Ryback On Kurt Angle Returning To The Ring, Wrestling Fans Hating Pro Wrestling, RAW Vs. SmackDown
Kurt Angle wasn't supposed to return to in-ring action so soon into his current tenure with the WWE, but he's already scheduled for a second match in two months at the upcoming Survivor Series. Ryback gave his thoughts on Angle's comeback in a recent episode of the Conversation With The Big Guy podcast.
In his first match in the WWE in 11 years, Angle teamed with Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose to defeat the team of The Miz, Braun Strowman, Kane, Sheamus and Cesaro in a Tables, Ladders and Chairs match. He was inserted into the match at the last-minute after Roman Reigns was removed from the pay-per-view due to a viral infection. Ryback said he thought Angle did a great job, especially considering he took the match on short-notice.
"It was nice to see Kurt Angle back. I thought they did a good job—people will complain about it no matter what," Ryback said. "Nobody hates pro wrestling more than wrestling fans; I know there were some people that were upset that Kurt Angle came out to the Shield attire and didn't come out in his regular outfit and music so people were unhappy about that. He came back on 3-4 days notice. Great comeback story and it was good."
Angle was then named the captain of Team RAW for the match against SmackDown at Survivor Series. Ryback said the buildup to the pay-per-view has been a good way to create some matchups that will determine which brand is superior. But he did point out that the timing of the inter-promotional battle is weird considering RAW recently had to borrow SmackDown Live superstar AJ Styles to fill in at TLC when Bray Wyatt was removed from the card for the same viral infection as Reigns.
"There used to be a pay per view called 'Bragging Rights' where they would do Raw vs SmackDown on the entire pay per view, so this is there way to do that with inter-promotional matchups to create the illusion, but there's a monopoly to create a conflict, and create a war with the company," Ryback said. "It'll create for some interesting matchups, but it's funny because they do that, but they'll do it when AJ Styles came in and filled in for Raw, but none of it ever makes sense with professional wrestling."
If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit Conversation With The Big Guy with an H/T to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.
Source: Conversation With The Big Guy
Peter Bahi contributed to this article.