WWE Hall of Famer Kurt Angle was involved in a Q&A with Pro Wrestling Junkies to talk all things pro-wrestling, including his thoughts on Chris Jericho and how he was originally set to face Jason Jordan at WrestleMania instead of Baron Corbin. Highlights are below.
Says he was originally supposed to face Jason Jordan at WrestleMania but Jordan hurt his neck:
I didn’t really get who I wanted. I was in a program with Jason Jordan. We were supposed to work that up to WrestleMania but he ended up hurting his neck, and they replaced him with Baron. [Vince McMahon] didn’t know that I wanted to retire. I wanted to retire because I wasn’t the same anymore. My body was getting really arthritic from not working. It didn’t go as I hoped. I told Vince I wanted to wrestle John Cena because I started his career and I wanted him to end mine – it just made sense to me. He told me no and that I was getting Baron Corbin. He said that if wanted Cena, I’d have to wait until next year, but I didn’t want to go another year. Baron is a great athlete and a great worker, but where he was at the time might not be at the level where Hall Of Famers would feel totally comfortable with. He was great to work with; I didn’t have a problem with that. I had a little bit of a problem retiring with him. I don’t want to put him down because he’s good, but I wanted to go with John Cena because it just made sense. I don’t want to say I had the worst retirement match, but wrestling Baron wasn’t exactly my dream match. Back then, he just wasn’t there.
On Chris Jericho being one of the best of all time:
I’ve also been watching Chris Jericho, and wow! He’s still so good. I’m so jealous of that son of a gun. He’s my age, and how he’s still able to go at this level like he’s doing right now, especially after 25-30 years in the ring, he’s phenomenal. He might go down in history, this is me speaking, but he might go down as top 5 of all time. He’s still as good as he ever was. I wouldn’t mind having one more round with Jericho, but that’s not going to happen.
(H/T and transcribed by Wrestling Inc.)