Miro Says He Pitched to Face Kurt Angle At WrestleMania 31, Why The Pitch Was Shot Down

Miro said on a recent stream that he wanted to work with Kurt Angle at his first WrestleMania, and revealed why the idea was shot down by WWE. The former Rusev made his WrestleMania debut at WrestleMania 31 against John Cena, but he said that before that match became known to him he’d pitched bringing in Angle for a USA vs. Russia feud at the big show. You can see highlights and video below:

On Angle saying that he wanted to work with him: “I wanted to wrestle him. I pitched — so, the first year when I was with WWE I pitched for Kurt Angle to come back and wrestle me. That was before I knew about the John Cena situation … I wanted to bring back Kurt, you know, as the American thing … The Swagger thing happened at SummerSlam and now, I started thinking of, ‘What could we do for ‘Mania.’ ’cause nobody told me that I was going to work John for ‘Mania. And I wanted to wrestle Kurt. I said, ‘Hey,’ and I talked to two people. I’m not going to say who they are, they’re really up there. But I said, ‘Hey, how about we bring Kurt [in]? I think it’s going to be great. One, he’s the greatest professional wrestler ever. Two, it’s just USA coming back and I was still the Russian.’ Like, I was still doing the Russian flag, the Putin [references] and everything. Kurt would have been the perfect, perfect person.”

On why the idea was turned down: “And they told me no. They’re afraid — this is verbatim. This is verbatim from the person who told me. He said, ‘We don’t want to feel responsible if he comes back and dies.’ That’s from somebody that I spoke to about it. And there were two people there. If one says I lie, hopefully the other can say that it’s true. Which I doubt, but it doesn’t matter to me… Yeah, and in the end man, he got that match with Corbin. I always wanted to wrestle Kurt.”

On his appreciation of Angle: “Just once again, he’s been my favorite wrestler forever … Yeah man, it would have been great. It would have definitely been the best. And I even texted Kurt back then, before I even knew him. I didn’t text him, I DM’d him … I sent him a message on Twitter. “Hey Kurt,’ something something. I think I was just telling him I wanted to work with him. And then we ended up talking back and forth.”

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit Miro with a h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.