It’s certainly not uncommon to see wrestlers part ways with WWE, but back in 2006 the wrestling world was shocked when Kurt Angle left the company. Shortly after leaving WWE he went on to join Total Nonstop Action where he stayed for an entire decade before returning to WWE in 2017.
When Kurt Angle first returned to WWE he didn’t return as a wrestler, but as the General Manager of Monday Night Raw instead. The former WWE Champion only wrestled a handful of matches during his second run with WWE which concluded with one final match against Baron Corbin at WrestleMania 35.
While talking about his final match with Sam Roberts on Notsam Wrestling, Kurt Angle stated that he hoped to face John Cena at WrestleMania 35. However, Vince McMahon told him it wasn’t in the cards.
“I requested that to Vince. He said, ‘You’re gonna have to wait till next year because you have a program with Baron Corbin’. So I was like, ‘Okay but I don’t think I can go another year Vince’, he said, ‘Well, it is what it is’.
“I love Baron Corbin, but 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.
“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. So I didn’t wait a second, I knew what I wanted to do and where I wanted to go, and I think there was like, ‘Okay, well if he comes back, we’re gonna teach him a little lesson’. I understood.”
H/T WrestleTalk.com
