Former WWE superstar Rusev, who now goes by the name Miro, recently admitted on his YouTube channel that he made a pitch for the company to bring back Kurt Angle so they could have a match against each other. However, he also explained why WWE thought this wasn’t a good idea at the end of the day.
As quoted by Wrestling Inc . on Wednesday, Miro’s comments about the rejected pitch came shortly after Angle revealed that one of the reasons he agreed to return to WWE was the chance to potentially face the Bulgarian grappler in the ring. According to Miro, he first thought of the possibility of wrestling Angle in 2014 — his first year on the main roster. He added that this was before he was booked to feud against John Cena for the United States Championship in the lead-up to WrestleMania 31.
Miro went on to explain that he spoke to two high-ranking WWE officials, explaining that it would be a “great” idea for the promotion to sign Angle. This, he said, was because he considered the future Hall of Famer as the “greatest professional wrestler ever” and felt that his All-American gimmick would mesh well against the pro-Russia character he had at that time. However, the officials supposedly felt that this was too dangerous to pull off due to Angle’s medical history.
“Kurt would have been the perfect person, but they told me no,” Miro continued.
“This is verbatim from the person that told me. He said, ‘We don’t want to feel responsible if he comes back and dies.’ That’s from the person that told me. There were two people there. If one says I’m lying, hopefully the other will stand up and say it’s true.”
In addition, Miro talked openly about his admiration for Angle, calling him his “favorite wrestler ever” and admitting that they used to exchange direct messages on Twitter about a potential in-ring rivalry before they knew each other personally. He also praised the former WWE Champion for adopting a teenage boy from his home country of Bulgaria.
After more than a decade away from the promotion, Angle made his return to WWE in 2017 — well after Miro supposedly pitched the match against the former Olympic gold medalist — and was mostly used as an on-air authority figure and backstage producer before he was released by the company in April of this year. He also made occasional in-ring appearances as a wrestler and had his farewell match last year at WrestleMania 35 , where he lost to Baron Corbin.