Kurt Angle reveals why he retired at WrestleMania 35: “I looked like crap”

Overview

• Kurt Angle has finally spoken openly about his decision to retire at WrestleMania 35.
• On The Undertaker’s Six Feet Under podcast, Angle reflected on his WWE return in 2017.
• Angle admitted that his final run left him unhappy.

WWE Hall of Famer Kurt Angle has finally spoken openly about his decision to retire at WrestleMania 35 in 2019. Appearing on The Undertaker’s Six Feet Under podcast, Angle reflected on his WWE return in 2017 after an 11-year absence. However, Angle admitted that his final run left him unhappy, as he felt he looked far from his best.

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Talking about how Vince McMahon brought him back, Angle revealed that he was first made Raw’s General Manager.

"Vince had a different idea… he makes me GM of Raw. And during this time, my knees are arthritic, and they’re getting tighter, and I’m less active. And for eight months I didn’t do anything," Angle said. "Then all of a sudden he’s like, Kurt, I want you to wrestle. Uh, that’s gonna be a problem [laughs]. I literally, when I got in there, I looked like crap. I mean, I couldn’t do anything. It made me want to retire earlier than I wanted to. That’s why I retired with Baron Corbin at WrestleMania…because I didn’t want people to look at me and say, gosh, he used to be great, but now…I didn’t want that.”

"The only thing that bothers me now is I have motor skill problems." - Angle

The Undertaker then asked Angle about his current health. Angle admitted that while his knees are holding up, his biggest issues now stem from his neck.

"The only thing that bothers me now is I have motor skill problems. My hands shake ‘cause my neck is so bad. And there’s nothing I can do about it. My neck naturally fused together… so I don’t have any more discs in between my vertebrae," he explained. "I get pain going down my arms. My pinkies, I can’t feel either one of my pinkies. They’re gone. So, I just have a lot of functional problems… There’s just nothing. I have to deal with it.”

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Listening to Angle’s struggles, The Undertaker sympathised with his longtime friend.

"That’s the price we pay for the game we play," he said.