Kurt Angle made the majority of his money wrestling, not on merchandise sales.
During a recent Q&A edition of The Kurt Angle Show, the WWE Hall of Famer discussed a number of topics, one of which was his favorite piece of merchandise while working for WWE. After joking that he loved the 'You Suck' mug, Angle stated that the red, white and blue 'It's True, It's True' shirt was his favorite.
"You know what, I love the 'You Suck' mug [laughs]. I thought it was hilarious. Giving somebody a gift that says 'You Suck' on a mug so they can drink coffee every morning, that's awesome. But my favorite was what I sold the most. It was my 'It's True, It's True' t-shirt. Red, white and blue, 'It's True, It's True,' and it was a great t-shirt. I sold a lot of those and that was my rookie year. I never sold as many t-shirts the rest of my career as I did my first year," Angle said.
Kurt would say that even though the shirt was popular, he didn't make much money off of it. He then revealed that Vince McMahon told him he wasn't going to be a merchandise guy, instead, Angle would be paid to wrestle.
"I have to tell you this, it wasn't that much money. I wasn't a merchandise guy," Angle stated. "Even Vince McMahon came to me and said, 'Listen, we can't use the word Olympic. We can't use the Olympic rings. You're not gonna do merchandise. I'm gonna pay you to wrestle.' I was like, 'Well I do want to make money on merchandise.' He says, 'Can't do it.'"
Angle would continue on to share how much he made in merchandise sales compared to Stone Cold Steve Austin.
"Listen, in one year, he made $12 million on merchandise. That was the 3:16 shirt. That's when it came out. $12 million. He told me. I was like, 'Holy crap.' He only made two and a half million wrestling. Vince said, 'I pay you to wrestle.' Vince, I'm not gonna lie to you, he paid me well. I made more than Austin did with wrestling. I didn't make nearly as much as Austin did with merchandise. But Vince took care of me on the backend with wrestling. Merchandise, I made, I'll give you just round about figures, between 700 and 900 grand a year. Wasn't a lot. It's a lot of money, don't get me wrong, but not for being a big star like that. For some reason Vince just told me, 'Hey, can't do anything with you with merchandise. So just wrestle.' I would come up with merchandise ideas and Vince would utilize them, but I didn't sell like Stone Cold, and I was a heel most of my career, too," he said.
As for how well he did during his time with TNA/IMPACT, Angle shared that his merchandise moved well for the first few years.
"You know what, I did alright with TNA. Believe it or not, we we were selling pretty well the first few years. I mean, I would say between 2007 and 2010, everybody's making pretty good money on merch," he said.
Angle concluded by giving a roundabout figure of what he made on merchandise during his best year at TNA, saying, "TNA, 400 grand."
Elsewhere during the show, Angle shared his dream of being in Chris Jericho's band. Click here to learn more.
He also detailed the time he kissed The Undertaker on the lips after a match. Click here to learn more.
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