We recently conducted an exclusive interview with Olympic Gold Medalist and WWE Hall Of Famer, Kurt Angle.
During the interview, he talked to comedian Casey Salengo about a plethora of topics, including his return to WWE and what happened with his retirement match. We plan on releasing the full interview at a later time. Here is what Kurt Angle had to say on the topic:
On when Angle knew he needed to retire from the ring:
“I retired myself. Because, when I came back to WWE, I wanted to wrestle. I was doing really well with the wrestling. Just got done with TNA and did a couple of independent shows. Kept my body in shape. I came back and the WWE wanted to induct me in the Hall of Fame. I was like, okay, but I’m not retiring.
They’re like, we know, but we want to induct you into the Hall of Fame first. So, they induct me in the Hall of Fame. Next day they’re like, Hey, we want you to be general manager. I was like, I want to wrestle. They said, oh, we’ll get to that.
So, I become general manager for about 9 or 10 months. And during that time I became inactive. I didn’t get in the ring at all. So, when I finally got back into the ring, I lost a step. I looked old, I looked washed up, I wasn’t moving the way I used to. It’s like arthritis kicked in and just took over my body. I didn’t like what I saw. I would watch films of myself and I was like, I can’t do this. I don’t want the fans to remember me like this.”
The reason Angle did not face John Cena in his retirement match:
“So I went to Vince and I asked Vince, I said, Hey, I’d like to retire at WrestleMania. And I thought he was going to give me a really big retirement match. You know, put me with John Cena or somebody like that. And instead he gave me Baron Corbin, who I love. But Baron was just starting out.
And he said the reason why is because I was doing a program with him (Corbin) and he didn’t want to cancel the program and just bring John in. So he said, if you wrestle another year, I’ll give you John Cena the following year. I said, I can’t, I can’t wait that long. I retired with Baron, which I was fine with. Baron’s a great wrestler, great guy. I absolutely love the guy and have a lot of respect for him.”
Stay tuned for the full interview, and if you share this, please credit eWrestlingNews.com.
