What is the Kurt Angle staring meme, and where did it come from?

Social media users are once again turning to a popular wrestling figure to create viral memes across platforms like TikTok and X, formerly Twitter. In a similar way that TikTokers repurposed Vince McMahon’s “crying” interview as a variety of new memes, users are taking a portion of former WWE star Kurt Angle’s first post on TikTok and adding their own commentary to create a viral social media moment.

In the original post from August, which has logged more than 3 million views, Angle introduces himself to the internet and gives his wrestling credentials.

“I want you guys to follow and enjoy the ride,” he says before staring into the camera. “‘We done? Good, I can take a nap now.”

However, viewers began poking fun at the wide-eyed stare he gave the camera toward the end of the post when asking if filming was over.

“Kurt Angle 1000 yard stare,” replied @indica.ht.

“Bro saw 4,000,605 multiverses,” commented @.gobble.bobble.

TikTokers have recently been adding their own captions to the image of Angle’s blank stare, which captures a ‘deer-in-the-headlights' level of shock in a given situation. They’ve been adapting it to their own lives, such as when you might be done with a conversation, but the other person keeps talking.

“When I’m on my 10th ‘that’s crazy’ but bro keeps on yapping,” @bobcratchit59 wrote in his TikTok post.

Other times, users make jokes about having their social media presence come up in a background check.

“Them Kurt angle edits putting me in tears,” posted @joshbechill5.

While there are some exceptions, the video is often accompanied by a slowed-down remix of “Covet” by Basement, which is credited to TikTok creator MarcellShotya (@marcellshotya). Also, many of the memes pause the video halfway through and switch the color to black and white in order to make it more dramatic.

Some even focus on how they feel after realizing they overslept and will be late for school.

“That feeling when you wake up for school and [realize] that the sun looks a bit brighter than usual,” wrote @darkestdemand in their post.

Action is the focus of some memes, rather than emotion, like intensely staring at a person.

“How I talk to people who clearly struggle with eye contact,” wrote @robdkingj.

This isn’t the first time a former WWE star has become the focus of an online meme. Recently, a video of WWE co-founder Vince McMahon crying started trending, with users adapting it to express extreme emotions in meme form.

McMahon and other members of the WWE have often been memes because of the grandiose showmanship displayed by the entertainment group. Wrestlers John Cena, Dwayne “the Rock” Johnson and Roman Reigns are a few of the more popular figures to be memed on TikTok.

TikTokers took a clip of Roman Reigns telling fellow WWE wrestler Jey Uso that he couldn’t beat him and compared it to playing EA Sports soccer video game FIFA with their friends.

With the amount of edits and memes to come from the Kurt Angle trend (with #kurtangle amassing over a billion views on TikTok), one user nodded to Angle’s wrestling career, joking that he has TikTok “on his back rn.”

Angle has since posted several videos to his profile, but none have become as popular as his “1000 yard stare.”