For many years, the WWE business model consisted of paying wrestlers a "guarantee" that makes up some of their annual pay, while the performers usually wound up making most of their money from merchandise sales. This made it incredibly important to market one's self, but not all professional wrestlers were geared towards that mindset. Appearing on "Insight with Chris Van Vliet," former WWE star and Olympic gold medal winner Kurt Angle revealed that he has regrets over how he managed that aspect of his career.

"I wasn't a businessman," Angle said. "I didn't promote myself. I didn't do a lot of merchandise."

The wrestler acknowledged that he still made a considerable amount of money from his in-ring career, but Angle can't help but feel that there were additional earnings left on the table. Angle spoke about one prop that he believed would've sold massively with fans, but he and the company were prevented from capitalizing on it.

"My gold medals," Angle continued. "The problem was — I don't know how this happened but somebody started making them, and the reason why I couldn't make them is because we weren't allowed to duplicate them."

Those counterfeit gold medals eventually found their way into the hands of countless fans, and Angle now finds himself signing many of these fakes at conventions. The retired wrestler is quite confident that the medals would've made a significant impact on his income, but Angle is still satisfied with everything he was able to accomplish.

These days, the pay structure in WWE is different, though there are still some similarities. Wrestlers still receive guarantees and make money from merchandise, but a much larger share of their income is agreed to ahead of time, and there are typically no longer bonuses from appearing on larger events.