WWE’s Kurt Angle Admits He Could Have Faced John Cena at WrestleMania

WWE legend Kurt Angle had his last match in 2019 when he lost to Baron Corbin (now Happy Corbin) and is now enjoying his retired life. However fans were hoping that Angle would have his last match against longtime-rival John Cena, and it looks like that could have happened. Angle recently spoke to Rene Dupree and revealed that if he wrestled for one more year, he would have faced John Cena at WrestleMania. 

“When I presented to Vince McMahon that I was going to retire after WrestleMania that year, I told him I knew that I was losing a step,” Angle said, as transcribed by Fightful. “I knew I wasn’t the same as before. I didn’t like my performances and I said to Vince ‘I wanna retire after this WrestleMania, but I’d like to ask you for a favor. I’d like you to put me with John Cena because I started his career so I’d like him to end my career.’. He said ‘Kurt, you have a program with Baron Corbin, it’s been going on for six months. You have to finish it. If you wanna wait till next year, I’ll give you John Cena next year.’”

Angle then told McMahon that he couldn’t wait another year but agreed that he had to finish his program with Corbin. “He did give me the option of going another year and wrestling Cena, and I probably shoulda done that looking back,” Angle added. “I probably could have just laid back and not wrestled for a good six or seven or eight months and started to get myself ready. I gained a lot of weight in this particular time, I could have got away from the product and got in better shape and then came back for WrestleMania and wrestled John Cena.”

Angle and Corbin competed at WrestleMania 35 in Angle’s retirement match. Had Angle stayed another year and battled Cena at WrestleMania 36, the match would have been in front of zero fans as it took place during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Cena did compete in WrestleMania 36 against “The Fiend” Bray Wyatt in a Firefly Fun House match. Angle has no interest in returning to the ring as he recently turned down a 10-match contract with All Elite Wrestling.