Kurt Angle Wishes He Ended His Career Ten Years Earlier, Explains Why He Retired
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Kurt Angle regrets wrestling for so long before hanging up his boots.
The WWE Hall of Famer retired from wrestling in 2019. His final match took place at WrestleMania 35, where he lost to Baron Corbin in a disappointing finale.
Kurt Angle had returned to the WWE in 2016 after spending a decade in TNA. Arguably his best work took place in that promotion, although he wishes he’d have left them years earlier to return to the WWE.
The Olympic Gold Medalist recently sat down with Chris Van Vliet and spoke about the end of his career. Kurt Angle admitted that he wished he’d retired a decade earlier, claiming he went too long and is paying the price with his body now.
He went on to discuss how a lack of wrestling leading up to his return at TLC 2017 ended up hurting his body and making him a shell of his former self. If he’d wrestled in the year leading up to his return, Kurt Angle thinks his performances in the WWE would have been much better.
Kurt Angle Wishes He’d Retired 10 Years Earlier
"You know what? I wish I would have finished my career in WWE 10 years shorter, in WWE or TNA. So in other words, instead of 20 years, I think 10 would have been enough and I think I would have been okay. But I pushed myself further, got into my 40s and kept working at a high pace.” Kurt Angle said.
“The only reason why I retired is because I was losing a step, and I could see it when I watched me on film. I didn't like what I saw. I didn't want the fans remembering me as a broken down Kurt Angle. Instead, I wanted them to remember me when I was in my prime, and that occurred when I went back to the WWE for the second time.”
“That was in 2017 when I came back, they wanted to induct me in Hall of Fame and I was like Vince, I'm not done wrestling. He's like we'll get to the wrestling and then he said that that night after the Hall of Fame I want you to be a General Manager of Raw. I was like, Vince, I want to wrestle. He said it's coming. So he made me General Manager of Raw for nine months and during those nine months I was inactive,” added Kurt Angle.
Kurt Angle: Not Wrestling For Nine Months Shut Me Down
“I never got in the ring. I was so busy doing General Manager stuff, I couldn't get in the ring. And by the time they had me wrestle, I looked like an old man. Taking those nine months off, especially at my age, close to 50, it just shut down. My body shut down and literally, my knees were bent full time, I couldn't straighten my knees out. I had to have knee replacements. Now my knee is straight, but I had a rough time in that ring.” Kurt Angle said.
“I wanted to retire against John Cena, but I was doing a program with Baron Corbin and Vince McMahon said if you wait another year we'll give you Cena. And I said, Vince, I want to retire this year. I don't want to be the person I am right now. I don't want to be out there in the ring where I lost the step, and I don't want the fans to remember me like that. He said, Well, you're going to have to wrestle Corbin, and that was fine.”
The post Kurt Angle Wishes He Ended His Career Ten Years Earlier, Explains Why He Retired appeared first on Wrestlezone.
