Vince McMahon handed out a brutal fine to a WWE superstar after he broke character four times despite a stern warning.
During his tenure running WWE, McMahon was known to be a strict disciplinarian and even the biggest stars in the business have been handed out punishments for not adhering to rules or stepping out of line.
And Hall of Famer Kurt Angle is one of many to have been on the receiving end of a fine. Angle came to WWE off the back of winning a gold medal in freestyle wrestling at the 1996 Olympics despite breaking his neck and is deemed to be one of the quickest to learn the craft of being a professional wrestler.
The 56-year-old was able to combine incredible athleticism and legitimate wrestling ability with comedy and was involved in some of the most hilarious segments in WWE history.
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But at one stage of his career, Angle struggled to contain his laughter and proceeded to break his character. That irked McMahon, who threatened him with a $2,000 fine every time he 'corpsed' on screen.
However, it didn't quite have the desired effect as Angle found himself $8,000 worse off after multiple character breaks in the same segment.
"Vince said, 'Hey, we’re going to do these pre-tapes, but last week was a disaster because you guys kept breaking characters," Angle recalled on Notsam Wrestling.
"'You guys kept laughing. So, this week, if you break character, you get fined $2,000.’”
"So, I got fined $8,000 because I broke character four different times.”
Angle wasn't on mega bucks early on in WWE, earning $75,000-a-year after a successful tryout. And given he still had to fork out for hotels, rental cars and food, he made a conscious effort to focus on being serious.
Angle added: “I started getting serious. I was like, ‘I can’t do that anymore, I’m going to lose all my money.’ So, I wouldn’t break character anymore, I don’t know how I was able to do it.”
Batista was hit with staggering fine
Angle's fine was peanuts compared to what Batista had to pay after he bladed to add blood to his steel cage match with Chris Jericho in 2008.
According to Ric Flair, 'The Animal' was fined $100,000 for cutting and Batista left WWE two years later after feeling as though the punishment 'sucked the life out' of him.
He explained: "So my fine was $100,000? My heart dropped. I thought it would be like $25,000. When he said $100,000, I was just heartbroken.
"I think that he sucked the life out of me that day."
At the time WWE had cut back on the amount of blood in matches, only to reverse the rule in recent times, with the likes of CM Punk, Drew McIntyre and Cody Rhodes heavily bleeding in the ring.
Josh Lawless