Kurt Angle Explains Why He Had To Retire

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Wrestling fans waited a long time for Kurt Angle to return to WWE and he finally made his way back to the company in 2017. When Kurt first returned to WWE he took on the role of General Manager which he held down for months. Eventually Kurt returned to the ring when he teamed with The Shield at WWE TLC in 2017 then he went on to wrap up his career in 2019 at WrestleMania 35.

Fans had hoped to see more from Kurt Angle’s second run with WWE, and he recently explained to Chris Van Vliet that he wished he had retired ten years earlier, but he decided to push himself. Ultimately Angle made the decision to hang up his boots for good because he felt that he was losing a step inside the ring.

“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.”

“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.”