Five Potential Opponents For Kurt Angle Upon His WWE Return
It’s only a matter of time before former WWE World Heavyweight Champion and future WWE Hall of Famer Kurt Angle returns to World Wrestling Entertainment.
In a recent interview with fellow wrestling legend Ric Flair, Angle said that he has had a conversation with WWE’s chief operating officer, Paul “Triple H” Levesque and that both he and WWE are interested in seeing the Olympic gold medalist make his return to the company.
Angle left WWE a decade ago, and he left on relatively bad terms. Since then, WWE hasn’t been interested in bringing him back. But now that Angle has seemingly cleaned up his life for good, it appears that Vince McMahon is finally willing to bring him back to the company for one last run.
Angle officially left Impact Wrestling, better known as TNA, earlier this year, and he’s been wrestling in independent shows ever since. Of course, at the age of 47, Angle is also seeking other career opportunities outside of wrestling, and if he were to return to WWE, it’d be on a part-time basis.
The WWE locker room has drastically changed in the ten years that Angle has been away, so there are a ton of new guys that he could work with upon his return. There are also a couple of old rivals that Angle could lock horns with when he returns as well. Who will they be? Well, that’s what you’re about to find out!
- Brock Lesnar
Angle has said that he would like to wrestle Brock Lesnar one last time if he were to return to WWE, but the company may not want to put him in the ring with “The Beast” due to his neck issues and due to the fact that he would have to take several German Suplexes in the match, which could end up causing even more neck issues for the Olympic Champion.
- Dolph Ziggler
This may be a bit of an odd choice, especially when you consider the fact that Dolph Ziggler hasn’t exactly been treated like a top guy over the last couple of years. But, of all the people in the WWE locker room, Ziggler may be able to have the best match with Kurt Angle.
Whenever Angle wrestled Brock Lesnar, the two men would really go at it during certain points of the match, and Angle could do the same with Ziggler, who, like Lesnar, has an extremely accomplished amateur wrestling background.
- Triple H
It’s been well known for quite a while that Kurt Angle and Triple H had some very real issues with one another, and even though they recently buried the hatchet, WWE could use their past issues to help fuel a storyline which would lead to a match between the two.
Both men are in their mid-40’s, and they’re definitely not the wrestlers they used to be. But, with that being said, both of them are still better than the majority of the current WWE superstars, and they could have a fantastic match with one another.
- Rusev
United States Champion @RusevBUL is still furious at @WWERomanReigns … and AMERICA!! #SummerSlam @MariaMenounos https://t.co/ZPTiQygu9z
— WWE (@WWE) August 22, 2016
This has been the match that everyone has wanted to see for the last two years. Sure, it wouldn’t be the greatest match in the world once it got into the ring, but it’s not always about the match, and a Rusev vs. Kurt Angle feud would be about everything except for the match.
There hasn’t been anyone in WWE history who has been billed as being more patriotic than Kurt Angle, so he would be the perfect foe for the anti-American Rusev. He’d also be the perfect guy to take the United States Championship away from Rusev and really make it mean something again, much like John Cena did last year.
- Seth Rollins
.@WWERollins laughs in the face of the injured Universal Champion @FinnBalor! #RAW pic.twitter.com/61qIAKvnkU
— WWE (@WWE) August 23, 2016
Both Seth Rollins and Kurt Angle are the kinds of guys who can get a good, or even a great match out of anybody, so naturally, WWE would want to have them face off at some point after Angle returns to the company. They may tell Seth to avoid doing the buckle bomb, which is the move that ended Sting’s professional wrestling career. Of course, it was revealed after Night of Champions that Sting had neck issues going into his match with Seth, and Angle’s neck issues are more severe than Sting’s were, so it wouldn’t be smart for the Olympic gold medalist to take the powerbomb into the corner.
Seth Rollins is clearly WWE’s top heel, and Kurt Angle would be one of the company’s top babyfaces upon his return. Also, as previously mentioned, the two men would likely have a phenomenal match, so putting these two together would be a no-brainer.
[Image via WWE]
