Dana White ‘Rejected’ By Top WWE Star

WWE Hall of Famer Kurt Angle got close twice, to signing a contract with UFC President Dana White and ‘The Olympic Medalist’ recently recalled the negotiations with White regarding a UFC contract.

 


 

Kurt Angle talks about contract negotiations with Dana White

Angle recently spoke with Fightful’s Sean Ross Sapp, Angle admitted that he met with White back in 2006, following his departure from WWE. The UFC president, however, required a full-time commitment from Angle even though he had just signed a part-time deal with TNA. After considering the state of his health, the Olympic Gold Medalist decided to continue on with wrestling and stay out of the octagon. Becky Lynch ‘Can’t Appear’ At WWE SummerSlam

“It got pretty serious in 2006 after I left WWE. I flew out to meet with Dana White. He offered me a contract. It was a really good contract and at that time, I’d just signed with TNA. I didn’t want to ruffle the feathers by telling TNA, ‘Listen, I’m gonna go MMA.’ Because Dana White, when I signed my deal with TNA, said, ‘Well, you can’t do both. You have to do one or the other. You can’t do both.’ I said, ‘Well, I’m going part-time in TNA. I can do both.’ He said, ‘I can’t have you do both. I need you full time.’ So, I had to decide and I’d already signed with TNA. So, it was like, oh well. I might as well continue. In the back of my mind I was saying to myself, ‘I broke my neck five times already. I know my strength isn’t at 100%. My upper body strength, I lost about 40% strength in my arms, my shoulders. I have trouble with motor skills in my fingers.’ So, my neck was probably the reason why I didn’t follow through with MMA.”

Angle also got a second opportunity in MMA in 2010 when he met with White, again, but the outcome remained the same. He said the following:

“I did, in 2010, I went back to Dana and he offered me another contract. But when I sat home and thought about it, at that point I was forty years old. I knew that my body wasn’t gonna hold up for MMA. So, I turned down the contract again, unfortunately. I feel bad. Going out and seeing Dana White again. He invited me out again and offered me another deal and I actually turned it down, unfortunately. But I think I made the right move.”

Kurt Angle is an Olympic gold medalist who won at 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta with a broken neck. He would join WWE in 1998. He left the company in 2006 and joined TNA Wrestling where he stayed until 2016. In 2017, Angle was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame. Currently, he is retired from pro-wrestling.

Barry Russell
Barry Russell
A dedicated pro wrestling follower for more than a decade

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