8 Most Shocking Kurt Angle WWE Moments

2. Being Drafted To The ECW Brand

Hands up who expected Kurt Angle to be drafted to the fledgling ECW brand in 2006? There can't be many, because Kurt was legitimately one of WWE's top stars by that point and deserved better than being lumped on a show that was already starting to fail. WWE's ECW was never going to succeed, not even with the mighty Kurt Angle.

On 26 May, it was announced that Kurt was headed to the watered down version of Paul Heyman's vision and becoming a full-time part of the ECW roster. Several months later, Angle departed WWE altogether and was showing up in TNA by the end of the year. This was a sorry end to Kurt's first run with the company.

WWE were obviously trying to make their version of ECW look big time by posting huge stars like Angle and (later) Chris Benoit to the brand, but it was plastering over cracks that had already started to appear. Kurt's aforementioned 'wrestling machine' gimmick would have been better on Raw or SmackDown.