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WWE legend and former RAW GM Kurt Angle was recently a guest on the Broken Skull Sessions along with Stone Cold Steve Austin. During the interview, Kurt Angle disucssed his first contract offer from WWE and eventually signing with them a couple of years later.
Kurt Angle won the gold mendal at the 1996 Olympic Games and there was immediate interest from WWE afterward. Angle said that Vince McMahon contacted him and offered him a 10-year contract:
He reached out to me right away. He gave me a nice deal, a 10-year deal and a multi-million dollar contract. I was relatively surprised. Well, for me it was a lot. It was $500,000 a year for 10 years. It was overwhelming because I didn’t make any money up to this point. All I did was train for the Olympics. H/T: Fightful
Angle did not end up taking this deal thanks to his agent at the time.
Kurt Angle on how he ended up signing with WWE
Kurt Angle went on to talk about how his agent at the time called WWE "fake" and told him not to do it. Angle said that he left his agent a couple of years later and contacted WWE once again but the earlier deal was no longer on the table. He was told that he would have to get a tryout and work his way up from the bottom:
That was my life so it was hard to pass up at the time. But my agent at the time said, ‘You’re not doing this fake crap.’ I was like, ‘I could be a wrestling coach and for the next four years, I could do the appearances and make as much money as I can.’ But once the Olympics are over, it kind of dies down. I left my agent a couple of years after that. I contacted WWE and they did not give me the same contract. They told me I had to work my way up and try out. H/T: Fightful
Kurt Angle signed with WWE in 1998 and went on to cement himself as one of the greatest to ever set foot inside the squared circle.
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