WWE President apologises to India for disrespect to the National Flag

Kurt Angle

The World Wrestling Entertainment president Gerrit Meier has apologised for the behaviour of Kurt Angle, who disrespected the Indian national flag 18 years back in 1998. The wrestler appeared to wipe his nose with the tricolour during one of the segments of the wrestling event.

Tiger Ali Singh, a wrestler himself, urged the Atlanta Olympic gold medalist to wipe his nose on the American national flag and even offered $5,000 to him. Angle instead blew his nose on the Indian flag and Singh was left with no option but to beat him up.

The WWE live event recently took place at the Indira Gandhi Stadium in New Delhi and was deemed a big hit. However, some organisations and even some national wrestlers raised questions on the event being held in the country after the Kurt Angle incident came to the fore.

But now Meier, WWE’s international president, expressed his apologiies for the mishap and went on to say that the incident was not intentional and they did not mean to insult the flag or the country as a whole.

''This case is about 20-years-ago and we did not deliberately did that. We have a great respect for the country,'' Meier said during the launch of WWE live event in India.

After the president was quizzed as to why Kurt Angle has not apologised for the same, Meier said, “We are sorry that it happened, but we had no intention of doing it. India is a reputable country and we apologise for this.”

Meier also expressed his happiness over the event taking place in India.

"We are extremely pleased that India is hosting the live events again. There are good number of fans and I am confident that they will enjoy it all. Nearly 14 years later, we are once again on the ground of India will play a WWE match. It will be historic because India has a large number of its fans,” he said.