Top star's sister died a day before his big match with Brock Lesnar; WWE told him he could go home

A top WWE name received the news of his sister's passing mere hours before his match with Brock Lesnar.

On the September 16, 2003 taping of WWE SmackDown, Lesnar and Kurt Angle met in a "60-minute Ironman Match" for the WWE Championship. The Beast Incarnate was the winner of the match, thus regaining the coveted belt from Angle that night.

On the latest edition of The Joe Rogan Experience, Kurt Angle opened up about finding out that his sister had passed away, a day before his match with Brock Lesnar. Check out his comments below:

"There was one point in my career where my brother called me. I was at a house show and it was the night before I was going to have the biggest match of my career with Brock Lesnar the next day. An Ironman match on SmackDown. My brother calls me and says, 'Hey, your sister just died of a heroin overdose.' And it crushed me." [24:40-25:04]

Angle then shared the disturbing details of the aftermath of his sister's passing:

"So, here I am in a hotel room. I looked at my pills, I said, 'Fu*k it!' I took 20 of 'em, put 'em in my mouth. I didn't wake up till 5 O'clock in the afternoon the next day, and I had the biggest match of my career. We had to be there at 1 but I didn't get there till 5:30. I ended up doing it. The WWE was trying to calm me the whole time. 'You can go home, plan the funeral for your sister, you don't have to do this match.'" [25:31-26:05]

Kurt Angle and Brock Lesnar tore the house down that night on SmackDown

By the time the Ironman match ended, Brock Lesnar was in the lead, with a score of 5-4, over Kurt Angle. The veteran had delivered quite possibly the greatest performance of his career that night, hours after learning that his sister had tragically passed away.

Angle himself suffered from addiction issues during the peak of his career. He was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2017 for his contributions to the business.

Share your reactions to Kurt Angle's tragic story of his sister's passing in the comments section below.

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