Kurt Angle Reveals What He Would Have Done Differently During His Last WWE Run
The Olympic Gold Medallist speaks...
In 2017, Kurt Angle returned to WWE for the first time in 11 years as he was inducted into the Hall Of Fame. The Wrestling Machine was then named the General Manager of Monday Night Raw after WrestleMania 33 and went on to perform in the company for another two years before retiring at WrestleMania 35.
During a recent episode of Table Talk With Dvon And Mo, Angle said he would have done things differently from what happened in his last run with the company. He admitted he didn't get to wrestle as much as he wanted to, which ultimately forced him to retire. He explained that he wanted to wrestle straight away, but instead, the company booked him to be the GM of Raw, which meant by the time he did wrestle at TLC 2017, Angle's body had started to get "arthritic", and he thought he was a shadow of his former self.
Angle did admit, however, that he understood why WWE was reluctant to have him wrestle right off the bat because of his past neck injuries and pain killer addiction.
The 12-time world champion said: "I wanted to come back to WWE and wrestle right away. Unfortunately, that wasn't their plans for me. They wanted me to be inducted into the Hall of Fame, then they wanted me to be the GM of Raw and then by the time I got to wrestling, I wasn't quite the same anymore. Just sitting out that year and a half, I probably only had one or two matches where they were special occasions. I think Survivor Series and Tables, Ladders And Chairs match where I substituted for Roman Reigns. So that’s all I did and when you get older and you're not active, your body gets arthritic and then you start slowing down, your neck and your knees and your back start to get tighter. You start getting a lot more pain.
"So, I believe that if I would've stayed active, I would've still been wrestling right now, but we didn't do that and I'm not blaming the WWE. I'm not blaming Vince McMahon for doing what he did with me because, two things, I was a liability coming back because I broke my neck four times in WWE in the past, and I had a painkiller addiction and the company wanted to tread lightly on water with me when I came back. So I totally get it and I'm glad they brought me back to induct me in the Hall Of Fame. I just would've done it differently. I would have wrestled right away because I was still wrestling pretty well at that point. I took a year off from TNA and I did the Indie circuit."
During a recent episode of Table Talk With Dvon And Mo, Angle said he would have done things differently from what happened in his last run with the company. He admitted he didn't get to wrestle as much as he wanted to, which ultimately forced him to retire. He explained that he wanted to wrestle straight away, but instead, the company booked him to be the GM of Raw, which meant by the time he did wrestle at TLC 2017, Angle's body had started to get "arthritic", and he thought he was a shadow of his former self.
Angle did admit, however, that he understood why WWE was reluctant to have him wrestle right off the bat because of his past neck injuries and pain killer addiction.
The 12-time world champion said: "I wanted to come back to WWE and wrestle right away. Unfortunately, that wasn't their plans for me. They wanted me to be inducted into the Hall of Fame, then they wanted me to be the GM of Raw and then by the time I got to wrestling, I wasn't quite the same anymore. Just sitting out that year and a half, I probably only had one or two matches where they were special occasions. I think Survivor Series and Tables, Ladders And Chairs match where I substituted for Roman Reigns. So that’s all I did and when you get older and you're not active, your body gets arthritic and then you start slowing down, your neck and your knees and your back start to get tighter. You start getting a lot more pain.
"So, I believe that if I would've stayed active, I would've still been wrestling right now, but we didn't do that and I'm not blaming the WWE. I'm not blaming Vince McMahon for doing what he did with me because, two things, I was a liability coming back because I broke my neck four times in WWE in the past, and I had a painkiller addiction and the company wanted to tread lightly on water with me when I came back. So I totally get it and I'm glad they brought me back to induct me in the Hall Of Fame. I just would've done it differently. I would have wrestled right away because I was still wrestling pretty well at that point. I took a year off from TNA and I did the Indie circuit."
Written by Aidan Gibbons
Editor-in-Chief of Cultaholic.com Twitter: @theaidangibbons