Kurt Angle has hinted that he wants to return to the WWE to finish his professional wrestling career there. Even when he was still under contract to TNA Impact Wrestling, he was talking about one day returning to the WWE. Now that the WWE has announced that Kurt Angle is the headliner for the 2017 WWE Hall of Fame, Forbes has reported that Angle is also expected to return to the ring again for the WWE as well.
The news originally broke in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, who stated that there are only a few hurdles that Kurt Angle has to pass before he gets back into the ring for the WWE.
“The plan right now is that Angle will be doing at least some wrestling in WWE. He would have to pass a physical, and obviously at best it would be very limited.”
The idea is that Kurt Angle will be a part-time star along the lines of Bill Goldberg, but much less than Brock Lesnar. At the moment, Brock Lesnar still wrestles multiple times a year — at a handful of pay-per-view events and also at a number of house shows. Lesnar even appeared at a house show last night in Dallas and beat the Big Show.
Goldberg, on the other hand, is a special attraction at best. He comes to Monday Night Raw and cuts promos. Sometimes he gets involved with other wrestlers and has short brawls. However, he has only wrestled in two matches since making his WWE return last year.
In the first, Goldberg beat Brock Lesnar in less than two minutes. In the second, he took part in the Royal Rumble, which meant he had a handful of wrestlers to help cover for his rust. His big test might come at Fastlane, but some predict that he will beat Kevin Owens in a short match similar to the Brock Lesnar one last year.
Kurt Angle is not rusty. He has wrestled recently at indie shows, including matches against former WWE superstar Cody Rhodes. Angle also proved in TNA Impact Wrestling that he was still capable of putting on great matches against a variety of stars. The question is how much the WWE trusts Kurt Angle.
Kurt Angle asked for his release back in 2006 when he realized that his body was failing him and he was suffering from painkiller addiction. He then fell into a depression and ended up struggling with alcoholism, getting a number of DUIs. That is the big reason the WWE took so long to invite Kurt Angle back.
There are also the injuries that Kurt Angle piled up over the years. He had the infamous broken neck that he fought through to win a gold medal and he has beaten his body up over the years, unwilling to give less than 100 percent in all his matches.
Last year, the WWE brought in 56-year-old Sting to wrestle and his career ended after two stiff moves in a match against Seth Rollins. Sting had never suffered any major injuries over his career so his age played a huge factor in what his body could take.
Kurt Angle is only 48, but his body has taken a much more severe beating than Sting did and the WWE might be leery when it comes to putting him in harm’s way, especially considering his past history with painkiller addiction.
It sounds like the WWE wants Kurt Angle to wrestle again after his WWE Hall of Fame induction, but don’t expect too much.
