Kurt Angle reveals that he was originally given the lead role in The Marine
Kurt Angle was the latest guest on Stone Cold Steve Austin's Broken Skull Sessions where he was able to talk through many of the most interesting parts of his career. The Olympic Gold Medalist started at the beginning with his Olympic medal win and went all the way through to his issues with drug dependency which forced him to walk away from WWE back in 2006.
One of the most notable things that Kurt Angle revealed was ahead of his departure from the company, Vince McMahon actually gave him the main role in The Marine, which went on to be one of WWE's Studio's biggest films, before then giving it to John Cena.
Kurt Angle stated that he needed the 6 months away from the company because he was beaten up and heavily injured, this was one of the turning points of the former World Champion's career. Angle was struggling with addiction at the time and needed the time away so that he could get clean but Vince McMahon changed his mind at the last minute.
"Vince came to me and told me I had the part and he said 'you're good.' I thought, this is great I can take a six month break from wrestling and get myself clean, I can go do this movie and I can come back refreshed. Then Vince comes back to me and says 'hey, I gave Cena t," he said it like four months later and I was like 'why I want to go get clean and I want a break from here because I'm injured everywhere.'"
Kurt Angle's WWE departure
Kurt Angle later went on to leave WWE after he dropped the World Championship to Rey Mysterio at WrestleMania 22. Angle did return to the company almost a decade later when he was added to the WWE Hall of Fame and became the General manager of RAW.