Kurt Angle competed in the final match of his career at Wrestlemania 35. He lost to Baron Corbin in the match and Corbin was not the opponent fans wanted.
While speaking to Collider, Kurt Angle said that his decision to retire was his own and no one forced him to do it. It was purely owing to his own judgement.
During that time, WWE was forming a story between Angle and Corbin and so it would not have made much sense to have John Cena as his opponent suddenly, despite fan backlash. Angle said if he had waited one more year to retire, then he certainly would have faced off against John Cena.
“I decided to retire at ‘Mania. Vince didn’t tell me ‘Listen you’re done after ‘Mania.’ I went to him and said ‘Listen, I want to retire. I’m not able to do what I used to, and if I can’t be the old Kurt Angle, I want to be done now.”
“I was hearing a lot of feedback from people that Kurt looks like he’s in pain in the ring and he’s slower then he used to be, and it’s like ‘Guys, I’m 50 years old, of course I’m slower.”
“You have a program that you’ve been doing for a year; I’m not throwing it away. It’s with Baron Corbin, so whether you want to retire now or whenever, you’re going to wrestle Baron at WrestleMania.”
“‘You know what, that’s fair. You’re right.’ I can’t just change the whole thing and what they had planned and say ‘Hey, add Cena in.’ So I think that if it was next WrestleMania [36], it would have been John and I.”
While John Cena being Angle’s final opponent would have been the better choice, history cannot be changed.
h/t to SEScoops for the transcription.
