Kurt Angle Downplays Possible Appearance In AEW

In an interview with Wrestling Inc, Kurt Angle spoke about the possibility of appearing for AEW, saying that the move is “off the table.” Here are highlights:

On if watches AEW: “Every once in a while. I’m a big fan of Jericho and Cody Rhodes. I love watching those guys work. So I turn it on here and there. I bounce back between NXT and AEW whenever I have time. A lot of times I’m working at my supplement company until late hours, so some weeks, I don’t get to see it, but AEW’s done really well. I said last year, don’t expect this company to be number one. It never will be. Be happy with number two, and I also said I don’t know if they’ll stay in business only because of what we’ve seen in history. WCW [and] TNA had a good run, and they dropped. They’re working their way back. Even Ring of Honor had a pretty good run. They’re not getting as huge now as they did when they peaked. All these companies, they put a lot of money into their product, and they don’t have a lot to show for it.”

On if he would appear for AEW: “Right now, I would say it’s off the table. I’m OK where I am. The thing is, when I came back to WWE, I wasn’t expecting what I got, and I was very grateful. I got the Hall of Fame. I wanted the Hall of Fame, but I didn’t want it first. I wanted it last, and I wanted to wrestle first. I took a year off from TNA. I was wrestling Rey Mysterio, Cody Rhodes, Alberto Del Rio, Joe Coffey from the UK, Zack Sabre Jr. [and] a lot of great athletes, and I was ready. When I was inducted into the Hall of Fame, that night Vince McMahon told me I was going to be the general manager, and I was like, ‘aw man, I wanted to wrestle. Now they’re going to have me inactive, and I was in active. I only probably wrestled three matches in the next year and a half. So being inactive and not bumping in the ring and not really training, my body got arthritic, and by the time I was wrestling for Vince, for WWE, I looked like an old man.”

On Vince McMahon choosing his final WWE opponent: “It just caught up to me, the inactivity. Believe it or not, everybody thinks that wrestling is the best thing for you, but that’s not always the case, especially in professional wrestling. If you’re not active in the ring every week, at least every week or every night, then you’re going to go stale, your body’s going to become stiff and arthritic, especially when you’re in as long as I was. The opportunity passed by and I decided that I was going to retire. I wasn’t supposed to retire when I did, but I told Vince I don’t want to do it anymore, and that’s when I said, I’d like to wrestle Cena. He said I can’t give him to you this year because you had a program with Corbin the last eight months, you got to finish it up. And Vince was right. So I did it, and he said if you want Cena next year, we could talk about it. And I said no, I’m done this year. So that was my choice. And I’m glad I stuck to it. I didn’t like the way I looked, and it was a little embarrassing.”