10. He Almost Fought In The UFC
The Story: That Kurt Angle claim close to signing with UFC following his WWE release in 2006.
The Evidence: Kurt clearly has a lot of qualifications for UFC combat. He's an Olympic gold medal winner in freestyle wrestling for one. According to many sources, Angle was legitimately one of the hardest men in WWE. Nobody, save for a raging Eddie Guerrero, tried to fight him backstage. And afterwards Eddie said he was an idiot for even attempting it. Angle did at least talk with UFC President Dana White about fighting for the organisation. In an early 2015 interview with the MMA Hour, Angle elaborated on how the negotiations went:
When I met with (UFC president) Dana White, he wanted me to quit wrestling entirely, but I had just signed with TNA (a top professional wrestling organization, second only to WWE)...I couldn't tell (TNA owner) Dixie Carter I wanted to back out.
So Angle put his MMA dream on the back-burner. One idea floated to Angle was a fight against Daniel Puder, who nearly broke Angle's arm with a kimura hold during the infamous 2004 Tough Enough incident. Angle also spread word that he had agreed to fight Kimbo Slice on PPV at one point, which Dana refuted. When he turned 42 in 2012, Angle realised that his time had passed and that he would never have an MMA fight.
Is It True: No, Angle didn't nearly sign with the UFC. He could have had some big money fights for the group but Angle knew that, physically, he just wasn't what he once was. He may have been an exceptional amateur wrestler but the UFC demands much more than that. Angle would have had to work on his striking game and overall conditioning if he wanted to have any hope of success.