Former United States Champion Calls Out Kurt Angle — Will This Longtime Dream Match Finally Happen?
Ever since Rusev debuted on the main roster back in 2014, fans have been calling for a match between the Bulgarian Brute and Kurt Angle. But, in recent years, a match between the two hasn’t been possible, because Angle was a member of the TNA/Impact Wrestling roster. Furthermore, whenever he did become a free agent, WWE was never interested in bringing him back to the company. But now things have changed.
On Monday, WWE announced that Kurt Angle will headline this year’s WWE Hall of Fame ceremony in Orlando, Florida. Shortly after the announcement, the aforementioned Rusev, along with his wife Lana, called our Olympic Hero out on Twitter.
Congrats @RealKurtAngle on being inducted to the #WWEHOF2017 ! I have dreamed of one thing for your hall fame speech…. @RusevBUL #CRUSH ??
— CJ Perry (@TheCJPerry) January 17, 2017
One Too many HEROES under one WWE
— Miro (@ToBeMiro) January 17, 2017
Angle hasn’t yet responded to Rusev or Lana, but during his appearance on Wednesday’s SportsCenter, he talked about the chances of him wrestling again.
“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.”
According to Cageside Seats, WWE is thinking about having Angle appear as a surprise entrant in next Sunday’s Royal Rumble. If he does, we could see a brief confrontation between our Olympic Hero and the Bulgarian Brute. Will that lead to a match between the two at some point? Probably. There’s no clear opponent for Rusev at WrestleMania 33, so he could find himself in the ring with the only Olympic gold medalist in WWE history.
For now though, Rusev is involved in a pretty epic Twitter battle with the new United States Champion Chris Jericho. So, we may see a match between those two at some point in the near future, even though they’re both on the heel side right now.
If WWE doesn’t decide to go with Angle vs. Rusev at some point in the future, there are plenty of other dream opponents for the now WWE Hall of Famer. In previous interviews, Angle has talked about wanting to wrestle the recently retired Daniel Bryan, Seth Rollins, Roman Reigns, Brock Lesnar, John Cena, and AJ Styles. All of those matches, with the exception of the Bryan match, are possible if he returns to the ring.
The big question now is, can Angle pass a physical exam before he returns to the ring? If he can’t, WWE won’t allow him to wrestle again. We do know that he’s still physically able to wrestle. He even has two matches scheduled that will take place before his Hall of Fame induction, with one of them being against ex-WWE star Alberto Del Rio. But neither of the two matches will be under the WWE banner.
Since leaving TNA early last year, Angle has wrestled sporadically for several different independent promotions, with his most famous indy match being against Cody Rhodes. All of his matches on the indy circuit have been great, so he clearly still has the ability to have great matches with absolutely anyone. There’s no reason to believe that he wouldn’t be able to absolutely tear the house down with almost anyone on the WWE roster.
The good news is, we will get to see Kurt Angle return to WWE this year via the Hall of Fame. So, if he never wrestles again, at least we got to see him make amends with the company that made him a worldwide wrestling superstar.
[Featured Image by WWE]
