WWE News: Report Claims WWE Contacted Kurt Angle, Goldberg, Jeff Hardy, And Others For WWE Comeback
WWE will be going through a brand split soon, with a WWE Draft upcoming in the next month. This is huge for the WWE as the brand system was a good success for the company after they took down their competition in ECW and WCW around fifteen years ago. In 2011, WWE began slowly getting rid of the split as they had WWE SmackDown people working on WWE RAW for what they called, at the time, a RAW Supershow.
Of course, SmackDown remained on its own, but it felt like a split was gone. By 2013 and 2014, both brands were pretty much together and the brand split just wasn’t appealing any longer. It made sense to not even believe a split was there. This led some to hate the brand split, as the end really soured a lot of people on it. What is so interesting however, is that the original brand split was well-liked. Fans even called for it to come back. WWE agreed with the fans and decided to bring it back officially.
This meant WWE had to fill 30 to 40 man rosters on both sides, which didn’t seem to register early on for the WWE. The Wrestling Observer’s Dave Meltzer said the following on the issue.
“WWE just realized they had to fill two rosters, calling lots of 40+ year old guys to return for the new era.”
Forbes, an unconventional source for WWE news, went a step further. They reported that WWE had contacted Rey Mysterio, Goldberg, Kurt Angle, and Jeff Hardy about a comeback. The report goes on to say that the company wanted to bring Angle to WWE SmackDown to work with former NXT Tag Team Champions American Alpha. Other names WWE reportedly contacted, according to Forbes, are John Morrison, JTG, and Shad Gaspard.
The problem with a lot of this report is that most of it seems false. The first goes to a report on John Morrison. Morrison is someone that Vince McMahon did ask personally about, however, he was told Morrison was currently under contract to Lucha Underground. Rey Mysterio is also with them as of this writing, and looks to be working independent dates on the side. Due to the fact that Triple H met with Lucha Underground officials, The Game would know who works for what company — especially this one.
Meanwhile, Goldberg mentioned before that he wasn’t interested in returning, but did talk to Triple H about it. However, both sides didn’t come to an agreement. Then along came his appearance in WWE 2K17. That means Goldberg could come back for possibly a match or two, but don’t expect a major comeback run like before for the near-50-year-old former World Champion.
WWE has had discussions with Kurt Angle in the past, but the company was reportedly not interested in having him back before. Angle does want to come back to the WWE and has made that clear several times now. Since he left TNA, many fans have wanted him to return and especially work with American Alpha. Forbes was most likely fan booking this part if not their entire report.
WWE does want to bring people back, that is certain. However, it is unlikely they would contact some of the names mentioned knowing they are currently under contract. Others like Angle would not be of need full-time, which means he would be brought in for no reason. American Alpha doesn’t need a manager as they have loads of charisma on their own, and can talk on their own. The only similarity is that they were amateur wrestlers like Angle. The last time WWE had Kurt Angle pair up with people like this, it was the World’s Greatest Tag Team, and more about Angle than Shelton Benjamin and Charlie Haas. That said, American Alpha don’t really need the Olympic Gold Medalist.
While WWE is most likely interested in people like Hardy, Mysterio, and others, that doesn’t always mean that they are able to bring them back. The company is expected to be reaching out to a lot of people, but it remains to be seen who they are actually able to bring back.
[Image via TNA Wrestling]
