WWE Hall of Famer Kurt Angle recalled how his very first meeting went with recently retired Chairman of WWE, Vince McMahon.
Kurt Angle is one of the most decorated WWE Superstars in the company’s history. In his time with the WWE, he became a six-time World Champion, winning the WWE Championship four times and the World Heavyweight Championship two times.
Before Kurt Angle made it to the WWE, he won an Olympic Gold Medal with a broken freakin’ neck. During the buildup towards the 1996 Olympic Games, Angle was dropped on his head by an opponent which resulted in a broken neck. This was during the semi-finals of the national trials which was 6 months before the games.
Kurt Angle went on to win the match even while suffering in tremendous pain. He even then went on to win the national trials and eventually after many shots of Novocain to the neck, became an Olympic Gold Medalist.
Speaking on a recent episode of The Kurt Angle Show, the WWE Hall of Famer went on to explain how his first meeting went with Vince McMahon and Bruce Prichard following the lengthy and painful battle at the Olympics.
Well WWE contacted me right after the Olympics after I won the gold medal. They invited me up to Stamford, Connecticut to the headquarters, and I met with Bruce Prichard and Vince McMahon, and they offered me an incredible contract.
It was very lucrative, probably the best contract they ever offered to anyone that’s never tried out, or has never been involved in pro wrestling. I didn’t even watch it as a kid, and it was a half million dollars a year for 10 years.
For me as an Olympian, I made $35,000 winning the Olympic gold medal from the Olympic committee that’s about it. That’s about all the money I made in the Olympics besides some endorsements I did, obviously. But you know, this was money I never saw before. And I was like, what? But the thing was, I said ‘Hey, I’m an Olympic gold medalist, so I can’t lose.’
I didn’t understand the business. I didn’t understand you put each other over. And that’s how guys get more popular, and you build each other up, I just thought, you know, I’m a gold medalist I haven’t lost in years. I might as well stay undefeated in pro wrestling. And, you know, they looked at each other, Bruce and Vince, and they said, ‘Okay, take the contract home, and we’ll get back to you.’
And, you know, you could tell by Bruce’s face, he was like, Okay, this guy’s freaking crazy, you know, saying what I said. but I took it back to my agent who was a former amateur wrestler, and he was a pro football player. His name is Ralph Cindrich. And he said ‘You’re not doing this crap. You’re a real wrestler. Stick with the real wrestling. I’ll get you something else.’ And so I passed it up.
He threw it in the trash in his office and that was it. So I, you know, I ended up picking a sports casting job in Pittsburgh for a year, and that didn’t work out very well.
Kurt Angle ended up singing with the WWE in 1998 where his career sky rocketed to the top and he became one of the most popular wrestlers on the roster.
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