Kurt Angle once wanted to join one of WWE’s most popular acts.
Once upon a time, D-Generation X reigned supreme in the Attitude Era, led by Triple H and Shawn Michaels. The group evolved in the late 1990s to add new members and alter the way WWE programming looked.
Millions of fans caught the attention of this, and as expected, it captured the imagination of fellow WWE talent, including Angle. On the Kurt Angle Show, the Olympic Gold Medalist said he had aspirations to join the legendary faction, which he called “one of the biggest and best factions” he’s seen (h/t Wrestling Inc for transcription).
“You know what, [DX and the NWO] are the biggest and best factions I’ve ever seen,” he said. “When I started watching wrestling in 1998, they were big. NWO was big in WCW. DX was huge in WWE. And I wanted to be a member of DX.”
“The whole ‘Suck It!’ thing really caught on,” Angle said. “It’s crazy because kids were doing it, you know? My son Cody at six years old is like, ‘Suck it!’ and I’m like, ‘Don’t do that again.'”
While Angle never aligned with DX at its peak, he became an honorary member of the group at Raw XXX earlier this year.
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Despite not joining major stables in WWE, Angle became part of memorable ones in TNA, including the Main Event Mafia, with Sting, Kevin Nash, Booker T and other top stars involved.
Finding more than enough success in WWE, Angle joining DX, NWO, or another headlining stable during the white-hot era of professional wrestling makes for an interesting “what if.” Had he done so, it could have changed the way we look at his career, for better or worse, and altered his trajectory as one of the top stars of his era.