the Olympic gold medalist Kurt Angle has had a storied career in the WWE debuting
all the way back at the height of the Attitude Era in 1999 angle was a
clean-cut celebrated amateur wrestler and an American Hero when he appeared
for the first time on Sunday night heat on the show heel tiger a leasing of an
angle five hundred dollars to blow his nose on the American flag but angle
refused and attacked singh to a roaring ovation from the crowd Angle made his
first WWE wrestling televised debut at the Survivor Series coming out to the
themed medal a theme he still uses today and defeated Shawn Stasiak and remained
undefeated for a number of weeks Angle presented himself as the WWE's role
model encouraging others to follow the three-eyes intensity integrity and
intelligence but after negative reactions from the crowd he quickly
turned heel where he boasted to being a real athlete and questioned the fans
asking them "where are your gold medals?" Angles career took on from there and
after winning both the Intercontinental and the now-defunct European
Championship he would eventually go on to winning the WWE Championship
defeating The Rock at 2000's no mercy pay-per-view by 2002 he was already a
grand slam champion winning the Tag Team Championship with Chris Benoit
throughout his career Angle would win the World Heavyweight Championship as
well as three more reigns as WWE Champion he was also 2000s King of the
Ring winner and in fact the only thing left to achieve (other than winning the
women's title) was winning the Royal Rumble
even though Angle was still a top WWE Superstar in 2006 he was unhappy with
his position on WWE's B show ECW and was working hurt WWE would not let him take
the time off as a result Angle requested his release ending an eight-year
relationship with WWE he would sign with TNA showing no signs of winding down his
career as he fought harder than ever holding the TNA World Heavyweight
championships six times as well as other titles after last appearing in the WWE
in 2006 eleven years later WWE announced that it would be inducted into that
year's Hall of Fame class return to WWE television the Raw after WrestleMania 33
angle would not return in a wrestling capacity as a Vince McMahon appointed
Angle as Raw's general manager he would eventually be cleared by WWE doctors to
wrestle but his current run has been largely depressing angle would wrestle
more frequently in 2018 taking part in WWE's World Cup tournament wrestling on
weekly raw programming but he would endure a number of heartbreaking losses
matches would merely end in a few minutes his angle tried to give it his
all knowing full well he was up against wrestlers in their prime who could
outperform him in every way this run however will be angles final one as he
announced on this week's edition of Monday Night Raw that he will have a
farewell match at WrestleMania 35 with the crowd shouting "Thank You Kurt!" in an
emotional segment on Raw Angle said I want to thank each and every one of you
you made it so fun for me I literally had the time of my life his long and
illustrious wrestling career might suggest that he has nothing left to
accomplish but the truth behind his retirement is far more upsetting it's no
secret that after over 20 years of wrestling professionally Angle has put
his body through some serious testing in fact he'll be familiar with angle
mentioning numerous times he won a gold medal with a broken frickin neck he
wasn't joking either five months before the 1996 Summer Olympic Games Angle
suffered an almost career-ending injury at the trials severely injuring his neck
fracturing two of his cervical vertebrae herniating to disks and pulling four
muscles the injury not only setback his training but it started an addiction to
painkillers his neck would never be the same after the injury and surgery was
required again as his neck problems worse than throughout the years of
wrestling and traveling on the road not getting enough rest terrifyingly angle
would even complain of his arm going numb while performing surgery meant
however that he would be off the road for an entire year which when the angle
would miss WWE's biggest show of the year WrestleMania something he was an
integral part of as he was WWE Champion but knowing that he Oded duty to Vince
McMahon and risk paralysis angle put up surgery until after WrestleMania where
the title could be given to Lesnar he mentioned the importance of not letting
Vince down it was something I just had to do I can leave Vince McMahon and the
company hanging like that I had a duty as a performer to suck it up
luckily thanks to the new developments in neck surgery Angle didn't need to
undergo neck fusion which meant he didn't need to take much time off it
didn't mean that angle was going to take it easy though as he was still
performing almost every night showing no signs of slowing down his performance or
