Angle has previously detailed how he suffered multiple injuries and was in bad shape towards the end of his first WWE stint. The multi-time world champion decided to leave the company for health reasons and was granted his release on August 25, 2006. The Olympic gold medalist, however, signed a TNA contract and wrestled later that year in November.

During the latest episode of his Something to Wrestle podcast, Bruce Prichard stated that Kurt Angle’s move to TNA was not surprising as he knew the latter could not remain idle for long.

Angle developed serious addiction issues in 2006, and his professional relationship with Vince McMahon had deteriorated by then as well.

Thankfully, after spending a couple of years wrestling elsewhere, he returned to WWE in 2017 for another stint. He even received a Hall of Fame induction from McMahon’s company that year.

Kurt Angle was drafted to WWE’s ECW brand shortly before his 2006 exit

In May 2006, the multi-time world champion became a part of the ECW brand. He gained ‘The Wrestling Machine’ moniker around that period and fought stars like Randy Orton, Rob Van Dam, and Sabu.

Kurt Angle even recently said that ‘The Wrestling Machine’ was his favorite character to portray in WWE.

His last televised match for Vince McMahon’s company that year occurred against Sabu, which ended in a no-contest. He would not wrestle on WWE television until the TLC pay-per-view in October 2017.

Please credit ‘Something to Wrestle with Bruce Prichard’ and give a H/T to Sportskeeda Wrestling while using the quote from this article.

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