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What's the story?
Jerry 'The King' Lawler has revealed in his 'Dinner with the King' Podcast that the company had absolutely no expectations for the 'Olympic Gold Medalist' to return to the ring when they brought him back.
In case you didn't know...
Kurt Angle has been the Raw General Manager since April, with the WWE Universe eagerly awaiting the WWE Hall of Famer's return to the ring. They didn't have to wait long with Angle shockingly announced as Roman Reigns' placement for the TLC 2017 pay-per-view in October — his first match inside a WWE ring for eleven years.
The heart of the matter
Angle's ring return was a huge moment for the WWE, in difficult circumstances, and really helped to make TLC 2017 feel like a special pay-per-view. However, Jerry 'The King' Lawler has revealed in his recent podcast that Angle's return to the ring was never supposed to happen.
"Kurt and I talked at length about that [in the past], how much he wanted to still wrestle with WWE. He was happy with the contract and happy to be back with the WWE, but he was not crazy about the fact, I guess they had already told him that they didn’t think they wanted him to do things like get in the ring and wrestle.
As you can see from Lawler's statement, it appears when the WWE re-hired Kurt Angle they never envisaged him returning to the ring and only wanted him as an on-screen authority figure.
What's next?
While we waited eleven years to see a Kurt Angle match in the WWE again, it looks like two of them have come along at once. That's because there are rumours circulating that Kurt Angle himself will be the captain of Team Raw to take on Team SmackDown LIVE at Survivor Series.
Author's take
Regardless of whether or not the WWE wanted Kurt Angle to wrestle again, he eventually did and it was a huge moment and definitely the right call. TLC 2017 may have been a bit hit and miss, but I'll always remember it for Angle's return.
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