Kurt Angle Explains Why He Made WWE Return To End His Career
Kurt Angle has explained why he decided to come back to WWE to end his career as a pro wrestler instead of staying with TNA/Impact Wrestling.
The WWE career of Kurt Angle started in the Attitude Era when he made his television debut at Survivor Series 1999. In less than one year, Angle became the WWE Champion at No Mercy in October 2000.
During his seven-year run in WWE, Angle was a five-time WWE World Champion that was highly regarded as one of the best all-around performers in the history of pro wrestling.
Even though Kurt Angle was a top guy in WWE, he left the company in 2006 due to some issues with drugs and alcohol that led to Vince McMahon wanting Kurt to go to rehab. When Kurt refused, Angle was let out of his contract and decided to make the jump to TNA Wrestling, which is a company that had a much lighter schedule than WWE along with a smaller audience.
Kurt Angle would go on to spend more time in TNA/Impact Wrestling because he was there from the second half of 2006 until 2016. Most people think of him as a WWE guy, but he is clearly one of the biggest stars in TNA history as well.
In 2017, Angle made his long-awaited WWE return that would see him be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame that year, he was in the role of Raw General Manager and wrestled sometimes leading to his retirement match at WrestleMania 35 in 2019 when he lost to Baron Corbin.
On a recent episode of The Kurt Angle Show podcast, the Olympic Gold Medallist explained why he went back to WWE when he did.
“I wanted to return to WWE just because of the fans. I wanted to show my appreciation for them being hardcore fans while I was in WWE and when I crossed over to TNA, and then I wanted to come to WWE to finish my career. That was my goal, that’s what I did.”
While also discussing his TNA departure, Angle admitted that WWE was likely hesitant to bring him back due to Angle’s multiple DUI’s on his record, but he did go to rehab and turn his life around for the better.
Angle added that every time his TNA/Impact contract was about to run out, they liked up a new contract for him to sign. Angle said that he was making seven figures (meaning the millions) while a lot of his peers were around $100,000 annually or perhaps less. Angle also felt like TNA wasn’t going to able to pay him that much for much longer due to their financial issues.