Kurt Angle has looked back on one of the most memorable matches of his WWE career, revealing that Vince McMahon used the occasion to pull a memorable prank on Edge before they even stepped through the curtain.

Speaking on WWE's Photo Shoot, the Olympic gold medalist reflected on his Hair vs. Hair showdown with Edge at Judgment Day 2002. While Angle ultimately lost the match and had his head shaved, he revealed that McMahon deliberately kept Edge in the dark, convincing him that he would be the one getting shaved bald.

“Earlier in the day, Vince McMahon came to me and said, ‘Listen, you’re losing tonight, so I want you to shave that hair off. I want you to go bald. We want the fans to start taking you more seriously. I want to turn you into a badass. But when Edge comes in here, I want you to lie to him,’” Angle recalled. “When Edge came in, Vince said, ‘Edge, Angle’s going over. You’re losing your hair.’ And I swear I thought Edge was going to cry.”

According to Angle, Edge spent the rest of the afternoon genuinely worried about the possibility of losing his trademark long hair. The WWE Hall of Famer admitted Edge was visibly stressed until the truth was finally revealed just before they headed out for the match.

“Edge pulls me the side and says, ‘I don’t know how I’m going to look bald. I mean, I don’t have the prettiest face and if I don’t have my long hair, I don’t know what I will have,’” Angle said. “We finally told him right before we went out to wrestle and that frown turned into a smile.”

The Hair vs. Hair contest remains one of the standout moments from Judgment Day 2002, with Angle embracing the bald look afterward as part of a more intense character presentation, while Edge was able to keep both his hair and his trademark look.