Kurt Angle didn’t feel appreciated during his second run with the WWE.
The WWE Hall of Fame returned to the company in 2017, after a decade spent in TNA. He had high profile bouts, including teaming with The Shield and Ronda Rousey, but his run was underwhelming as a whole.
Kurt Angle spoke with Sam Roberts on NotSam Wrestling about feeling unappreciated in his second WWE run. He revealed that Vince McMahon wouldn’t let him face John Cena in his retirement match.
The Olympic Gold Medallist says he thinks it has a lot to do with him leaving the company in 2006 to join TNA.
“I wanted John [Cena] to be my retirement match, I don’t know if you knew that, but I requested that to Vince. He said, ‘You’re going to have to wait until next year because you have a program with Baron Corbin.’ So I was like, ‘Ok, but I don’t think I can go another year, Vince.’ He said, ‘Well, then, it is what it is.’
“I love Baron Corbin. I just felt that my second time in WWE. I wasn’t so much appreciated. I think it has a lot to do with me leaving the company high and dry in 2006 and going straight to TNA. See, I was supposed to go back to WWE in six months. Vince wanted me to take six months off and come back. So, literally when I left his office and I quit, I called [TNA] and got a contract that day. I didn’t wait a second. I knew what I wanted to do and where I wanted to go. And I think they were like, ‘Ok, well, if he comes back, we’re going to teach him a little lesson.’ You know? [laughs] Which is fine, I understood.”
