It was a non-title match that earned Kurt Angle his biggest payday in WWE.
On January 28, it was announced that the Olympic Gold Medalist was launching a new podcast alongside Conrad Thompson on AdFreeShows that would cover his career, addiction struggles, and more. During the debut episode, Angle details the events surrounding WrestleMania 19 and his main-event match with Brock Lesnar.
Although Angle was injured at the time, he didn't back out of the show, with Brock Lesnar even joking in his book that Kurt didn't want to lose out on that cheque. When asked if that was his biggest payday in WWE, the Hall of Famer shared the following information:
"It was not, but it was one of my highest paydays. My match with Shawn Michaels was my biggest payday, at WrestleMania 21. I think because it was a featured match and it was Shawn and myself. No title on the line, so we weren’t main eventing, but it was a dream match and I think that that’s the reason why Vince paid me more for that match than any of the other matches. You know I main evented WrestleMania 19, sort of WrestleMania 20 because I was in a World Title match and WrestleMania 22 which I was in a World Title match, but they weren't on last, very last. But I made the same money on all three of those main events. But Shawn’s match I made a little bit more."
Kurt Angle defeated Shawn Michaels via submission in a nearly 30-minute match. The show was headlined by Batista and Triple H.
Kurt Angle was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2017. After that, he would wrestle sporadically, also serving as the RAW General Manager, before having his final match at WrestleMania 35 in 2019 where he lost to Baron Corbin.
On January 16, WWE announced that WrestleMania 37 will take place at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa Bay on Saturday, April 10, and Sunday, April 11, 2021. Additionally, Dallas' AT&T Stadium will host WrestleMania 38 on Sunday, April 3, 2022, while SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles will be the home of WrestleMania 39 on Sunday, April 2, 2023. Fightful Select had exclusively reported this week that this year's WrestleMania had been moved back from March to April.
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