As you may or may not know, before Kurt Angle committed to becoming a member of the WWE Universe following his legendary run with Team USA during the 1996 Olympics, he was courted by MMA to keep his shoot grappling career alive for a few more years.

Now at the time, the monetary difference between the work and shoot fighting world made for an easy decision for Angle, as he wasn't looking to take on 15 fights for $150,000, but as his career progressed and his star power elevated with each passing WrestleMania match and Championship win, the call to become a UFC fighter came the “Olympic Hero's” way with relative frequency, even if he never pulled the trigger before hanging up his boots for good.

Speaking with Joe Rogan on his podcast about the new UFC-WWE merger, Angle noted just how full-circle the pairing has proved to be, as back in his day, contracts explicitly prevented WWE Superstars from going to UFC and vice versa.

“I know that Dana [Dana White] and Vince [Vince McMahon], their contracts have specifically, ‘You can't go to WWE.' If you're WWE, ‘You can't go to UFC.' They were going against each other when they shouldn't be,” Kurt Angle told Joe Rogan via Fightful. “WWE should be worried about AEW, not UFC. Before the merger, I don't know what's going on now. In their contracts, it was ‘you can't crossover to UFC, UFC can't crossover to WWE.”

For a time, UFC and WWE were legitimate competitors who would try to lure performers from one side to the other, as Brock Lesnar will tell you. Though the idea of doing a combination WWE-UFC cross-over feud a la the WCW Invasion would be… interesting to say the least, as it would be as strange to watch Sean O'Malley try not to hurt somebody in the ring as it would be to watch LA Knight knuckle-up against a heavyweight. Still, if it can just make one Ronda Rousey-style crossover star, in addition to combination Pay-Per-View weekends at the same venues, then the partnership should prove not only incredibly lucrative but incredibly inspiring for fans around the world.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3pKLty4sAQ

Eric Bischoff joins Kurt Angle in merger talks.

With the news of UFC and WWE coming together the hot topic in professional wrestling right now, Eric Bischoff decided to join his fellow WWE Hall of Famer in discussing the move and how it should impact either company's creative plans for the future.

In the opinion of Bischoff, while there are obvious upsides for both companies in joining together under the same TKO banner, he doesn't think there will be a lot of creative cross-over between the two brands, as they simply work under two very different models.

“Just based on my limited experience, having been a part of a merger on two separate occasions, first Time Warner and then AOL, I don't think you'll see a majority of the changes for another three, four, five, six months. It takes time. Obviously, Frank Riddick, as you pointed out, one company doesn't need two CFOs, but I think the real changes will probably be seen in administration because that's where there's most likely duplication between the two entities,” Eric Bischoff said on his 83 Weeks podcast via Fightful.

“So I think you're at the administration level, your mid-level management team, you're going to, you're probably going to see some over the next two or three, four, five, six months, but I don't think it's going to affect creative. I'm almost certain of that. I don't think it's going to affect the things that people see on television. It's more about the way the business operates behind the scenes, stuff that none of us ever talk about or know about. That's where it's going to happen. I think it's going to be slow. I don't think you're going to see wholesale changes within the next 30 days. I think you'll see changes that are going to occur consistently over the course of the next six months.”

On paper, TKO having WWE and UFC feels more like an attempt to corner the professional grappling marketplace, similar to when an ownership group has an NBA and WNBA team, more so than some sort of attempt to bring wrestling extremeness to professional football a la Vince McMahon's first soiree into the XFL. Still, if the two companies can figure out a way to work together in one way or another, it does present some interesting opportunities for the future, even if they come on the business side of things, more so than the creative side.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRZ1kHXjZ7I&t=621s