Claim: Kurt Angle made his first appearance in professional wrestling in 1996.

Kurt Steven Angle -LRB- born December 9 , 1968 -RRB- is an American professional wrestler , actor , and retired amateur wrestler . He is currently signed to WWE , performing as the on-screen general manager for the Raw brand . While a student at Clarion University of Pennsylvania , Angle won numerous accolades , including being a two-time National Collegiate Athletic Association -LRB- NCAA -RRB- Division I Heavyweight Wrestling Champion . After graduating college , Angle won a gold medal in freestyle wrestling at the 1995 World Wrestling Championships . He then won a freestyle wrestling gold medal at the 1996 Summer Olympics . Angle is one of four people to complete an amateur wrestling Grand Slam -LRB- junior nationals , NCAA , World Championships , Olympics -RRB- . In 2006 , he was named by USA Wrestling as the greatest shoot wrestler ever and one of the top 15 college wrestlers of all time . He was inducted into the International Sports Hall of Fame in 2016 for his amateur accomplishments .   Angle made his first appearance at a professional wrestling event in 1996 , with his in-ring debut in 1999 . He signed a long-term contract with the World Wrestling Federation -LRB- WWF , now WWE -RRB- that same year , and participated in his first televised storyline in March 1999 . After months of unaired matches , Angle made his official debut in November and received his first major push in the company in February 2000 , when he held the European Championship and the Intercontinental Championship simultaneously . Four months later , he won the King of the Ring tournament , and not long after he began pursuing the WWF Championship , which he won in October ; this capped off a rookie year which is considered by many to be the greatest in professional wrestling history . Throughout his tenure in the WWF/WWE , Angle was a six-time world champion -LRB- four reigns as WWF/WWE Champion , one as WCW Champion , and one as WWE 's World Heavyweight Champion -RRB- , a one-time United States Champion , one-time Intercontinental Champion , one-time European Champion , one-time Hardcore Champion , and one-time WWE Tag Team Champion . He is the tenth Triple Crown Champion and the fifth Grand Slam Champion -LRB- achieving this accolade twice under both the original and current format -RRB- in WWE history . On March 31 2017 , Angle was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame , becoming the third active wrestler to be inducted , after Ric Flair and Sting .   After leaving WWE in 2006 , Angle joined Total Nonstop Action Wrestling -LRB- TNA , now Impact Wrestling -RRB- where he became a record six-time TNA World Heavyweight Champion -LRB- and the inaugural titleholder -RRB- , a two-time TNA World Tag Team Champion , and a one-time TNA X Division Champion . He is the second Triple Crown winner in TNA history and the only one to hold all the required titles at once . Angle is also a two-time King of the Mountain . As part of TNA , he made appearances for New Japan Pro-Wrestling -LRB- NJPW -RRB- and the Inoki Genome Federation -LRB- IGF -RRB- , holding the IWGP Heavyweight Championship once . In 2013 , Angle was inducted into the TNA Hall of Fame -LRB- he is the second wrestler -- after Sting -- to be inducted into both the WWE and TNA halls of fame -RRB- .   Between WWF/WWE , Japan , and TNA , Angle has won 13 world championships and 21 total championships . He is the only professional wrestler in history to have won the WWE Championship , WWE 's World Heavyweight Championship , the WCW Championship , the TNA World Heavyweight Championship , and the IWGP Heavyweight Championship . Angle is also the only person to have been King of the Mountain and King of the Ring . He has headlined numerous pay-per-view events for both WWF/WWE and TNA throughout his career , including the flagship event for both promotions : WrestleMania in WWE , and Bound for Glory in TNA . In 2004 , the Wrestling Observer Newsletter inducted Angle into its Hall of Fame , and later named him `` Wrestler of the Decade '' for the 2000s . He is considered to be one of the greatest professional wrestlers of all time ; ESPN journalist and former WWE personality Jonathan Coachman described Angle as `` the greatest I 've ever seen in the ring '' .