Kurt Angle Felt He Was “Getting Demoted” Before WWE Exit
WWE Hall of Famer Kurt Angle has explained why he thought he was getting a demotion in the company prior to his departure.
Kurt Angle did just about everything a WWE Superstar can do during his first run with the company which lasted almost seven years. A multi-time WWE and World Heavyweight Champion, Kurt Angle also headlined WrestleMania 19 with Brock Lesnar and was involved in some of the most memorable angles of the Attitude Era.
However, by 2006, WWE’s plans for the Olympic Gold Medallist had changed and Vince McMahon sent him to be the cornerstone of the reestablished ECW brand. His time in ECW proved short-lived however as by August he was out of WWE and just two months later he made his debut in TNA.
Speaking on The A2theK Wrestling Show, Kurt Angle discussed why he decided it was time for him to go and why his move to ECW felt like a demotion:
“Not that ECW wasn’t a big hit, it really was, it was huge, but I felt like I was getting demoted. Here I am the best technical wrestler in the company and they want me to join ECW instead of WWE Raw or SmackDown, I felt like wow, am I going to start carrying a chair or a kendo stick in my hand?”
“I was afraid the fans would not accept me because I was just a technical wrestler, they used a lot of weapons in ECW and I thought it wasn’t the right fit for me. Vince really thought it was. I didn’t stay there long, I left the company immediately after that so I didn’t really get to see how it played out unfortunately but I had a lot of problems going on at that time. I decided to leave almost a month after ECW even started.”