In March 2006, WWE fans witnessed a World Heavyweight Championship classic between Kurt Angle and The Undertaker on SmackDown.
While the match is remembered as one of the best TV main events of its era, it is equally infamous for its botched finish and the extraordinary steps taken backstage to correct it.
For the first time together, Angle and The Undertaker have recounted the story on the Six Feet Under podcast.
The finish was designed to end in a dramatic draw. With Angle locked in a submission, The Undertaker rolled him up for a pin. The planned outcome called for Angle to tap out at the exact moment the referee counted three. Unfortunately, WWE’s camera crew missed the crucial tap-out shot, causing chaos.
The Undertaker recalled Vince McMahon’s furious reaction when production failed to capture the ending properly. “They missed the camera angle….They didn’t get the tap. And that was the end of the night. The bell rings. People start leaving. And Vince loses his mind. He is batshit crazy.”
What happened next was unprecedented. As the live crowd left the arena, McMahon ordered the exhausted wrestlers to re-shoot the finish in an empty arena.
Angle explained, “We had to wait till the whole arena left. And then we had to place all the employees in a corner of the arena to make it look like this whole arena. And so they have one camera shot on the opposite side showing our match.”
The Undertaker added, “It was all like the roadies and the ring crew. And they, until they had that one shot, filled up, and they were getting signs off the ground. It was like, Oh my god, okay, this is going to be horrible. Like, we just had this killer match and we’re gonna ruin it like this. And, right, man, when they edited it, it was like, that’s the magic of TV.”
The rare re-shoot helped preserve what has gone down as one of SmackDown’s most iconic matches.
Fans can listen to the full conversation on Six Feet Under with The Undertaker below:
