Kurt Angle has discussed his thoughts on the end of his WWE career and how Vince McMahon wanted to make a big send-off happen for him if Angle had stayed beyond WrestleMania 35.
Angle returned to WWE in early 2017 after more than a decade away from the company when it was announced the Olympic gold medallist was to be inducted into the WWE Hall Of Fame.
Following his induction, Angle then began a spell as the General Manager of Raw which led to him famously joining The Shield for one night as well as teaming with ‘Rowdy’ Ronda Rousey at WrestleMania 34. Together Angle and Rousey defeated the hated husband and wife team of Triple H and Stephanie McMahon.
In March 2019 with his days as General Manager long over, Kurt Angle announced a farewell tour of sorts before his final match at WrestleMania 35. Angle faced off with the likes of Apollo Crews, Chad Gable, Samoa Joe, and AJ Styles before his final bout on The Grandest Stage Of Them All against Baron Corbin.
Corbin defeated Angle in an unmemorable match with Angle’s WWE flame going out with a whimper rather than the bang many felt it deserved.
Speaking to fellow WWE alumni Chris Jericho on his Talk Is Jericho podcast, Kurt Angle revealed Vince McMahon offered to give Kurt a grand farewell a year later but Angle feared he’d spend the next year looking at the lights:
“Well, Vince [McMahon] said, ‘Well Kurt, you can do that next year.’ I was like, ‘Vince, I’m retiring this year.’ He said, ‘Well if you wait another year, I could do that for you.’ I said, ‘No, no, I’m gonna do it this year’ because there was no way in hell I was gonna wrestle another year, especially in WWE because all they were gonna do was job me out for the whole year so, I knew — I could see the writing on the wall and I didn’t know if I wanted to be a part of that.”
Kurt Angle has also recently discussed his backstage fight with fellow WWE Hall Of Famer Eddie Guerrero and why his apology only led to more carnage.