Why Kurt Angle Rejected the WWE After His Olympic Gold Medal Win

Kurt Angle is one of WWE‘s all-time greats. However, he didn’t rush into WWE after winning an Olympic gold medal for wrestling in the Summer Games in 1996. Earlier this year, Angle talked about how he turned down a 10-year, $5 million contract from WWE on The Kurt Angle Show.

“It was a half a million a year for 10 years. So it’s a $5 million, you know, deal,” Angle said, as transcribed by Essentially Sports. “That’s, that’s guaranteed, you know, you make more if you work more stuff. But I, you know, I never had money. So this was, like a godsend. I was like, Oh my gosh, I’m gonna be rich.” But Angle wasn’t a fan of pro wrestling at the time, which led to him turning it down. Plus, he was pushed to reject the offer by his agent.

“So we never had money. So this was the first time I was, it was looking me in the eye and I was like, Oh, my gosh, I got I have to do this Angle said when talking about his family. “It was really difficult to pass up. You know, seeing that type of money. At the time when I never had money was incredible. I was overwhelmed.”

Angle joined WWE in 1999 and quickly won the Intercontinental and European Championships. He then won King of the Ring in 2000 and then beat The Rock (Dwayne Johnson) to win his first WWE Championship, making it one of the most successful rookie years for any WWE Superstar in history. As his WWE career progressed, Angle went on to win the WWE Championship three more times as well as the World Heavyweight Championship. He became the 10th Triple Crown and fifth Grand Slam Champion in WWE history and was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2017.

With the work Angle put in the ring, it has led to some health issues. In June, Angle talked about how he has to work on his body each day because of the pain he’s in. “I’m in extreme pain all day long,” Angle said on The Kurt Angle Show. “I do maintenance on my body all day. I do my neck traction. I have a thing called the Iron Neck, where it trains your neck. I have anti-gravity machine rollers. I stretch. I do a lot of weight training. I work on my body a good 2-3 hours a day. I have to. I’m so banged up now. I sacrificed a lot of my body in professional wrestling, and amateur wrestling.