In 2023 Kurt Angle might be regarded as one of the greatest WWE Superstars of all time, but his career almost never got off the ground.
After finding success in the amateur ranks and winning an Olympic gold medal (with a broken neck apparently), Angle was approached by WWE, WCW, and ECW. During this period, Ric Flair lobbied for Angle to side-step WCW, the star appeared at an ECW show, only to be stunned by what he saw, while he also turned down a deal with WWE.
So by the time he did agree to join the sports entertainment giant in 1998, he did so by signing a deal worth much less than what was offered previously.
Angle is regularly praised for how quickly he picked up the art of professional wrestling, impressing immediately. However, the WWE Hall of Famer has admitted that those early days were an incredible struggle.
Speaking on The Kurt Angle Show, the former World Champion said that he actually quit on his first day, only to be talked into continuing.
“Well you know what, their developmental system back then was very primitive. What I mean by that was, they didn’t have a lot. They had a warehouse a couple of miles from the WWE headquarters. It was a WWE warehouse, a production building, and they had a wrestling ring set up in there. And what happened was Dory funk Jr. signed a contract with WWE to do his Dory Funkin Dojo at the WWE headquarters. And Tom Prichard was one of the coaches. And that’s how I started.
It was different, I mean, they brought in 12-15 guys, Edge and Christian were part of it. A kid named Steve Bradley, Glenn Kulka. if anybody knows Glenn, he’s from Canada, a pro football player. Matt Bloom, Baldo. There were a lot of great talents that came there.
Starting out, you only trained five days, okay, you trained all day long. You’re taking 300 bumps a day, it was brutal. I literally quit after the first day because I was like, I can’t do this. I told my manager. I can’t bump around like this. It’s like beating the sh*t out of yourself. And he’s like, just stay till the end of the day and see if you can make it and I did. But I was getting ready to walk out because it was like self-abuse.”
Kurt Angle Turned Down Recent WWE Appearance
During the same episode, Angle also revealed that he turned down the chance to be part of the 2023 WWE Draft. Angle said that while the company asked him to be involved, he had other commitments he’d already agreed to.
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