After a decade away from WWE, Kurt Angle set to headline 2017 Hall of Fame class

Angle wrestled in WWE and won nearly a dozen of the company's titles from 1998-2006

It's true. It's damn true.

Olympic gold medalist and NCAA heavyweight champion Kurt Angle will be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame as the lead member of the Class of 2017.

Angle, who turned to professional wrestling in 1996 fresh off completing the amateur wrestling grand slam (junior nationals, NCAA, World Championships, Olympics) with a gold medal in the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, will be honored by the organization that made him famous the world over just under 20 years after first stepping foot in a WWE ring.

The Pennsylvania native was trained as an amateur wrestler by famous 1984 Olympic gold medalist Dave Schultz, who led the Pennsylvanian Foxcatcher Club. While training for the Olympics, Angle notably fractured two cervical vertebrae and herniated two discs but nevertheless went on to qualify at the 1996 Olympic Trials.

Though he turned down overtures from WWE (then-WWF) following those Olympics, he eventually signed an eight-year contract with the company two years later in October 1998 and made his debut on television the following March. He wrestled for the first time on TV in November 1999, 13 months after signing with the company and never looked back from there.

Unlike many superstars, Angle's WWE character was always an extreme version of the real-life Olympic wrestler, an American hero. Though some eventually took this route during the "Attitude Era" in the late 1990s and early 2000s, Angle and Mark Henry, who was billed as the "World's Strongest Man," were always a version of themselves after being plucked from the world of athletics and thrown into WWE.

Kurt Angle won most of his matches with an ankle lock submission. WWE

Angle shifted between face and heel throughout his career, but fans always respected his ability both in the ring and on the mic. He was WWE's 10th triple crown champion and fifth "grand slam" champion, winning a combined six heavyweight titles (four WWF/E championships, one world heavyweight championship, one WCW championship) and also holding a number of other belts including the intercontinental, United States, European, hardcore and tag team championships (once each).

Angle won King of the Ring in 2000 and was famous for bringing amateur wrestling maneuvers into the squared circle. However, he was most famous for his Angle Slam, ankle lock submission and crossface chickenwing submission.

Unfortunately, Angle was unable to avoid further injury while in WWE, undergoing neck surgery in April 2003 and working through a number of injuries during his final two years with the company in 2005-06. Though WWE let him out of his contract early over injury concerns, he signed with TNA Wrestling a month later in September 2006 and debuted that October. Angle lasted as an in-ring performer with TNA through 2016, continuing to battle through injuries.

It was rumored earlier in 2016 that Angle was planning a return to WWE, though the company reportedly did not offer him a full-time contract at that time. It is not uncommon for WWE to have its Hall of Fame inductees on television prior to the ceremony, so don't count out a storyline involving Angle -- with an in-ring appearance or not -- before WrestleMania 33 in April.