One MIND-BLOWING Secret From EVERY Month Of The WWE Attitude Era

7. October 2000 | The WWF Held Talks With The Next Kurt Angle

Following the path of Kurt Angle in 1996, Wyoming-born Rulon Gardner won the Olympic gold medal in Greco-Roman wrestling at the 2000 Summer games in Sydney. 

Naturally, the WWF also took note of the comparisons and quickly sought to negotiate with him. Those negotiations ended just as quickly; per the October 16 issue of the Observer, Gardner - who was right to do it, since his value would never be higher - requested an eye-watering annual downside guarantee of $2 million after a one-off $1 million signing bonus. Did the WWF have a nightmare here, in missing the next Kurt Angle? 

Probably not. By November 1999, the month of Angle’s full WWF debut, wholesome patriotic sentiment was dead. “The man” was a target of rebellion as nu-metal and pop punk went mainstream. The slow-burn new American dark age had been lit by the Columbine tragedy. This is why Angle was presented as a heel. His values and his smug sense of achievement were heel qualities in a cynical and uncertain time. 

Gardner could have played a heel who happened to have won a gold medal, yes, but he wasn’t an amazing physical specimen. Most elite athletes tend to be pretty boring, too. There are far more Gable Stevesons than Kurt Angles in the field, and Gable was so tedious and awkward, and so definitively uninteresting, that it would be easier to grieve a loved one than engage him in small talk. 

According to Wikipedia, in 2002, Gardner narrowly survived hypothermia and frostbite but lost a toe after going missing on his snowmobile and falling into an ice-cold river. Is that better or worse than doing a job for Hugh Morrus on Jakked?