On the latest episode of The Kurt Angle Show, WWE Hall of Famer and Olympic Gold Medalist Kurt Angle talked more about what led to him leaving the company in 2006.
Vince McMahon had wanted him to become the new face of ECW as the "Wrestling Machine," but the injuries had begun piling up by that stage, and Angle had developed a painkiller addiction. His relationship with the WWE Chairman was strained, and it seems things reached a head when the former WWE Champion yanked his pants down during a production meeting.
"Vince was ignoring me which made me even angrier," Angle explained, "and I would leave him threatening messages on his answering machine on his cellphone. It just got so far out of control that eventually I had to go to Vince and say we need to have a talk."
"I just came from an event and I went to a meeting and I pulled my pants down. It was a production meeting Vince was in the front and everybody else was in the back, I walked in between them and pulled my pants down to my ankles and I showed Vince my groin. It was all black and blue, I mean my penis, everything was black from the injury. It was an abdominal tear, a groin tear and a hamstring tear, all three in the same time and all the blood just rushed to my leg and my groin."
As for the aftermath, Angle added: "I said ‘We need to talk.' [Vince said] ‘Well let’s go in my office,’ I said ‘No, I need to meet you up at the headquarters this week, I want you to set me up a flight and bring me up because we need to have a personal discussion about what’s going on.’ That’s when I decided I was mostly likely going to leave the company."
After leaving WWE, the popular wrestler made the leap to TNA, and later got himself cleaned up. That would lead to an eventual WWE return, where he was inducted into the Hall of Fame and made RAW General Manager. Unfortunately, by the time Angle stepped back into the ring, his body had started working against him, and he wasn't able to finish his career the way he hoped and planned.
Angle's podcast is well worth checking out, so we highly recommend you do so ASAP!