Kurt Angle Was Directed To Never Watch “Fake” WWE While Competing In Amateur Wrestling
When Kurt Angle was competing at an Olympic level he was told to not watch professional wrestling since it was "fake".
Kurt Angle has been labeled a lot of things during his professional wrestling career. One of the most flattering things that many of his peers say about him is that he took to the business quicker than anybody they have seen before or since. Not long after Angle began his professional wrestling training he was appearing on WWE television and winning championships.
Angle has his career prior to WWE to thank in large part for being able to take to pro wrestling like a duck to water. The Raw General Manager amateur wrestled at the highest possible level, winning a gold medal during the 1996 Olympic Games. Although that prepared him for life in a WWE ring, while he was an Olympic athlete he didn't watch pro wrestling.
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Angle participated in a Q&A on Facebook over the weekend and was asked if he ever envisioned his career going the way that it did. The WWE Hall Of Famer replied "Not until early 1999 did I think I’d be a sports entertainer. I never watched the product until then." Apparently, while training for and competing at the Olympics, the gold medalist was told to never watch pro wrestling "because Olympic Wrestling was legit and WWE was fake."
While Angle was led to believe that all those years ago, his viewpoint has naturally changed since. He closed out his answer by writing "WWE is the toughest thing I’ve ever done in my career. But I've enjoyed every minute." The veteran is not kidding either. During his career, he has broken his neck a number of times and battled against drug and alcohol addiction. Thankfully though, the high points outnumber the low ones.
Angle was welcomed back into the WWE family last year, of course, and it already feels as if he was never away. He came back for his deserved Hall Of Fame induction and was named the Raw GM a couple of days later. The Olympic Hero has even competed in a couple of matches too. We are all very thankful that he didn't live by what people told him about WWE during his time as an Olympian.
