Kurt Steven Angle is an American retired professional wrestler, Olympic gold medalist in American freestyle wrestling, and former collegiate wrestler. He is best known for his tenures in WWE and Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA). While at Clarion University of Pennsylvania, Angle won numerous accolades, including being a two-time NCAA Division I Wrestling Champion in the heavyweight division. After graduating from college, Angle won the gold medal in freestyle wrestling at the 1995 World Wrestling Championships. He then won the freestyle wrestling gold medal at the 1996 Summer Olympics with a broken neck. He is one of four people to complete an amateur wrestling Grand Slam (Junior Nationals, NCAA, World Championships, and Olympics). In 2006, he was named by USA Wrestling as the greatest shoot wrestler ever and one of the top 15 college wrestlers of all time. He was inducted into the International Sports Hall of Fame in 2016 for his amateur accomplishments. Angle made his first appearance at a pro-wrestling event in 1996, and signed with WWE in 1999. Noted for his rapid comprehension of the business, he had his debut match that August within the company's developmental system after mere days of training, and participated in his first televised WWE storyline in March 1999. After months of dark matches, Angle made his televised in-ring debut in November and received his first major push in the company in February 2000, when he held the European and Intercontinental Championships simultaneously. Four months later, he won the 2000 King of the Ring tournament and soon thereafter began pursuing the WWE Championship, which he won in October. This capped off a WWE rookie year which is considered by many to be the greatest in history. Among other accomplishments in the WWE, Angle has held the WWE Championship four times, the WCW Championship once, and the World Heavyweight Championship once. He is the tenth Triple Crown Champion and the fifth Grand Slam Champion in WWE history. On March 31, 2017, Angle was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame.
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