shawn and I are very happy with having another match. This is only the second time Shawn and I have been in the ring together one-on-one. We have never gotten in the ring in a dark match or to practice. Nothing. We just had our match and it was a blessing, it was magic. We have a chemistry in the ring that you just can't match, and we're depending on that chemistry to take us through and outdo the Wrestlemania match. It's going to be hard, but Shawn and I are both up to it and very capable of it.

IGN Sports: Where do you rank that Wrestlemania match in your career?

Kurt Angle: It's right up there. To me, it equaled my match with Benoit at the Royal Rumble a couple of years ago. The submission match we had where Chris actually got a standing ovation after I left. Those things don't happen very often, where the loser gets a standing ovation, and Shawn Michaels got the same treatment at Wrestlemania. I got one where I wrestled Brock Lesnar in an Iron Man match a couple of years ago, where Brock left and I got a standing ovation. Those three are my three favorite matches. I've had some really, really good ones that people haven't seen against The Undertaker, but you can't count those when they're not on TV and millions of people haven't seen them. I'd have to say the Shawn Michaels match was the best, though, because I've had a lot of wrestlers come up to me, legends, former wrestlers like Bobby "The Brain" Heenan, Paul Orndorff, Jesse Ventura call me personally and tell me that it was the best match they've ever seen in their life. There were also current wrestlers like Chris Benoit and JBL who came up to me and said "Kurt, I've never seen a match like that. That's the greatest match I've ever seen. That's what wrestling is all about." It surprised me, because when I was out there, I was feeling it, but I just did what I did then walked to the back like any other match. Before I knew it, everyone was on their feet clapping and I was like, "Wow, I didn't know it was that good." It made me very, very excited because at that point, it was something I needed. With all of the injuries I've had with my neck, what I needed was something to revive me, and that did. I think it showed Vince that I'm still at the top of my game and that my neck is no longer an issue. So he traded me to Raw and has given me a fresh beginning so now I can have an opportunity to make a run for the title. I think Vince was very concerned about my neck, and I think that's why you didn't see me in the title picture for a while, but now you're going to see me there.

IGN Sports: The growth of Shelton Benjamin has been amazing to watch. Do you see him stepping up into main event status pretty soon, maybe even challenging you?

Kurt Angle: Oh yeah, I think that's the whole reason they brought me over to Raw. They see another Kurt Angle/Shawn Michaels match in Kurt Angle/Shelton Benjamin. I think Shelton needs to enhance his character a little bit, let his personality flow a little bit more to be a top tier guy. He hasn't been able to do that yet. He's starting to be a little more comfortable, but once he gets a feel for that microphone and he lets it loose, there's no telling how big he's going to be. He had a tremendous match against Shawn Michaels about a month ago, and he's always had top-notch matches, so I'm looking forward to working with Shelton. Not only are we going to have tremendous matches, but I think in a lot of ways I can help him. When you have a guy like Shelton, who I believe is the best pure athlete in the company, and he's learned the system so well, he's going to be a tremendous wrestler for years to come, no doubt about it.

IGN Sports: One thing that's funny about you, when you first came into WWE, people booed you like crazy, same thing with Rock. Now they boo you, but it's different. Now it's out of respect. When you first heard those initial boos, did you think that years later people would be talking about you as one of the best ever?

Kurt Angle: You know what, that was always my goal when I first started. I didn't get into it just to make money. Put it this way, a lot of the wrestlers in the company, I have to admit, are world class athletes. Not all of them, but a lot of them have the ability to stand out with their athleticism. But I told Vince from the very beginning that I wasn't just a normal pro wrestler. I'm an Olympic gold medalist. My goal is to be number one and I'm going to keep going until I am. I'm going to earn my stripes, I'll go as long as it takes, but I'm not going to settle for second best. I don't care if Triple H is on the card or The Rock or Stone Cold, eventually I was going to prove to Vince that I deserved to be the top guy. And if it weren't for my neck injuries, I believe I would be right now. I'd be the franchise. But my neck injuries set me back about a year and a half to two years, and that also lowered Vince's confidence in me because he didn't know if I'd be healthy from one week to the other. Now that I've proven that I can go a full year, full time without hurting my neck, without getting injured, knock on wood, I think that's why he traded me to Raw. He wanted to give me a fresh beginning. He noticed that I wasn't having any problems with my neck anymore, and it looks like I'm ready to go again. This is Round 2.

To read the complete interview, click here.

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