WWE News: Kurt Angle Explains Why He Wasn’t Happy About Wrestling Baron Corbin In His Retirement Match

During the latest edition of The Kurt Angle Show, the titular WWE Hall of Famer opened up about his retirement match against Baron Corbin in 2019. According to Angle, he didn’t want the rising star to be his farewell bout in the company, and he expressed his concerns to management.

As quoted by Sporskeeda, Angle revealed that he enjoyed working with Corbin and believed that the star was an impressive talent. However, he also stated that he didn’t think Corbin was on the level to be competing against an established veteran in his last-ever match at WrestleMania 35. Corbin was still quite inexperienced at the time, and Angle didn’t think his “status” was high enough.

The Hall of Famer then went on to explain a pitch he made which would have placed him against an opponent of an iconic stature. Unfortunately for Angle, the idea was shot down by officials because they didn’t want him to hang up his boots when he announced his intention to call it a day.

“I went to his office and I said, ‘I’m going to retire at WrestleMania. I know you have a program planned with Baron, but I would like to have John Cena because I started his career and I want him to end mine.’ I thought it made a lot of sense. He said, ‘You’re not doing that this year. You can possibly do it next year if you continue to wrestle for a year.”

Angle continued by saying that he couldn’t have lasted another 12 months just to wait for Cena. The legendary superstar explained that he was set on hanging up his tights in 2019, which was why he accepted a final showdown with Corbin.

WWE’s mentality may have been for Angle to give the rub to a hot prospect, but Corbin wasn’t the only opponent who was considered. As The Inquisitr previously documented, the veteran revealed that Jason Jordan — who was his storyline son — was the preferred candidate.

As the report highlighted, Angle felt that storyline would have made “sense.” The goal was to present Jordan as a “spoiled brat” who took advantage of Angle’s GM powers, only for his father to eventually have enough and try to teach him a lesson.

However, Jordan got injured in 2018 and hasn’t returned to the squared circle since then. As of this writing, it’s unclear if he’s retired from in-ring competition permanently. He has been working as a producer since he suffered his injury, but as history has shown, it’s not impossible for wrestlers to make unexpected recoveries.