After breaking into professional wrestling with WWE in 1999 Kurt Angle enjoyed one of the finest runs in company history.
Within a year of making his debut the Olympic gold medallist was World Champion having tangled with the biggest stars in the world. However, come the summer of 2006 the star was burned out and struggling with addiction. This ultimately led to his departure from WWE and surprise move to TNA. Prior to leaving Angle had always spoken of his loyalty to WWE leading many to believe he wouldn’t sign elsewhere.
In a similar vein, Angle has now revealed that he never expected one of his WWE rivals to leave the company either.
Kurt Angle Never Imaged Chris Jericho Would Leave WWE
In 2017 Chris Jericho agreed a deal with New Japan Pro-Wrestling and appeared at Wrestle Kingdom 12 early the following year. This led to Jericho leaving WWE and eventually joining AEW in 2019. Jericho’s match at Wrestle Kingdom against Kenny Omega was his first outside of the WWE umbrella since he originally signed with the company in 1999.
Speaking on a recent episode of his podcast, The Kurt Angle Show, Angle said that Jericho’s departure from WWE came as a surprise.
“I thought Chris Jericho was gonna be a WWE lifer,” Angle said. “I never thought he’d ever leave. He left before and I think he went to Japan, but never really signed with another company, at least not since he was in WCW. He was in WWE for the longest time and I never thought he’d leave and go to another company.”
Angle also hit back at critics of Jericho who claim that he should no longer be featured in such a high-profile position. The WWE Hall of Famer said that Jericho should always be in the main event.
“He should always be in the main event, and he should be winning a lot of matches. It’s not like he’s past his prime. He’s still going as well as he ever has, and as long as he’s doing that you need to continue to push him.”
Chris Jericho recently made his first independent wrestling appearance in a number of years, wrestling at PWG Battle of Los Angeles.
H/t to Wrestling Inc