How Kurt Angle Almost Didn’t Become A Professional Wrestler

On the Kurt Angle episode of “Something To Wrestle With Bruce Prichard” on the MLW Radio Network, Bruce and Conrad discussed every aspect of Angle’s time in the WWF, including how Kurt almost blew it right off the bat.

Bruce said that Kurt Angle first appeared on WWE’s radar in 1996 after the Olympics when he won the gold medal with a broken freakin’ neck. Kurt didn’t want to become a professional wrestler, instead he first tried out for the Pittsburgh Steelers as a fullback in 1993, even before the Olympics. Instead of going into a practice squad for the Steelers, Kurt decided to go back into his wrestling training to prepare for the Olympics. This is one more way how Brock Lesnar and Angle’s careers run parallel as they both tried out for their “home” teams.

When WWE first met with Kurt in 1997 he had an agent, Dave Hawk. Kurt obviously has a great bit of loyalty in his character due to the fact that Hawk still represents Angle to this day. They first met with Vince alone, then they met with Bruce to get a feel for what he was looking for and what he knew about the business.

Kurt made a comment that since he was an Olympic gold medalist, he could never lose a match, therefore Bruce thanked him for his time and moved on.

Bruce says that Kurt wasn’t all that serious about the business at first. Everybody wanted Kurt on the roster, but they only wanted him if he wanted to be there.

Instead, Kurt signed a deal with Paul Heyman to appear in ECW. Kurt was in the crow’s nest the night Raven crucified Tommy Dreamer, complete with a crown of thorns on his head. Heyman claims that he had no idea they were going to do that. However, Angle was still very upset at this, and threatened to sue if they showed him on the broadcast.

Instead of being a wrestler, he went back home and ended up as a local sportscaster and pizza restaurant endorser.

There was eventually a second meeting with Kurt Angle and Kurt reached out to WWF that time. JR extended to olive branch to Angle, and he decided to talk to WWF once more.

Vince and JR spoke to Angle at Titan Towers and his attitude had changed significantly during the second meeting.

Therefore the rest as they say, is history.