WWE Hall of Famer Kurt Angle was recently interviewed by Collider Live where the Olympic gold medal winner discussed why his final matchup at WrestleMania 35 wasn’t with John Cena, which had been rumored for a while based on both men’s history together within the company. Angle explained that although Cena was pitched, he had a long-term program building up with Baron Corbin, and Vince McMahon refused to throw that feud away.

Yeah yeah it was. It was an idea. I’m not going to put any blame on anyone. The thing is…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 get 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….guys I’m 50 years old of course I’m slower. I think they were hoping that Cena and me next year. When I asked to retire at last WrestleMania, I threw Cena out at Vince and Vince said ‘Listen 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 here or whenever…you’re going to wrestle Baron at WrestleMania.’ I said ‘You know what that’s fair.’

Corbin would go on to defeat Angle at WrestleMania, with Angle getting a bit of revenge the following night on Raw. Check out Angle’s full comments below.