If his body would have allowed it, we may have seen Kurt Angle in AEW.
That’s not a shocker given the other well-known veteran talent that has migrated to AEW over the past few years, including the likes of Mark Henry and Paul Wight. But according to Angle’s recent interview with NBC Sports Boston (h/t to Fightful for the transcription), one deal that was on the table would have seen the Olympic gold medalist and WWE Hall of Famer as an active competitor.
They actually wanted me to wrestle, in particular. Tony Khan gave me a call, wanted me to wrestle, they offered me a pretty good deal, but I just can’t do it anymore. I wish I could, but it’s just not possible.
A lifetime of wear and tear has caught up with Angle, who had successful double knee replacement surgery last month. His later years with WWE were spent primarily in non-wrestling roles as a result, and he says AEW was interested in something similar too.
They did offer me two different times. They did want me to do on-camera personality as well, a non-wrestling role, I actually turned that down as well. I wanted to start up my supplement company and put more time into that and didn’t want to leave the company at this particular time, so I decided not to do it.
The “at this particular time” part of that suggests Angle might be open to joining AEW sometime down the road. At any rate, one thing that sounds pretty set in stone is that his in-ring career is finished, which means his final match was against Baron Corbin at WrestleMania 35.
But what a career it was, with Angle a worthy member of not just the WWE Hall of Fame, but on any list of the best pro wrestlers in the world over the past two decades.