WWE Hall of Famer Kurt Angle has revealed he twice turned down an approach from AEW, saying the company wanted him to wrestle in the company.
Kurt Angle stepped away from the ring at WrestleMania 35, losing his last ever match to top of an illustrious career to Baron Corbin.
Since then Angle has stepped away from the limelight again and recently underwent double knee replacement surgery, making the likelihood of him lacing up his boots again highly unlikely.
Speaking on The Ten Count on NBC Sports Boston, the Olympic gold medallist revealed that he has had two different offers to join AEW, with one of the offers apparently offering Kurt Angle the opportunity to wrestle ten times for the company:
“They actually wanted me to wrestle in particular. Tony Khan gave me a call, they wanted me to wrestle. They offered me a pretty good deal but I just can’t do it anymore. I wish I could but it’s just not possible.”
“They did offer me two different times, they wanted me to do an on-camera personality as well or a non-wrestling role. I actually turned that down as well. I wanted to start up my supplement company, I want to put more time into that so I didn’t want to leave the company at this particular time so I decided not to do it.”
“[AEW] wanted me to have big, special matches. They gave me a contract for ten matches, they didn’t say how long it would be so it might not have been for just a year, it might have been for three years and I would have wrestled three matches a year but I decided not to do it because of my supplement company. And the fact that I’m not the same as I used to be. If I’m gonna go in there and wrestle I want to be the old Kurt Angle and I know I can’t be that anymore.”
For comparison, Angle’s fellow WWE Hall of Famer Sting joined AEW in December 2020, debuting as a surprise at Winter Is Coming. It has taken The Icon a full eighteen months to rack up ten matches in the company with his tenth coming at Forbidden Door as he, Darby Allin, and Shingo Takagi defeated The Young Bucks and El Phantasmo.
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