The Very Latest On Kurt Angle Being A Surprise Entrant In The ‘Royal Rumble’ Match


On Monday, WWE shockingly announced that Kurt Angle will headline this year’s WWE Hall of Fame ceremony in Orlando, Florida. Nobody, including Angle himself, predicted that our Olympic Hero would be chosen as this year’s Hall of Fame headliner. But, the announcement did bring up a ton of questions regarding Angle’s future with WWE, with the most frequent one being, will we see him wrestle one more match in WWE?

As of right now, we don’t know if Angle will wrestle again for WWE. When asked about his in-ring future during his interview on Sports Center, Angle said that his primary focus right now is the Hall of Fame. But, he’d also like to have at least one more match under the WWE banner before he hangs up his singlet for good.

[Image by WWE]

“I wasn’t planning on retiring, I don’t know if I am or not. Right now, all I’m focused on is the Hall of Fame, which is the most important thing to me. But I cannot say [if I’ll wrestle again]. I’m only focused on the Hall of Fame. I can’t say what I’m gonna do after that. Would I like to eventually? Yes. Right now I’m just gonna enjoy this Hall of Fame induction and I’ll go from there.”

Before he was announced as the headliner for this year’s Hall of Fame, wrestling fans were predicting that Angle will show up at the Royal Rumble and be one of the annual surprise entrants. Now that he’s officially back in WWE via the Hall of Fame, fans are now completely convinced that we’ll see him at the Alamodome on January 29.

As a potential surprise entrant, Angle can’t come out and say that he’s going to be in the Royal Rumble, so we won’t know for sure until the event happens. But, according to Cageside Seats, an Angle return at the Royal Rumble is being discussed by WWE officials.

Other possible surprise entrants for the Rumble match are Samoa Joe, Finn Balor, and Angle’s former protege Shelton Benjamin. So if Angle doesn’t return later this month, the fans in attendance will likely be satisfied regardless, because there’s a strong chance that all three of the aforementioned names end up entering the 30-man match.

Angle, who turned 48 last month, has been talking about retiring from in-ring competition for about the last four years now. So if he does return to the ring, it’ll be for select shows, because his body wouldn’t be able to hold up if he signed a full-time deal with WWE.

[Image by WWE]

In recent years, Angle has made several attempts to come back to WWE, but his attempts have fallen on deaf ears. For a long time, Vince McMahon was against bringing Angle back to the company because of his well-known issues with addiction. Long story short, he didn’t want another wrestler dying on his watch. So, for that reason and that reason alone, WWE decided to steer clear of Angle whenever he was a free agent.

Back in January of last year, Angle finished up with TNA/Impact Wrestling, which is where he spent the majority of the last 10 years. He then took a year off from wrestling, although he did have a few matches for random independent promotions. As of this writing, he’s scheduled to wrestle Alberto Del Rio in a few weeks, so he’s clearly still capable of wrestling. But, the question is, will he be able to pass WWE’s physical exam? If he’s not, then he won’t be allowed to wrestle again with WWE, no matter how big his return match would be.

[Featured Image by WWE]

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