Kurt Angle On Which Legend Advised Him To Sign With WWF Over WCW, Steve Austin Being Underrated

2017 WWE Hall Of Fame Inductee Kurt Angle was recently a guest on The Statement Show. Among other things, Angle talked about carrying fake gold medals during his first run with WWE, whether he considered signing with WCW instead of WWE, and Steve Austin helping Angle early on in his professional wrestling career.

According to Angle, WWE Chairman Vince McMahon had three fake Olympic gold medals made after Angle's real medal was stole. 

"Vince McMahon wanted me to bring it on the road. The great thing about Vince, once it was stolen [and] it was recovered, he made three mock ones, so that we had them at the shows. So after that, I didn't have to worry." Angle recalled, "and believe it or not, those mockups were $3,000 each. That's how expensive it is to make a fake gold medal. Isn't that crazy?"

Apparently, Angle considered going to WCW before signing with WWE, but Ric Flair told him to go to WWE instead.  

"Before I signed with WWE, I did speak with Ric Flair and he told me flat out, he said, 'you don't want to come here. They're going to ruin your career. Go to WWE. Let Vince McMahon mold you into the star that you deserve to be.' And I listened to Ric." Angle added, "WCW went out of business, I think, the first year I started, so he was right."

In Angle's view, Austin is "the most under-appreciated wrestler" insofar as his character was so good that people overlooked how good of a worker he was. 'The Wrestling Machine' went on to say that Austin helped him a lot early on in his professional wrestling career.

"Austin was the most under-appreciated wrestler because his character was so strong. People loved the character. They didn't know that he was actually one of the best wrestlers. I learned so much from him. We didn't even have to put matches together. He'd just tell me what to do at the time. I never had anybody do that for a whole, entire match. And Austin, for 80 percent of it, we'd have the finish planned, or the comeback and the finish planned, and the rest of it, Austin would just guide me through because, back then, I was only in the [professional wrestling] business a year or a year-and-a-half. I was main eventing with Austin and I had no idea what I was doing! So I needed someone like him. He really helped me a lot."

Click here to listen to the interview. If you use any of the quotes from this article, please credit The Statement Show with an H/T to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.

Source: The Statement Show