As far as accomplishments outside the ring, from a purely athletic perspective, winning an Olympic gold medal is sort of the ultimate accomplishment in the minds of a lot of people. However, from the perspective of an average American person, your average American doesn't really give a shit in most cases. In the Olympics, there are only a handful of sports that Americans give a crap about: basketball, swimming, some of the track & field events, and women's gymnastics. Those are the sports that NBC would show during Prime Time, those sports were featured most prominently in highlights on ESPN's SportsCenter, those athletes, or at least some of them, are the ones to get all the endorsement deals, who appear on various talk shows, they're the ones who wind up on the cover of Wheaties boxes, etc. Those Olympic sports are the money sports For instance, in the 2012 Summer Olympics in freestyle wrestling, there were two Americans who won the gold in two different categories and I'd be willing to wager that FAR more Americans know who the current UFC Heavyweight Champion is than know who those two guys are. Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to belittle Angle's accomplishment in any way, winning an Olympic medal is a huge accomplishment, but most people don't really care all that much. Ronda Rousey became the first American woman to win an Olympic medal in Judo back in 2008, but most people didn't know or care about that in the slightest degree until Rousey became the first UFC Women's Bantamweight Champion.
When it's all said & done, as far as WWE and a lot of fans are concerned, Lesnar is the bigger star. Angle has INFINITELY more heart than Lesnar and a genuine love of wrestling, but Lesnar's probably the bigger star. Reportedly, Angle wanted to come back to WWE, despite many past proclamations that he intended to retire in TNA, but WWE was only interested in Angle working a full time deal and had no interest in him as a part timer. I don't know if that's completely true or not, only that WWE isn't really interested in bringing him back. Brock Lesnar, on the other hand, is someone that has a lot more mainstream appeal than Angle. He's also negotiated a sweetheart deal that probably sees him making somewhere around mid to upper six figures for every match he wrestles, I wouldn't doubt he probably makes somewhere from $25,000 to $50,000 for his non-wrestling appearances on Raw.
Also, Kurt Angle's physical health as far as wrestling is in legit question. Angle still looks great, but he's not remotely what he used to be. That's been obvious from the past several in-ring runs in TNA. The last few matches he's worked, if I'm not mistaken, have resulted in angle suffering significant injury. Angle's known for his toughness, often putting off taking time off in order to rest and heal up, but it's obviously been catching up to him in the past few years. Given WWE's barrage of medical exams that any wrestler signing with them has to undergo, I don't know if Angle would pass. Back in 2009, Angle was intending to appear on the 10th season of The Ultimate Fighter as a contestant, but didn't pass the medical exams.
When you consider that WWE could bring in Sting at possibly anytime, Brock Lesnar as current WWE World Heavyweight Champion, the possibilities of The Rock or Batista popping up, speculation regarding the possibility of The Undertaker appearing for WrestleMania XXXI, WWE's not really hurting for star power. For me as a fan at this point in my life, I'm more interested in guys who're the hear & now and possible future of WWE rather than getting a nostalgia kick by seeing guys heavily featured who's best years with the company are a decade or so in the past.
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