This was a section that was to be featured on 1996 Olympic Freestyle Wrestling Gold Medalist Kurt Angle’s official website at www.kurtanglewwe.com. How it came about was when South Fayette 2nd grader Tyler Manion, then a member of the South Fayette Youth Wrestling program, met Kurt at his father’s photo studio during a photo shoot that Tyler’s father was commissioned to perform. The date of that was 11/09/2001. It was here that Kurt spoke to Tyler about the many facets of wrestling, including all of Kurt’s own trials & tribulations, & he also had brought his Olympic Gold Medal for Tyler to wear, as you see in the opening photo of him & Kurt.

Kurt was looking to feature an amateur wrestler on his site & at this time he hadn’t selected anybody yet. During this meeting he asked Tyler if he’d like to write a journal about his 2001-2002 wrestling season for his website & asked Tyler’s father to provide the photographs for it. Kurt wanted this to be from the point of a 2nd grader & instructed that Tyler do the actual writing himself & not have his parents write it. And that is exactly what he got – the perspective of a 2nd grade wrestler.

The section was a huge hit & brought much attention, both locally & nationally, not only to Tyler but to the South Fayette Takedown Club youth wrestling program too.

The culmination of this was when Tyler attended the first ever Kurt Angle Wrestling Classic in New Orleans on November 8th & 9th, 2002 with his family as a special guest of Kurt’s. There Tyler not only got to meet other Olympic Gold Medalists in wrestling like Rulon Gardner & Kendall Cross, but future 2004 Olympic Freestyle Wrestling Gold Medalist Cael Sanderson. Kurt also included Tyler in a segment about the Kurt Angle Wrestling Classic on a WWE television program where Tyler was wearing his South Fayette Wrestling jacket during the entire segment. This brought more national exposure to wrestling in South Fayette. (You can view the segment at the beginning of the videotape for the Kurt Angle Classic, available for purchase from Kurt’s website listed above.)

What you are about to view is this section as it was featured on www.kurtanglewwe.com