Kurt Angle has revealed he was the first choice to be crowned WWE Undisputed Champion in 2001.
Chris Jericho was a part of quite a few iconic moments in WWE that won't soon be forgotten. From his debut, one of the best in WWE history, to The Festival of Friendship. Jericho also defied the odds by becoming WWE's first-ever Undisputed Champion in 2001. Y2J defeated The Rock and Stone Cold on the same night, but there was a fourth man in the running that night who is often forgotten.
Kurt Angle was one of the four men competing for the Undisputed Title that night. In fact, as the gold medalist revealed on a recent episode of The Kurt Angle Show, he was the first choice to win the championship. "I was actually set to win the title… but Vince McMahon came to me about a week before and said ‘Hey, I’m not going to put the title on you'," Angle revealed.
McMahon explained why he wanted to go with Jericho instead, telling Angle he needed it more. "Chris was a red hot babyface at the time. Giving him that title just legitimized him even more, he deserved it." Jericho would beat The Rock in his first match of the night, whereas Angle didn't even make it to the final. The Olympic hero lost to Stone Cold who would go on to get beaten by Jericho.
It isn't as if Angle was short on gold during his WWE run. The Hall of Famer had already been WWE Champion by that point and would be a World Champion again. Angle never held the Undisputed Title during his run with the company, though. The title wasn't around for long and once the belts were officially merged, they were held by the likes of Brock Lesnar, Eddie Guerrero, and JBL.
WWE's roster would continue to grow as more stars from WCW and ECW, which WWE had bought out in 2001, started to hop aboard. That resulted in the roster being split in two and the title as well. WCW's big gold belt made a return and was awarded to Triple H and the WWE Title remained on SmackDown.