Kurt Angle was released from WWE earlier this year during April when WWE was going through company-wide massive cost-cuts and releasing quite a few Superstars from their roster. Kurt Angle was one of the stars who was released from WWE during this time. Angle had retired from WWE last year after a match against King Corbin. Angle made his wrestling debut for WWE back in the late 90s and was always one of the top stars in the company.
Throughout his career, when he was a part of WWE, he was at the main event level and during his last run with WWE, he was a part of the WWE Hall of Fame and recognized as a proper legend of the business. However, when Kurt Angle first became a part of WWE, the offer that he received was not the biggest one on the roster.
During a recent appearance with 'Stone Cold' Steve Austin on Broken Skull Sessions, Kurt Angle talked about the first offer that he received from WWE, how much he was being paid, and how he reacted to it.
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Kurt Angle on how much he made in WWE
Kurt Angle had turned down the first contract with WWE and when he came back asking for a contract, WWE said that he would have to work his way up.
"So when I talked to JR, he said we can't give you that deal, you are going to have to work your way up. We will start you off with $50,000, if you make it. So I tried out and 20 minutes in my try-out JR pulls me aside and says, you have to sign with us."
"Well, my first year in the business, when I started, I had a pretty good year. I won the title ten months into my debut. I was working a program with the Rock and then you came next. And so my fight to get more money was pretty easy, because I'm main-eventing with 'Stone Cold' Steve Austin when we are talking about negotiations for a new contract. So I was like, you know what, I want what's Austin's getting. (laughs) I tried."
Kurt Angle had earlier revealed that the first offer that he received from Vince McMahon was worth $500,000 for 10 years. However, he had not known about professional wrestling at the time and had turned down the offer
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.
Readers can also check out Sportskeeda's interview with Kurt Angle.