Retiring after his WrestleMania 35 match with Baron Corbin may have left a bad taste in the mouths of both wrestling fans in general, and supporters of WWE Hall of Famer Kurt Angle in particular... but at least the offer to wrestle one last time against another legend seems to be on the table.
Many were understandably disappointed with that final match. It was a short and relatively easy win for Corbin, who previously worked under the Olympic Hero as "The Constable of Raw" while the Hall of Famer was the brand's general manager. Kurt himself even recently admitted that he wasn't "at all" pleased with his final WWE run.
During an interview with fellow ex-WWE star Rene Dupree, the Former World Champion explained that he asked Vince McMahon to let him finish his career against former rival John Cena. McMahon was firm on wanting Kurt to finish his program with Corbin, but he did offer the former Raw GM the chance to face the Chang Gang Commander down the road.
"I knew I wasn’t the same as before," Angle explained. "I didn’t like my performances and I said to Vince 'I wanna retire after this WrestleMania, but I’d like to ask you for a favor. I’d like you to put me with John Cena, because I started his career so I’d like him to end my career.' He said 'Kurt, you have a program with Baron Corbin, it’s been going on for six months. You have to finish it. If you wanna wait till next year, I’ll give you John Cena next year.' I told (him I couldn’t wait another year). I totally understood. Vince was right, I was doing a program with Baron. It was going five or six months and I had to see it through.
"He did give me the option of going another year and wrestling Cena, and I probably shoulda done that looking back. I probably could have just laid back and not wrestled for a good six or seven or eight months and started to get myself ready. I gained a lot of weight in this particular time, I could have got away from the product and got in better shape and then came back for WrestleMania and wrestled John Cena."
Cena wasn't featured on the WrestleMania 35 match card, though he did make an appearance at the event. The 16-time world champion confronted Elias and concluded the segment, 'An Attitude Adjustment'.
A year later, the Doctor of Thuganomics would face Bray Wyatt in a cinematic "Firefly Fun House" match at WrestleMania 36, which the latter won. A couple of weeks later, The Federation conducted a long series of roster and employee cuts. This included the release of Angle, who was employed as a backstage producer.
Kurt recently revealed that AEW offered him a 10-match contract, but the 53-year-old decided to turn it down. The Hall of Famer recently underwent double knee surgery and has made it clear that he won't wrestle another match.
Angle Turned Down Subsequent Offers From WWE
Though WWE released the former TNA World Champion from his role as a backstage producer, the company later offered him multiple jobs. He was presented with an offer to manage Riddle, as well as a coaching position in WWE NXT. Angle turned both down however, explaining that the financial offers weren't good enough.
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