Charlie’s late brother Russ was penciled in for a spot in Team Angle.
In late 2002, the trio known as Team Angle (Kurt Angle, Shelton Benjamin & Charlie Haas) formed in WWE. They were managed by Paul Heyman to start and during their time together, Haas and Benjamin became two-time Tag Team Champions and Kurt Angle won the WWE Championship.
One year prior to the formation of Team Angle, Charlie Haas had been teaming with his brother Russ, who passed away in December 2001. Charlie guest appeared on Stories with Brisco and Bradshaw and shared that while he and Russ were finishing up in developmental, the initial Team Angle group was going to consist of Kurt, Shelton, Charlie and Russ. The concept of the group was revisited a year after Russ’ passing.
We had Les Thatcher [as a trainer in developmental] and they did call us up, they called Russ [Haas] and I up and they announced that Team Angle was going to be Russ and I and Kurt [Angle] and Shelton [Benjamin]. It was going to be us four and they were getting ready to go with it and then Russ died December 14th and — no… he died December 15th, 2001 and then, you know, the rest was history so, it didn’t work out but you know, Shelton, a year later, they came back to Team Angle and they put Shelton and I together. They asked Arn [Anderson] to work with us and Jerry [Brisco], you to work with us whenever you were up there with us and I mean Arn had us in that ring every day, just every day. Showing us and showing us and I mean, we had a really good work ethic man and I couldn’t thank Shelton more because he had the same dream I wanted and that was just to make it.
Shelton is a member of the Monday Night Raw roster and Charlie recently had a match against Josh Alexander that aired on the 1/20 edition of IMPACT Wrestling on AXS.
If the quote in this article is used, please credit Stories with Brisco and Bradshaw with an H/T to POST Wrestling for the transcription.
