If it wasn’t for Ric Flair, we may have saw Kurt Angle show up on WCW Monday Nitro, but “The Nature Boy” knew the right place for an Olympic Hero was WWE.
Ric Flair was a styling and profiling guest on the 5/29 episode of “Busted Open Radio” and started talking about the array of stars during the Attitude Era. Flair then mentioned how he flat out told Kurt Angle, who was looking to get into pro wrestling to avoid WCW.
“I said, you don’t want to go to Atlanta, brother. You will get lost.”
Bully Ray asked Flair for clarification and Ric went into further detail about how the encounter happened.
“We were in a gym working out in Nashville, TN and I met Kurt several times and he walked over and said, ‘I’m thinking about getting into professional wrestling,’ he said ‘What do you think about me going to WCW?’
Flair thought about it for a second, said “Give me a minute.”
“I went in the locker room, got my phone, came out, called Vince [McMahon], put him on the phone and he was working out with Dory Funk Jr. two weeks later.”
Flair said WCW would have greatly misused Angle at the time.
“Kurt when healthy, is absolutely one of the great ones.
“Kurt is a special kind of athlete and a special kind of guy and legitimately really tough.”
Flair covered a great deal of ground during his interview, talking about his daughter Charlotte, the unbridled star power of The Rock and how Ricky Steamboat is in the top two of the greatest all time wrestlers alongside Shawn Michaels.
Please credit Busted Open Radio and h/t to SEScoops for the transcription.