his addiction he was also lucky to be alive as he confessed he was taking a
mixture of up to 65 painkillers a day to cope with the pain as he was still
wrestling full-time it was so bad that WWE reportedly pleaded with angle to get
help when he refused they released him hence his career in TNA there his
addiction worsened and he was accompanied by a number of run-ins with
the law the thing is everybody drank down there in TNA so I started drinking
with my meds and then I started manipulating my meds I would save all of
them until the evening and drink it all with alcohol and it got me into a lot of
trouble for duis in five years Angle would clean up his act and find sobriety
in 2013 and of course this helped him come back to the WWE where he would be
cleared by WWE's doctors to wrestle again but unfortunately you'd be a shell
of his former self in the ring he was far less mobile in the ring not even
able to stand up straight it wasn't apparent during tank matches but when
angle was booked in singles competition it became more and more obvious that
angle just could not go in the ring almost age can be a contributory factor
the main culprit was the years of punishment he put his body through this
was evident in his match against Baron Corbin at a WWE live event in San
Antonio as the Wrestling Observer noted the report we got is that this was a bad
match she's kind of said since angled bell-to-bell was an all-time great
he looked hurt and moved slow the original plan was for angle to put over
a number of rising stars on the roster once he did that with Baron Corbin and
Drew McIntyre it wasn't in very convincing fashion and
it was obvious that he can put over as much talent as WWE wanted him to do many
sources reported that WWE had given up on him and took him out of various plans
backstage angle looked to be much worse with reports suggesting he even has
trouble getting out of his car Brad Shepherd mentioned on the oh you
did no podcast no korangal can barely move I'm told he moves up Mick Foley
backstage you know standing still he looks pretty good you can see that in
the ring but when you watch him I'm told getting in and out of his car is
unfortunate so Kurt Angle is not in good physical shape at all and is on his way
out as a company while he probably isn't on his way out of the company angle
himself even admitted he is unable to perform at the level he once did saying
it was really tough for me to come to that decision
it actually has been nipping at me for the past year I'm 50 years old I know
I'm not the same as I used to be I'm slower in the ring I can still get the
job done but if I can't perform at the Kurt Angle of 2006 I don't want to
perform at all you finally know when your times come and you've got to make a
decision and I've decided that I want to keep my legacy intact and I think that
retiring is the best decision for me angle will be wrestling his final match
in WWE and possibly the last match he'll ever have at WrestleMania 35 but who
should his opponent be which one wrestler deserves the opportunity or
right to be his final opponent multiple superstars come to mind and it usually
involves those who are obviously on the current roster but it has to be someone
he shared a rich history with someone he is notably feuded with in the past
former WWE Champion and future hall-of-famer the Undertaker comes to
mind this both were heavily involved in the resurgence of wrestling during the
attitude and ruthless aggression eras and not only that they feuded with each
other on a number of occasions and had a phenomenal match at No Way Out in two
than six there was also talk in the past that the Olympian would be the first one
to defeat the Undertaker at WrestleMania ending the streak prematurely but the
only problem is that the Undertaker's mobility in the ring is only slightly
better than angles plus there doesn't seem to be any sign of the Undertaker
wrestling at all at the show of shows this year alternatively we would like to
see the 16-time WWE Champion John Cena come up to the plate to challenge angle
at mania those who were watching during their ruthless aggression era might
recall Cena's first-ever official match in the WWE was against Kurt Angle in
2002 on Smackdown live with a doctor of thuggin omics may have even fuelled
speculation that a matchup mania could be on the cards by posting a photo of a
young kur angle on his Instagram page John Cena is also booked for
Wrestlemania so there is a high possibility that he could be his
opponent while other much younger superstars could benefit from the win
none would carry the same sentimental value as John Cena but who should be the
one to retire Kurt Angle in your opinion let us know in the comments down below
subscribe if you haven't already and I'll see you next time with some more
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