In an interview with Collider Live, Kurt Angle talked about his retirement at Wrestlemania 35 and why he faced Baron Corbin instead of John Cena.
“I decided to retire at ‘Mania,” Angle said. “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,’” he explained.
“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.”
Angle agreed, saying “‘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.”
