Angle was born in the Pittsburgh suburb of Mt. Lebanon Township, Pennsylvania, the son of Jackie and David Angle. He attended Clarion University of Pennsylvania, graduating with a degree in education in 1993. Angle has four older brothers (one of whom, Eric, is also a wrestler) and a sister, Le'Anne, who died in 2003. His father, a crane operator, was killed in a construction accident when Angle was 16, and Angle dedicated both his career and his autobiography to his father.

On February 18, 2007, Angle made his debut in New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), teaming with former IWGP Heavyweight Champion Yuji Nagata to defeat fellow TNA wrestler Travis Tomko and fellow WWE alumnus Giant Bernard.  Angle was booked to face Brock Lesnar in a champion versus champion match for the Inoki Genome Federation (IGF) on June 29, 2007, and defeated him by submission to win the IWGP Heavyweight Championship. Angle then challenged Lesnar to an MMA fight. On December 19, 2007, Angle defended the IWGP title successfully against Kendo Kashin.  On January 4, 2008, Angle made his third successful IWGP Heavyweight Championship defense when he defeated Yuji Nagata at the NJPW supershow Wrestle Kingdom II in Tokyo Dome by forcing Nagata to submit to the ankle lock. On February 17, 2008, Angle lost the IWGP title to the NJPW-recognized champion Shinsuke Nakamura in a unification match. He returned in August during the G1 Climax in two special tag matches with A.J. Styles as his main opponent. In those matches Shinsuke Nakamura and Masahiro Chono became Angle's partners while Hiroshi Tanahashi and Shinjiro Otani became Styles' partners. Angle's team won both matches.  He returned on January 4, 2009, at Wrestle Kingdom III in Tokyo Dome in a special eight-man tag match, where he, Kevin Nash, Chono, and Riki Choshu faced G.B.H. (Giant Bernard, Karl Anderson, Takashi Iizuka and Tomohiro Ishii), with Angle getting the win for his team. Angle then went on to defeat Bernard in a singles match at New Japan's ISM tour on February 15. After Hiroshi Tanahashi retained the IWGP Heavyweight Championship against Nakamura in the main event, Angle challenged him for the title, which Tanahashi accepted. Tanahashi defeated Angle on April 5 at New Japan's Resolution '09 to retain the title.

Who did he defeat?
Yuji Nagata at the