Kurt Angle Just Announced His Retirement For Real This Time, Maybe

Well, this is sort of weird. Kurt Angle has announced on a YouTube video that he’s retiring from “Impact Wrestling” during their UK tour. It’s weird because the nature of the announcement – a promotional video for a UK tour. Also, the wording is sort of odd. Angle isn’t saying he’s retiring from wrestling altogether at any point in the video. Is he still trying to leverage for a WWE return? They’re not that into you, man.

Then there’s the possibility that this is just TNA trying to sell tickets for their shows overseas. Who knows, especially in light of the fact that wrestling retirements never last. Angle, to his credit, has been talking about taking time off for a while and is going to be doing some commentator work for Bellator in 2016. He’s also teasing a fight with Shamrock later that year. But he’s been unable to make the MMA transition yet.

If this is in fact the end, it’s sort of an anticlimactic finale to one of the greatest wrestling careers of all time. Angle was a top WWE wrestler for years and was heading to all-time great status before health forced him out of the company. He’s spent the last near-decade at TNA, putting on great matches that only a fraction of wrestling fans saw or cared about. All the while, lobbying for a WWE return.

The bright side is we’re all a step closer to Angle’s Hall of Fame ceremony and mended fences with WWE. His DVD should be remarkable once WWE buys TNA and gets access to their archives to make a complete history of Angle’s wrestling career.

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