Kurt Angle Details WWE Return In 2017, ‘I Wanted To Wrestle, But Vince McMahon Made Me GM Of Raw’

Kurt Angle explains how he wanted to wrestle when he returned to WWE in 2017, but Vince McMahon’s plans altered his plans. While sitting idle as WWE GM of Raw, he started to build up ring rust as the physical toll of years of wrestling began to show effects on his body.

Kurt Angle was the latest guest on Six Feet Under with The Undertaker and Michelle McCool. During the podcast, Kurt discussed his return to WWE in 2017, following a more than ten-year stint with TNA Wrestling. Angle came back as the GM of Monday Night Raw and was also inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame. However, he wanted to wrestle, as he was still wrestling regularly in TNA and believed he had more to offer the company. As with most things, Vince McMahon’s plans changed Angle’s career trajectory.

Kurt Angle would tell Undertaker and McCool that it was during this time off as the GM that his knees grew stiff and arthritic.

“The thing is, when I came back to WWE, after I left for 11 years, when I came back, I was wrestling really good, but Vince had a different idea. He wanted to induct me into the Hall of Fame first before I wrestled. So I did the Hall of Fame. Then Vince came to me and said, ‘Hey, we wanted to make you the GM of Raw. I said, ‘Vince, I want to wrestle.’ He said, ‘We’ll get to that.’

“So he makes me GM of Raw, and during this time, my knees are arthritic and they’re getting tighter, and I’m less active, and for eight months, I didn’t do anything. Then all of a sudden, he’s like, ‘Kurt, I want you to wrestle.’ That’s gonna be a problem. When I got in there, I looked like crap. I mean, I couldn’t do anything. It made me want to retire earlier than I wanted to. That’s why I retired with Baron Corbin at WrestleMania 35. I didn’t want people to look at me and say, ‘Gosh, He used to be great, but now…’ Yeah. I didn’t want that. So I decided, ‘This is it.'”

Also on the podcast, Kurt Angle and The Undertaker discussed rumors that Angle was considered to end The Undertaker’s undefeated streak at WrestleMania in 2006. Learn more about that here.

Check out the full podcast embedded below.

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